时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(六月)


英语课

 



Light Bulb Inventor Tried to Create Fake Rubber


At the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, the prolific 1 American inventor and businessman Thomas Alva Edison developed devices that changed industry, communication, and everyday life - from a practical electric light bulb to the motion-picture camera. 


Edison perfected much of this work in his famous laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey 2. But he was almost as busy at his winter home in Fort Myers, Florida, where his work took some interesting twists.


Fort Myers is now a stylish 3 and expensive place to live. But in 1885 when Edison fell in love with it, it was little more than a cow town on the Gulf 4 of Mexico. It had about 200 people and several thousand head of cattle.


Over the years, Edison became good friends with automobile 5 titan Henry Ford 6, who was a guest at the Edisons’ winter home and eventually bought his own place across the street.


Today both houses are part of the same museum complex. Edison, Ford and tire executive Harvey Firestone set up a laboratory there at Edison’s place in Fort Myers.


Unlike the Menlo Park lab, it had few motors, gears and belts, but lots of test tubes and, of all things, trays of flowers. Thomas Edison, the pioneer of electricity, was experimenting with goldenrods.


At the time, automobile tires were made from real rubber, imported from Africa. One company had a monopoly on the shipments, so Firestone and Ford asked Edison to come up with something they could make in the United States.


Edison was trying to perfect a rubber-like substance made of goldenrods when he died in 1931. As it turned out, others went on to develop artificial rubber, made of purely 7 chemical compounds.


So you won’t see big electrical sparks at Edison’s laboratory in Florida. 


But you will see evidence of that goldenrod research and, just outside the door, a huge banyan 8 tree, as big as a house. Harvey Firestone brought what is now a massive tangle 9 of trunk and branches and roots to Edison from Calcutta, India, in 1925.


Thomas Edison came to love plants - the goldenrods, the banyan, and palm trees. He gave tiny Fort Myers hundreds of palm saplings to plant along the main road. Today they form a beautiful canopy 10 for which Fort Myers is famous.




adj.丰富的,大量的;多产的,富有创造力的
  • She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家,写了很多小说和短篇故事。
  • The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。
n.运动衫
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
adj.流行的,时髦的;漂亮的,气派的
  • He's a stylish dresser.他是个穿着很有格调的人。
  • What stylish women are wearing in Paris will be worn by women all over the world.巴黎女性时装往往会引导世界时装潮流。
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂
  • The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
  • There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。
n.汽车,机动车
  • He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
  • The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过
  • They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上,所以我们只能涉水过河。
  • If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪,必须极度小心。
adv.纯粹地,完全地
  • I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
  • This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。
n.菩提树,榕树
  • This huge banyan tree has a history of more than 400 years.这棵大榕树已经有四百多年的历史了。
  • A large banyan tree may look like a forest.大型的榕树看起来象一片树林。
n.纠缠;缠结;混乱;v.(使)缠绕;变乱
  • I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
  • If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你,我就不跟他们争吵。
n.天篷,遮篷
  • The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
  • They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。
学英语单词
abnormal phoneme
aestuum
alternative carriage
anal operculum
antiarachnolysin
backstair
banana kicks
barenboim
be under review
BISCS
bow mechanism
bursae iliopectinea
Chladni
chromium tungstate
compound oil
concentrated evaporator
conical gauge
conpsoromic acid
convergence region
countryish
debit credit mechanism
delayed time-base sweep
disarmings
discredits
distinctiveness ratio
electropositive
erewhile (s)
extended field
filament blend yarn
Flumezin
foreappoint
forest goats
formation signal
frontal-contour chart
Gaius Julius Caesar
Galton's delta
gastrique
generalife
Gentianopsis holopetala
get ... on
gnathoscope
Guy's pill
Huschke's valves
hyperegy
integrated tug-barge
it feels like
kalioun
karagandas
Kievites
KING (Kinetic Intense Neutron Generator)
layman management
line control word
lobotess
lobularities
luci
magnesium carbonate
Makhāmīr, Jab.al
microwave dryer
mimoplocia notata
MIRAPINNIDAE
modern drama
nandrolone phenylpropionate
nonimplant
Olovyannaya
one quadrant convertor
optical parallelism
overhead
p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic acid
pendler
PHLA
placida dendritica
predicator
production engine
provisional acceptance
purophobia
requisite book
reverse-commutes
rule with an iron fist
Sikkim holly
siliceous geyserite
solid error
solid lubricant
solubility parameter
spermatozoon (pl. spermatozoa)
spray chemical
stationary tangent
Stenshuvud
subdivision rules
taxation theories and principles
the Demerara
thinkos
tidal zone biology
timber drying
tropical air mass
true income
undilating
US Coast Guard
Wii Sports
wolf jaw
xterra
yard craft