A high-level language is one in which numerous instructions must be executed at the machine language level to perform a function or task specified.一7structions written in a high-level language must be translated into the machine language used by the computer system the program will be executed on The，translator in such a cases the compiler. The high-level language program is known as the source program and the resulting machine language program’s the object program．The compiler is itself a pro-gram ．On some computer systems (particularly microcomputers), an interpreter is used instead of a compiler. Interpreters translate the instructions of a source program in a one-by-one manner. As a result, interpreters produce object programs more slowly than compilers．However, interpreters require less memory than compilers．   

　　High-level languages are sometimes described as being machine independent．This means that program written in a high-level language such as COBOL should run on any computer system ,vital COBOL compiler．In actual practice, however. Several variations have crept into high-level languages so that no high-level language is totally "portable" to all computer systems with a compiler for the language in question. Efforts to standardize high-level languages and compilers have received much attention in recent years。  

　　High-level languages greatly simplify programming tasks when compared to assembly or machine level languages．Fewer errors are likely to result Programs written in one language may be used another machines with little or no revisions．High-level languages execute slowest and occupy more space in memory than machine or assembly languages, however.

翻译：

高级编程语言   

　　高级编程语言是一种在这种语言中，大量的指令必须价机器语言级上加以执行，以使完成指定的功能或任务，用高级语所编写的程序，必须被翻译成该程序 将在其上执行的计算机系统所采用的机器语言，这种情况下的“翻译 程序”是编译程序。高级语言程序叫做“源程序”。最终的机器语言 程序叫做“目标程序”。编译程序本身也是一个程序。在某些计算机系统中（特别是在微机中），“解释程序”被用来代替编译程序，解释程序以－一一对应的方式翻译源程序的指令。结果是，解释程序产生目标程序远比编译程序要慢得多。 但是，解释程序比编译程序要求较 小的存储器内存容量。
   
　　高级语言有时被描述为独立于机器的语言，这意味着，以某种高级语言，例如COBOL编写的程序，应当可在带有COBOL编译程序的任 何计算机系统中运行。但是，实际上，某些变化己悄悄进入高级语言中，使得没有一种高级语言对于带有该语言编译程序的所有计算机系统是完全可移植的。使高级语言及编译程序标准化的努力，近年来己经受到人们的很大注意。
    
　　与汇编语言及机器级语言相比，高级语言大大地简化了编程任务。产生的错误可能也很少。用一种语言编写的程序，可以只作少许修改或不加修改，就可以用于其它机器上。但是，高级语言比起机器语言或汇编语言来说，其执行速度较慢，并占用较大的存储空间。