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CALLIGRAPHY has been a reveredart form in China for centuries. Children are taught to write with brushes;endless copying of characters is a rite of passage in their schooling. Writingis a feat of memory. Mastery requires learning thousands of unique characters.Despite these ordeals, literacy rates have increased from around 20% in 1949 toover 95% now. But computers, smartphones and tablets are posing a new obstacleto progress. Penmanship is on the decline. Reading skills may follow. 数个世纪以来，书法在中国是一种受人敬畏的艺术形式。孩子们学用毛笔写字；不断地重复是孩子们在学校必须经历的。书写依靠非凡的记忆力。要学习数千个字才算掌握了书写。即使考验重重，中国的识字率已由1949年的约20%上升到现在的95%以上。但电脑、智能手机和平板电脑正给这种进步造成新障碍，因为提笔书写正呈下降趋势。而阅读技能可能也紧随其后。 Pundits the world over blame a reliance oncomputers for shoddy handwriting and spelling. In China the problem is particularlyacute. The number of primary schoolchildren with severe reading difficulties isrising, according to a 2017 study in the Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences. The authors linked poor reading scores to increased use ofkeyboards. 全世界的专家将糟糕的书写和拼写能力归咎于对电脑的依赖，而问题在中国尤为严峻。据《国家科学院学报》2017年发布的一份研究，有严重阅读困难的小学生数量正在增多，而作者们将可怜的阅读得分与越来越多地使用键盘联系在了一起。 | 
