Thomas Edison
美音、自然拼读、分级阅读与词汇复习
Table of Contents A Curious Boy.
内容表 A好奇男孩.
4 Young Al.
4 杨艾尔.
5 Edison the Inventor.
5 发明者爱迪生.
7 A New Lab.
7 新实验室。
8 Important Inventions.
8重要发明.
10 A Special Project.
10 一个特别项目。
12 Other Exciting Ideas.
12 其他令人兴奋的想法。
14 A Remarkable Man.
14 一个有名的人。
15 Glossary.
15 词汇。
16 A Curious Boy From an early age, Thomas Edison loved to question things.
16 一个好奇男孩从小,托马斯·爱迪生喜欢质疑事物.
He spent his whole life exploring why and how things worked.
他一生都在探索为什么和如何运作.
Once he understood how things worked, he tried to figure out how to make them work better.
一旦他明白事情是如何运作的,他便想着如何让事情变得更好.
Thomas Edison invented or improved over a thousand things, some of which we use every day.
托马斯·爱迪生发明或改进了一千多件东西,其中一些我们每天都使用.
Many people consider him one of the greatest American inventors of all time.
许多人认为他是有史以来最伟大的美国发明家之一.
Young Al Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847.
年轻的阿尔·托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生于1847年2月11日.
He was the youngest of seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood.
他是七个孩子中最小的,其中四个活到成年.
Al, as he was called as a boy, lived in Ohio with his family until 1854, when they moved to Michigan.
阿尔被称作"男孩"后,与家人一起住在俄亥俄州,直到1854年他们搬到密歇根州.
Although smart and curious, Al did not do well in school.
虽然聪明而好奇, Al在学校表现不好。
In those days, students memorized and recited facts and didn’t have the opportunity to explore and ask their own questions, which is what Al loved to do.
在那些时候,学生们会记住和背诵事实,没有机会去探索和提出自己的问题,这就是艾尔喜欢做的事。
Al’s mother eventually removed her son from school and taught him at home.
阿尔的母亲最终将她的儿子退学并在家里教他.
She taught him to love to read.
她教他爱读书.
His father encouraged his reading by giving him ten cents for every classic book he read.
他的父亲鼓励他阅读,为他所读的每一本经典书给他一分钱.
Al’s parents allowed him to take a job with the railroad when he was just twelve years old.
阿尔的父母允许他在12岁时到铁路工作。
He sold food and newspapers to the passengers.
他把食物和报纸卖给了乘客.
Al used the money he earned to buy books and science supplies.
艾尔用他挣来的钱购买书籍和科学用品.
He was allowed to set up a science lab in a baggage car until an accidental fire ended his experiments.
他被允许在行李车里设立科学实验室,直到一场意外起火结束他的实验.
Also around this time, Al lost most of his hearing.
同时, 艾尔失去了大部分听力。
As an adult, he would say someone grabbed him by the ears and pulled him onto a train.
作为一个成年人,他会说有人抓住他的耳朵,把他拉上火车。
The story could not be confirmed.
这个故事无法证实.
When Al was fifteen, he saved a young boy’s life.
何时 Al15岁,他救了一个男孩。
The boy was about to be run over by a boxcar when Al grabbed him and carried him to safety.
当Al抓住他并把他带到安全的地方时,这名男孩即将被一辆车撞倒。
The child’s grateful father, who was a telegraph operator, offered Al an apprenticeship.
这名孩子的感激之父是一名电报员,他为Al提供了学徒。
As Al grew older, he traveled around the country as a telegraph operator.
作为 艾尔长大了,他以电报员的身份到全国各地旅行.
He now preferred to be called Tom.
他现在更喜欢叫汤姆
He continued to be interested in science and spent much of the money he earned on books and supplies.
他继续对科学感兴趣并花掉了他赚来的大部分钱用于书籍和用品.
He liked to work the night shift and use his days for experiments.
他喜欢上夜班,并利用他的日子做实验.
Edison the Inventor After a few years, Thomas Edison decided that he wanted to become a full-time inventor.
发明者爱迪生 几年后,托马斯·爱迪生决定想成为全职发明家.
Some of his early inventions were improvements on the telegraph machine.
他的一些早期发明是对电报机的改进.
For example, he found a way to send two messages and receive two messages at the same time.
例如他找到了一种同时发送两条信息并接收两条信息的方法.
Earlier telegraphs could only send or receive one.
早期的电报只能发送或接收.
Edison received his first patent, for an electric vote counter, in 1869.
爱迪生于1869年获得了他的第一个专利,作为电动投票台.
The invention did not do well.
发明效果不好。
Edison continued to invent.
爱迪生继续发明.
He once said, “I never allow myself to become discouraged under any circumstances.”
他曾经说过:“我绝不允许自己在任何情况下感到沮丧。 “
Do You Know?
