电影从无声向有声的过渡发生在20世纪20年代末，也是目前为止电影历史上最重要的一次发展。没有任何一项发明可以与其相比，虽然在戏剧和家庭影像多元发展方面更为先进的技术在十年前就已经开始发展。从默片到有声电影，这是电影历史上最基本的分界线。这种描述几乎贯穿所有语言记录。

译文参考：

(1) The shift from silent to sound film at the end of the 1920s marks, so far, the most important transformation in motion picture history. (2) Despite all the highly visible technological developments in theatrical and home delivery of the moving image that have occurred over the decades since then, no single innovation has come close to being regarded as a similar kind of watershed. (3) In nearly every language, however the words are phrased, the most basic division in cinema history lies between films that are mute and films that speak.

技巧点拨：

(1)原文第一句话的翻译，英文采取了合译的方法，而且mark的用法很出彩。

(2)“没有任何一项发明可以与其相比”译为“no single innovation has come close to being regarded as a similar kind of watershed”。“watershed”为分水岭的意思，这里是用的意译。

(3)原文的第三、四句话也采用了合译的用法。第三句的翻译采用了“倒装”的译法。

(4)“默片”译为“films that are mute”，“有声电影”译为“films that speak”。为了保持语言结构的对称，“默片”和“有声电影”的翻译都采用了定语从句的结构。