英語(yǔ)簡(jiǎn)短美文摘抄
英語(yǔ)簡(jiǎn)短美文摘抄
經(jīng)典美文是文學(xué)史中璀璨的明珠,是人類(lèi)情感和智慧的結(jié)晶。小編精心收集了簡(jiǎn)短英語(yǔ)美文，供大家欣賞學(xué)習(xí)!
簡(jiǎn)短英語(yǔ)美文篇1
Oil Refining
An important new industry, oil refining, grew after the Civil War. Crude oil, or petroleum -- adark, thick ooze from the earth -- had been known for hundreds of years, but little use hadever been made of it. In the 1850's Samuel M. Kier, a manufacturer in western Pennsylvania,began collecting the oil from local seepages and refining it into kerosene. Refining, like smelting,is a process of removing impurities from a raw material.
Kerosene was used to light lamps.It was a cheap substitute for whale oil,which was becomingharder to get. Soon there was a large demand for kerosene. People began to search for newsupplies of petroleum.
The first oil well was drilled by E. L. Drake, a retired railroad conductor. In 1859 he begandrilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The whole venture seemed so impractical and foolish thatonlookers called it "Drake's Folly".But when he had drilled down about 70 feet (21 meters),Drake struck oil. His well began to yield 20 barrels of crude oil a day.
News of Drake's success brought oil prospectors to the scene. By the early 1860's thesewildcatters were drilling for "black gold" all over western Pennsylvania. The boom rivaled theCalifornia gold rush of 1848 in its excitement and Wild West atmosphere. And it brought farmore wealth to the prospectors than any gold rush.
Crude oil could be refined into many products. For some years kerosene continued to be theprincipal one. It was sold in grocery stores and door-to-door. In the 1880's refiners learnedhow to make other petroleum products such as waxes and lubricating oils. Petroleum was notthen used to make gasoline or heating oil.
煉油
一種重要的新興工業(yè)--煉油業(yè)在國(guó)內(nèi)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)后成長(zhǎng)起來(lái)。 未加工的石油，或原油--一種深色的地下的稠漿--數(shù)百年來(lái)一直為大眾所知，但是人們卻很少使用過(guò)它。 在十九世紀(jì)五十年代，薩繆爾 ·M ·科爾，賓西法尼亞西部的一位制造商，開(kāi)始從當(dāng)?shù)氐囊绯鑫镏惺占筒⑺鼰挸擅河?。與冶煉礦石一樣，石油提煉是一個(gè)從未加工的原料中除去雜質(zhì)的過(guò)程。煤油被用來(lái)點(diǎn)燈。 它是鯨油的一種便宜的替代品，而鯨油正變得越來(lái)越難以獲得。 不久就產(chǎn)生了對(duì)煤油的大量需求。 人們開(kāi)始尋找新的石油供應(yīng)。 第一口油井為 E ·L ·瑞克，一個(gè)退休的火車(chē)檢票員所鉆得。
1859年他開(kāi)始在賓西法尼亞的泰特斯維爾鉆井。 整個(gè)的這項(xiàng)冒險(xiǎn)事業(yè)看起來(lái)是如此不現(xiàn)實(shí)和愚蠢以致旁觀者稱(chēng)之為"鴨子的蠢行"。 (譯者注：Drake's Folly, drake 在這里意含雙關(guān)，即指瑞克的名字，又指該詞的本義即鴨子。 )但當(dāng)瑞克往下鉆至70 英尺(21 米)的時(shí)候，他發(fā)現(xiàn)了石油。 他的油井從此每天生產(chǎn)20 桶原油。 瑞克成功的消息將石油勘探者們吸引到現(xiàn)場(chǎng)。 截止到 19 世紀(jì) 60 年代早期，這些冒險(xiǎn)者為尋找"黑色的金子"鉆探遍了整個(gè)賓西法尼亞西部。 這項(xiàng)繁榮的事業(yè)在刺激性和粗獷的西部氣氛上可與1848 年的加州淘金熱相媲美，而且它為勘探者帶來(lái)了遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)淘金潮的財(cái)富。 原油能被提煉成許多產(chǎn)品。多年以來(lái)煤油一直是主要的一種產(chǎn)品。它在雜貨店中出售由人挨戶推銷(xiāo)。 19世紀(jì)八十九十年代煉油者們懂得了生產(chǎn)其它石油產(chǎn)品，如蠟和潤(rùn)滑油。 那時(shí)石油還沒(méi)有被用來(lái)制造汽油或采暖裝置用油。
簡(jiǎn)短英語(yǔ)美文篇2
Oil and Water
To understand the emulsifying process, we must first accept the scientific principle that oiland water do not naturally mix. Quite literally, they find each other's presence repulsive. Agood illustration of this aversion is homemade oil and vinegar salad dressing.When youshake or beat your salad dressing, you do more than disperse the oil throughout the vinegar:you also break down the oil into droplets minute enough to remain temporarily suspended inthe vinegar (which from now on we will call water, because that tart condiment is in effectmainly water). The second you stop agitating the dressing, the oil droplets start to combineinto units too large to be suspended in the water, and thus slither their way upward,separating from the water in the process.
The oil rises to the top and the water sinks because oil has a lower specific density than water.If you want a stable emulsion, you need an emulsifying agent which prevents the oil dropletsfrom combining into larger units. Emulsifying agents occur naturally in many animal substancesincluding egg yolks and milk. An emulsifying agent helps to keep the oil particles from combiningin three basic ways. First, the agent coats the oil, serving as a physical barrier between thedroplets.
