📌 注：本篇精读原文为2026年2月28期《经济学人》- 《Attachment issues》，全文约360词量，建议阅读10分钟。【第1段】WHEN ADOBE introduced the portable document format (PDF) in 1993, a consultant from Gartner called it “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard in my life”. Users would have to twiddle their thumbs waiting for the megabyte-sized files to download over their dial-up internet, then wait again for their PCs to render them. The software-maker’s board wanted to kill the project. But as sharing digital files became essential, the PDF triumphed-particularly after the Internal Revenue Service, America’s tax authority, started using it for its forms. Today more than 2.5trn PDFs float in the ether. But will the format survive the AI revolution?1993年Adobe公司推出可移植文档格式（PDF）时，高德纳咨询公司的一位顾问称这是 “我这辈子听过最荒唐的想法”。彼时用户得在拨号网络上干等，才能下载完兆字节大小的PDF文件，之后还得再等个人电脑完成文件渲染。这家软件公司的董事会本想叫停这个项目，但随着数字文件共享成为刚需，PDF格式一举站稳了脚跟，尤其是在美国国税局将其用于各类税务表单之后。如今，全球有超过2.5万亿份PDF文件在网络空间中流通。但这种格式，能否在人工智能革命的浪潮中存续下去？词汇与短语① [introduced] /ˌɪntrəˈdjuːs/（英）/ˌɪntrəˈduːs/（美）本义为介绍、引见；语境义为推出（新产品 / 新格式），是商业、科技类文章常用义。② [render] /ˈrendə(r)/（英）/ˈrendər/（美）本义为给予、提供；语境义为（计算机）渲染（文件、图像）。③ [triumphed] /ˈtraɪʌmfd/（英 / 美）本义为战胜、击败；语境义为获得成功、大获全胜，可用于描述事物的发展态势。④ [float] /fləʊt/（英）/floʊt/（美）本义为漂浮、浮动；语境义为（信息、文件）在网络中传播、流通。【第2段】PDFs still have drawbacks. They are a pain to view on a smartphone. Copying data from them is fiddly. Software tools that read screens for blind people struggle with PDFs. The file type, which Adobe relinquished control over in 2008, is also a vehicle for malware: a fifth of email-based cyber-attacks utilise PDF attachments, according to Check Point, a cyber-security firm.PDF 格式仍存在诸多弊端。在智能手机上查看该格式文件十分麻烦，从其中复制数据也颇为繁琐，为盲人设计的屏幕朗读工具也难以解析PDF。2008年Adobe就放弃了对这一文件格式的控制权，如今它还沦为恶意软件的温床：据网络安全公司Check Point统计，五分之一的邮件网络攻击都利用PDF附件作为载体。词汇与短语① [fiddly] /ˈfɪdli/（英 / 美）本义为需要精细操作的；语境义为繁琐的、麻烦的，形容操作过程的不便。② [struggle with] [短语]本义为与…… 斗争；语境义为难以应对、处理……，是描述问题的常用短语。③ [malware] /ˈmælweə(r)/（英）/ˈmælwer/（美）本义和语境义均为恶意软件，是网络安全类话题的核心词汇，无其他延伸义。
【第3段】Lately another source of criticism has emerged. The large language models underpinning generative AI are often bamboozled by PDFs, reading a page set in columns from left to right rather than top to bottom, say, or getting confused by headers and footers. Trouble parsing PDFs is one of the reasons AI chatbots occasionally “hallucinate”, generating nonsense.近来，PDF又招致新的诟病。支撑生成式人工智能的大语言模型常常难以解析PDF，比如会将分栏排版的页面从左到右读取，而非从上到下，或是被页眉页脚搞得晕头转向。无法顺利解析PDF，正是人工智能聊天机器人偶尔 “产生幻觉”、胡言乱语的原因之一。词汇与短语① [underpinning] /ˌʌndəˈpɪnɪŋ/（英）/ˌʌndərˈpɪnɪŋ/（美）本义为加固、支撑；语境义为支撑、构成（某事物的基础），常用作后置定语。② [bamboozled] /bæmˈbuːzld/（英 / 美）本义为欺骗、迷惑；语境义为使（机器/ 模型）难以解析、被弄乱。③ [parsing] /ˈpɑːsɪŋ/（英）/ˈpɑːrsɪŋ/（美）本义和语境义均为（计算机）解析、分析（数据 / 文件），是科技类核心词汇。
夜雨聆风
