时间:2018-12-28 作者:英语课 分类:轻松英文阅读


英语课

 You may have never heard of him, but Thomas Midgley was considered one of the great chemists and inventors of his time. But perhaps no single person in history has done more harm to our earth.


 
While working at a subsidiary of General Motors in 1921 he developed tetra-ethyl lead, or TEL. This was an additive 1 for gasoline to reduce the problem of ‘knocking’ in car engines.
 
In a few years, nearly every automobile 2 on earth was pumping lead into the air. This lead, a known neurotoxin, ended up in our blood. After TEL’s introduction, nearly 90% of children in America had twice the level of lead in their blood that is considered safe. Even light exposure can cause a decrease in intelligence and an increase in antisocial behavior. Before lead was phased out in the last decades of the last century it caused perhaps millions of illnesses and deaths around the world.
 
But our story does not end here. In the late twenties, Midgley synthesized the first fluorocarbon, commonly known as CFCs. These are the same CFCs that left a big hole in our protective ozone 3 layer. CFCs are now banned but the damage is unlikely to heal until well past our lifetimes.
 
Midgley’s inventions seemed brilliant at the time but we will be living with their consequences for a long time. Let’s hope we can learn a lesson from Midgley’s story.

1 additive
adj.附加的;n.添加剂
  • Colour is often an additive in foods.颜料经常是各种食物中的添加物。
  • Strict safety tests are carried out on food additives.对食品添加剂进行了严格的安全检测。
2 automobile
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。
3 ozone
n.臭氧,新鲜空气
  • The ozone layer is a protective layer around the planet Earth.臭氧层是地球的保护层。
  • The capacity of ozone can adjust according of requirement.臭氧的产量可根据需要或调节。
学英语单词
acid-carbonate
al qahirah (cairo)
Alemli
angeloylfuranofukinol
backstairs intrigue
barterable
benippled
beweapons
bus insurance
charabanc
childhood aphasia
CLHE
cold food pantry
colocalisation
common boneset
common licence
corrupcion
cross countries
cross-country skiing
crystal vessel
cupric fluoride
Diksonskiy Rayon
distributing valve board
double-beam oscillograph
drawbeam
dry foot
EAggEC
electroelute
endodermoreaction
enjoyee
eschewal
extension reflex
ezekiass
filter expresser
Flying Scotsman
gadolinia
genus sennas
gergon
get sth out
good natures
Harmonized Description Coding System
highwater marking
hirings
hot-bath quench aging
i was wondering
lame-ducks
laughed my ass off
liquid monomer plastic
maids
Manx cat
melanoderma toxica
Microzamia
modern cybernetics
mountain phlox
negative going
nonlead
octopodes
papillary epithelioma
perichareia
periodic merit rating
phenylmercuric hydroxide
place-brick
Placido's disk
PNID
polydystrophic
pyrometer lamp
radionavigation tailbuoy
robbo
rock craft
rossmen
scrapped vessel
scutle
secondary mouth
see no evil
severe burn
shaw
single-end user
slobbers
small particle contamination
smp (scanning microscope photometer)
son vertex
specialized capital goods
spywares
start-finish
Stoby
stream of people
sulfidize
sun yat - sen university
test ring
tetragnatha ceylonica
thermal conversion
thiazidelike
tonify the kidney to arrest spontaneous emission
toralizumab
tuberculosis of scrotum
tuberculous bacillemia
unemolumented
upper middle class
vitrics
Weston standard cadmium cell
what's your problem
wine-shipper