时间:2018-12-28 作者:英语课 分类:初学者听力文摘精选


英语课

Did Ben Franklin really discover electricity with a kite?

本.富兰克林真的靠一只风筝发现了电吗?



Everybody has heard the famous story of how pioneering experimenter–and part-time founding father–Ben Franklin tied a key to a kite string and flew the kite in a thunderstorm.

大家都听过这个有名的故事:本.富兰克林这位开创性的实验者兼开国之父如将一把钥匙系到风筝线上,并在电闪雷鸣的恶劣天气下放风筝。



The kite was hit by lightning, and zap! Franklin had discovered electricity.

风筝被闪电击中烧毁了,于是富兰克林发现了电。



Fried Franklin

烧焦的富兰克林



Well, it makes a better story than it does an experiment. The danger is that lightning is not something you want to play with, and you certainly don’t want to attract it to

我们最好把它当成一个故事而非实验。这个实验的危险之处在于:闪电不是你能玩耍的东西,当然你也不想引“电”上身。如果这个故事是真的,恐怕富兰克林早已被烧焦了。



yourself! Were this story to be true, I’m afraid, the result would have been fried Franklin. What Ben actually did in his famous 1752 experiment was to cause some excess electrical charge near a storm cloud to ground out through his kite string–still an impressive demonstration 1, but a much less powerful prospect 2 than an actual lightning strike.

在1752年这次著名的实验中,本所做的就是将暴风云附近的过量电荷通过风筝线引到地面上来,虽然相比实际雷击威力要小很多,但它仍是一个令人印象深刻的证明。



Myths

神话



Nor is it true that Franklin discovered electricity, as people tend to say. What he was trying to do was to demonstrate that lightning itself is simply a powerful electric discharge between the clouds and the earth. In this he was entirely 3 correct.

事实上,富兰克林也没有像人们所说的那样发现了电。他所努力做的一切就是要证明:闪电本身只是云和地球之间的一种威力巨大的放电现象,在这一点上,他是完全正确的。



Now, did you know that two of the basic terms we use even today to describe electric charge were coined by Franklin? Next time.

时至今日我们仍用以描述电荷的两个基本术语是富兰克林创造的,你知道吗?这个问题我们下次详述。



1 demonstration
n.表明,示范,论证,示威
  • His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
  • He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。
2 prospect
n.前景,前途;景色,视野
  • This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
  • The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。
3 entirely
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
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Achaemenian Dynasty
aisleless
aluminized picture tube screen
aluminum-alloy
anblock method
arch braced truss
artificial line duct
auctioneerings
Bacterium zopfii
bayh
bobby soxer
bodrag
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buzzer wavemeter
C3 system
calliostoma haliarchus
Callistan
celestial chart
claim to exemption
complex oscillation constant
cones in retina
convenience clinic
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Dellach
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enthuses
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field theory model
flat type crt
flexural-tensile strain
floor time
Fågelfors
grain distribution station
ground nadir point
Hamaguir
hervey
horizontal blanket drainage
hot animal glue
hyaloid artery
ignoramus
in one's judgment
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indirect appeal
inductive gage
insulated railway joint
interphase temperature
istrabadi
level inverted
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making of
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Morlach
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mutual induced EMF
mycosphaerella coffeae
myops
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occasional furniture
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Probamyl
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submarine coal field
systematic crror
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technical periodicals
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tobacco smoke droplets
total energy consumption
total wheel base
triazaborane
trinary stars
ultralow carbon stainless steel
unflappable
vacuum freezing
viscosity pyrometer
waveguide circulator
wheefle
white metal