你知道吗?
The telegraph let people communicate before the invention of the telephone.
电报允许人们在电话发明前进行交流.
It used a code of dots and dashes, or short and long beeps, to form letters.
它使用"点"和"破折"的代码,或者短而长的"哔"来形成字母.
Edison’s improved telegraph Edison’s electric voting machine A New Lab Edison found business partners and began to manufacture some of his inventions.
爱迪生改进后的电报爱迪生的电动投票机"A New Lab Edison"找到了商业伙伴,并开始制造他的一些发明.
In 1876, he built a lab for his science experiments in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
1876年,他在新泽西州门洛公园为他的科学实验建造了实验室.
It was the first for-profit research lab in the world.
它是世界上第一个营利性研究实验室.
People called it the “invention factory” since multiple inventions could be worked on at once.
人们称它为"发明厂",因为多项发明可以同时进行.
There, Edison worked tirelessly for many hours each day, and many of his employees worked just as hard.
在那里,爱迪生每天不知疲倦地工作了多小时,他的许多员工同样努力地工作.
Edison sketched his ideas in notebooks and gave the sketches to his twenty-five workers, who then made working models.
爱迪生用笔记本勾画出自己的想法,并把这些草图交给他的25名工人,他们随后做了工作模型.
In all, Edison filled 3,500 notebooks with ideas for inventions.
爱迪生总共为3500本笔记本填充了发明的想法.
Not all of those ideas worked, but Edison said, “Negative results are just as valuable to me as positive results.
并非所有这些想法都奏效了,但爱迪生说,“对于我来说,消极结果与积极结果一样宝贵。
I can never find the thing that does the job the best until I find the ones that don’t do it.”
直到我找到那些不这样做的人, “
Edison writing in a notebook (main) and some pages from his notebooks (right) Important Inventions Edison also improved other inventions.
爱迪生用笔记本(主笔)来写作,从他的笔记本上写出一些页子(正笔)重要发明爱迪生也改进了其他发明.
Alexander Graham Bell had invented the telephone in 1876.
亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔于1876年发明了电话.
The first versions required people to yell into the receiver to make themselves heard.
最初的版本要求人们向接收器大叫来让自己听到.
The farther away the telephones were, the worse it was.
电话越远,情况就越糟糕。
In 1877, Edison and his team developed a way to make a caller’s voice louder and clearer, even over long distances.
1877年,爱迪生和他的团队发展出一种方法,让呼叫者的声音更响亮更清晰,甚至长途跋涉.
Edison’s Family Edison married Mary Stilwell in 1871.
爱迪生的家庭爱迪生于1871年与玛丽·斯蒂尔威尔结婚.
They had three children—Marion, Thomas Jr.
他们有三个孩子... 马里昂,小托马斯.
, and William.
还有威廉
Mary died in 1884.
1884年玛丽去世.
Edison married his second wife, Mina Miller, in 1886.
1886年爱迪生与第二任妻子米娜·米勒结婚.
They had three children—Madeleine, Charles, and Theodore.
他们有三个孩子... 马德琳、查尔斯和西奥多
From his work on the telephone and telegraph, Edison had an idea.
从他在电话和电报方面的工作中,爱迪生有一个想法.
He wanted to record words and play them back.
他想录下文字,然后放回去
This idea led to the creation of the phonograph.
这一想法导致了留声机的创作.
The first thing Edison recorded was the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
Edison记录的第一件事是“Mary有一只小羊”。 “
To everyone’s amazement, the machine played back the words.
机器回放这些话,
Some people didn’t believe it—they thought someone was talking in another room!
有些人不相信,
The phonograph was very simple compared to modern music players, but it was very exciting to people in the 1800s.
相较于现代音乐演奏家,留声机非常简单,但是在1800年代对人们来说非常刺激.
Edison became famous, but he had a difficult time figuring out what to do with his invention.
爱迪生变得出名了,但他有一段难熬的时间去想出他的发明该做什么.
He experimented with different ideas, such as putting a phonograph inside a doll to make it “talk,” but the toy soon broke.
他实验了不同的想法,例如把留声机放入一个玩偶内使其"说话",但玩具很快就被打破了.
Years later, after many improvements to the technology, the phonograph became popular as a way to record and listen to music.
多年后,在技术多次改进后,留声机被流行为录音和收听音乐的一种方式.
Edison working on an early version of the phonograph A Special Project Edison wasted no time starting his next project.
爱迪生在做留声机的早期版本 A特别项目爱迪生没有浪费时间开始他的下一个项目.
For many years, people had tried to find a practical way to use electricity to make light.
多年来,人们一直试图找到一种实用的方法来使用电力来制造光.
Many inventors created light bulbs, but the bulbs either burned too brightly or dimly, or burned out too fast.
