时间:2018-12-08 作者:英语课 分类:英汉幽默故事选读


英语课
Archimedes was a Greek scientist. He lives in Syracuse nearly 200 years ago. The King of the land wanted to wear a Golden Crown. He gave some gold to a goldsmith to make a suitable crown. After few days, the goldsmith brought the finished crown to the King. The crown was weighed. The weight of the crown was equal to the gold given to the goldsmith by the King. The King looked at the color of the crown. He had a suspicion. The goldsmith could have stolen some gold from the gold given to him. The King wanted to find out the truth. He asked his court scientist Archimedes to find out. The King said, “Find out how much gold had been stolen?" 
 
How to find out the truth? Archimedes thought about the problem day and night. One day he was about to have his bath, but he was busy thinking. He did not notice the bathtub. The water in the bathtub was already full to the brim. He slid into the bathtub. Immediately a large quantity of water flowed over the brim of the bath tub. He noticed this suddenly. His brain wave worked suddenly. He jumped out of the bathtub, shouting, “Eureka! Eureka!" Eureka in Greek means “I have found it." 
 
Different metals of the same weight have different volumes. Objects, put in water, will displace water. The displaced water will be equal to their volume. 
 
For example, an iron cube weighing a kilogram will disperse 1 some water. But an aluminums cube of the same weight will displace more water than the iron cube. 
 
Archimedes knew all these theories. Using this as the basic knowledge, Archimedes worked out a plan to find out the purity of the crown. 
 
Archimedes took two bowls. He filled them with water to the brim. Then he placed each bowl separately in the middle of the large vessels 3. He placed the crown in one bowl. Water overflowed 5. It collected at the bottom of the outer vessel 2. Then he took a cube of pure gold. This cube of gold was equal in weight to the crown. He kept this gold cube in the middle of the second bowl. Here also water overflowed. Water got collected at the bottom of the outer bowl. 
 
Archimedes then measured the quantity of water in the two vessels. He found out the difference in the water overflow 4. The crown had sent out more water. The cube of gold had sent out less water. But both the crown and the gold cube were of the same weight. So, they should have sent out the same quantity of water. Therefore, the crown had some other metals mixed in it. These metals took up more space in the water than pure gold. 
 

Archimedes reported this finding to the King. The King demanded the truth from the goldsmith. The goldsmith then confessed. He had stolen some gold. He had added some other metals.  



1 disperse
vi.使分散;使消失;vt.分散;驱散
  • The cattle were swinging their tails to disperse the flies.那些牛甩动着尾巴驱赶苍蝇。
  • The children disperse for the holidays.孩子们放假了。
2 vessel
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管
  • The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
  • You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。
3 vessels
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人
  • The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
4 overflow
v.(使)外溢,(使)溢出;溢出,流出,漫出
  • The overflow from the bath ran on to the floor.浴缸里的水溢到了地板上。
  • After a long period of rain,the river may overflow its banks.长时间的下雨天后,河水可能溢出岸来。
5 overflowed
溢出的
  • Plates overflowed with party food. 聚会上的食物碟满盘盈。
  • A great throng packed out the theater and overflowed into the corridors. 一大群人坐满剧院并且还有人涌到了走廊上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
标签: 故事
学英语单词
afterparts
airlings
Akurey
Almit
arteria alveolaris superior
axiopsis consobrina
ballbarrow
Bobâlna
calibration peak
canyoneers
capital equation
ccetsws
Changam-ri
Channel Ports
Chapmanville
chelidonoid
clevis mounting cylinder
coal winning
collarette
collegiate
country houses
couple together
cross-jack brace
cuprea-bark
cutting some slack
danan (denan)
delium
differential gyroscope
dissimilar atom
distinguish oneself as
drip cup
ear, nose, and throat
Einstein-de Haas effect
electrocardiogram stress test
embarkments
engine room arrangement
eutectoid decomposition
evident to
fasciculis semilunaris
fawzy
fire control equipment
forced circulation
forklift upgrade
forwarding agent's certificate of transport
get into a bother
good copy
helminthosporium erythrospilum drechsler
Hepatest
Hormogastrol
hose handling gantry
hydrostatic valve
intermediate film method
irrigation-silting soil
Kalamazoo
kayro
Kinkosi
Kyaunggon
laminated wrapping
marsh forming process
meat borne disease
melodic lines
Mergus merganser americanus
microbial leaching
multi-level control system
nature-conservation
never-seen
niggie
nourry
Oakland County
oganiser
osbeckia
Pacino, Al
pink rats
Platyspermae
plunging end
polyendocrinoma
preflop
prompt goods
quadrifurcation
reduced nipple
sales agency
school of fish
socager
Spanish practices
synchronors watt
tactile corpuscle (meissner)
tech-heads
the cold months of the year
Theillay
three groups
ticket-of-leave man
trachydacite
tracking computer
ultrasonic frequency
ultrasound pattern
underground pedestrian walk ways
undictionaried
verification theorem
water jacketed cupola
water wagons
well fluid logging
zymolyase