Second, it reduces the water's surface tension, which, in turn, reduces the water's ability torepulse oil. Third, the agent gives the surfaces of the oil droplets identical electrical charges;since like charges repel each other the droplets repel each other.
油和水
為理解乳化過(guò)程的發(fā)生，我們必須首先認(rèn)識(shí)到這樣一條科學(xué)原理：水和油不能自然混合，它們實(shí)實(shí)在在互相排斥。 家制的油醋沙拉調(diào)料就是一個(gè)好例子。 當(dāng)你攪拌沙拉調(diào)料時(shí)，你不僅使油擴(kuò)散到醋里，而且使油滴被攪得很小可以懸浮在醋中( 自此我們改稱(chēng)它為水，因?yàn)槭聦?shí)上這種酸性調(diào)味品的主要成份就是水)。 一旦你停止了攪動(dòng)，油滴就會(huì)凝聚，大到再也不能懸浮在水中時(shí)，它們就向上滑動(dòng)出來(lái)而與水分離了。 因?yàn)橛偷拿芏刃?，所以油?huì)浮在水上。如果想得到穩(wěn)定的乳化，就需要一種乳化劑。它可以不讓油形成大的油滴。
自然界中，很多動(dòng)物體中含有乳化劑，如蛋黃和牛奶。 乳化劑可以從以下三方面阻止油滴凝聚。 一、 乳化劑包裹住油滴，在油滴間形成一道物質(zhì)屏障。 二、 乳化劑降低水的表面張力，從而降低了水排斥油的能力。 三、 乳化劑使油滴表面帶上了同種電荷，因?yàn)橥N電荷互相排斥，油滴之間也相互排斥。
簡(jiǎn)短英語(yǔ)美文篇3
Obtaining Fresh Water from Icebergs
The concept of obtaining fresh water from icebergs that are towed to populated areas andarid regions of the world was once treated as a joke more appropriate to cartoons than reallife. But now it is being considered quite seriously by many nations, especially since scientistshave warned that the human race will outgrow its fresh water supply faster than it runs out offood.
Glaciers are a possible source of fresh water that has been overlooked until recently. Three-quarters of the Earth's fresh water supply is still tied up in glacial ice, a reservoir ofuntapped fresh water so immense that it could sustain all the rivers of the world for 1,000years. Floating on the oceans every year are 7,659 trillion metric tons of ice encased in 10,000icebergs that break away from the polar ice caps, more than ninety percent of them fromAntarctica.
Huge glaciers that stretch over the shallow continental shelf give birth to icebergsthroughout the year. Icebergs are not like sea ice, which is formed when the sea itself freezes,rather, they are formed entirely on land, breaking off when glaciers spread over the sea. Asthey drift away from the polar region, icebergs sometimes move mysteriously in a directionopposite to the wind, pulled by subsurface currents. Because they melt more slowly thansmaller pieces of ice, icebergs have been known to drift as far north as 35 degrees south of theequator in the Atlantic Ocean. To corral them and steer them to parts of the world where theyare needed would not be toodifficult.
The difficulty arises in other technical matters, such as the prevention of rapid melting inwarmer climates and the funneling of fresh water to shore in great volume. But even if theicebergs lost half of their volume in towing, the water they could provide would be far cheaperthan that produced by desalinization, or removing salt from water.
從冰山中獲取淡水
把冰山拖到世界上人口稠密的地區(qū)和干旱地帶，再?gòu)闹蝎@取淡水，這個(gè)想法曾一度被認(rèn)為是一個(gè)笑話，更適合于卡通畫(huà)，而非現(xiàn)實(shí)生活。 然而現(xiàn)在，許多國(guó)家正相當(dāng)認(rèn)真地考慮這件事情，特別是在科學(xué)家們發(fā)出警告之后。 科學(xué)家們認(rèn)為人類(lèi)將在耗盡糧食之前首先耗盡淡水資源。冰川是一個(gè)直到最近以前一直被忽視的可能的淡水源。 全球四分之三的淡水還鎖在冰川的冰塊中。 冰川就是一個(gè)蓄水池，其中未開(kāi)發(fā)的淡水量是如此巨大，足夠支持全世界的江河 1000 年。 每年有 7，659 萬(wàn)億公噸冰漂流在海洋中。 它們包含在 10，000 座從極地冰帽中斷裂出來(lái)的冰山中。
這些冰山的 90%以上來(lái)自南極。 一年四季里，覆蓋在淺層大陸架上的巨大冰川生成了眾多冰山。 冰山和海水的冰不同，后者是海水自身結(jié)冰形成的，而冰山則完全是在陸地上形成的。 當(dāng)冰川伸展到海水中時(shí)，冰山就斷裂下來(lái)。 當(dāng)漂離極地地區(qū)時(shí)，冰山有時(shí)會(huì)在底層洋流的推動(dòng)下頗為神秘地逆風(fēng)移動(dòng)。 由于冰山比小塊的冰融化要慢，因此有的冰山在大西洋中向北飄到了赤道以南35°的地方。 把冰山蓄攔起來(lái)并拖到世界上需要它們的地方將不會(huì)太困難。 有困難的是其它的技術(shù)事宜。 比如，如何防止冰山在較暖的氣候中迅速融化以及如何把大量的淡水收集到岸上去。 但是，即便在拖的過(guò)程中冰山失去了一半體積，這樣做也遠(yuǎn)比從海水中脫鹽取得淡水便宜。
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