许多发明家创造了灯泡,但灯泡被烧得太亮或暗淡,或者被烧得太快.
In 1878, Edison became determined to solve this problem and sought out investors to help him.
1878年,爱迪生决心解决这个问题并寻求投资者帮助他.
Edison and his team worked around the clock.
爱迪生和他的团队昼夜工作.
The first challenge was to find a material for the filament—the part of a light bulb that glows.
第一个挑战是为丝状物找到一种材料——发光灯泡的一部分。
Edison’s workers tried thousands of different materials until they found one that worked.
Edison的工人尝试了上千种不同的材料,
Edison opened the lab for visitors to see his team’s accomplishments.
爱迪生为参观者打开了实验室,看看他的团队的成就.
People were astounded when they walked up a path and entered the lab, which was brightly lit with electric lights.
当人们走出一条道路进入实验室时,被惊呆了,实验室被电灯照亮了.
Soon, everyone wanted electric lights.
很快,每个人都想要电灯。
The second challenge was creating an electrical system that could light a building and even a city.
第二个挑战是建立一个能点亮建筑物甚至城市的电力系统。
In 1881, Edison moved to New York City to help start the first electric power plant.
1881年,爱迪生搬到了纽约市,帮助创办了第一个发电厂.
Eventually, power plants in hundreds of communities were making it possible for people to switch from gas and oil lamps to electric lights.
最终,数百个社区的发电厂使得人们能够从燃气和油灯转向电灯.
The War of the Currents In the 1880s and 1890s, Edison and his electric companies were involved in fierce competition with another electric company led by George Westinghouse.
海流之战 在1880年代和1890年代,爱迪生和他的电商公司与由乔治·威斯丁豪斯(George Westinghouse)所领导的另一家电商公司展开了激烈的竞争.
Edison’s method of delivering electricity was called direct current, or DC.
Edison的供电方法被称为直流电,即DC。
Westinghouse claimed another method called alternating current, or AC, which was invented by Nikola Tesla, was a better, safer method.
威斯通豪斯声称另一种称为交替电流的方法,即由尼古拉·特斯拉所发明的AC是一种更好,更安全的方法.
AC eventually became dominant.
AC最终成为主导.
Nikola Tesla Other Exciting Ideas In 1887, Edison moved into a larger lab in West Orange, New Jersey.
尼古拉·特斯拉(Nikola Tesla Other Exciling Ideas) 在1887年,爱迪生搬入了新泽西州西奥兰治的一个更大的实验室.
Around that time, he was shown a machine that played multiple still images in very quick succession.
大约在那个时候,他被展示了一个机器,它以非常快的接力来播放多幅静态图像.
The things in the images appeared to be moving!
画面中的东西似乎在动!
Edison requested that one of his workers, William Dickson, work on a machine that could record images and also a machine that could project them.
爱迪生要求他的一个工人威廉·迪克森(William Dickson)在一台能够记录图像的机器上工作,同时也是一台能够投影的机器.
Dickson and Edison would invent the Kinetograph, a motion picture camera, and the Kinetoscope, a projector that would allow one person to watch the movie through a peephole.
迪克森和爱迪生将发明出"基内特克"(Kinetograph),一款运动相机相机,一款"克内托镜"(Kinetoscope),一款可以让一个人通过窥视孔观看电影的放映机.
Edison also tried to link sound with the images of this new invention.
爱迪生还试图将声音与这个新发明的图像联系起来.
He found it too difficult to get the sound and pictures to match, so his films were silent.
他发现声音和相片相配太难了,因此他的电影默默无闻.
A Remarkable Man Edison continued to pour ideas into his notebooks and work with his team to turn his ideas into reality.
A级 出名的"爱迪生"(Man Edison)继续将想法倒入他的笔记本,并和他的团队合作将他的想法变为现实.
Some of his other inventions included machines for mining, improved batteries, and new uses for cement.
他的其他一些发明包括采矿机械,改良电池,以及水泥的新用途等.
Throughout his life, Edison obtained 1,093 patents, which was a record at the time.
在整个生平中,爱迪生获得了1093项专利,这是当时的记录.
He continued to work until he was more than eighty years old.
他一直工作到他80多岁。
Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931.
托马斯·爱迪生于1931年10月18日去世.
President Herbert Hoover asked everyone in the country to turn out the lights for a short time to honor Edison.
赫伯特·胡佛总统请全国所有人短暂地熄灯来纪念爱迪生.
Sitting in the dark for a few moments, people could think about the great changes Thomas Edison had made in their lives.
坐在黑暗中片刻,人们可以思考托马斯·爱迪生在生活中所做的巨大改变.
As Edison once said, “If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would astound ourselves.”
正如爱迪生曾经说过的那样,“如果我们做了我们有能力做的所有事情,我们将感到惊讶。 “