星火30篇文章贯通考研词汇 11

Unit 11 Edward and His Incredible Black Hole………177
爱德华和他那难以置信的黑洞
小时候，最吸引人的童话故事或者动画片总是与星空和宇宙有关。很多人在童年里都做过飞上太空﹑探索宇宙的梦想。爱德华将梦想付诸实施，虽然其结局是悲惨的，但谁能说，他的科学探索精神不是可贵的？
Edward had a marvelous plan. He was going to create a genuine mini Black Hole, right here on earth.
Edward lived alone in the suburban¹ sprawl(无规则蔓延)of a large city. His father had experimented with inventions in his large steel garage. Because of this, his mother had left home four years ago. He missed his father who had died of a heart attack two summers ago.
Edward worked during the day as an attendant at the City Library where he taught himself technology so that he could understand his father’s notebooks. At home he stumbled around in track-pants(运动裤)and a T-shirt and busily modified his father’s equipment.
Edward put coils of copper² tube, large permanent magnets, sheets of aluminum³ foil, old iron tubes full of silicone(硅树脂) sealant(密封剂) together to construct a two and a half meters high intricate apparatus⁵, putting a copper vertical⁶ horn on top. The horn, like the front of a large trumpet⁷, was pointed⁸ towards the ceiling.
Today was Edward’s twenty-second birthday, remembered only by the lovely Fiona, the Circulation Librarian. At lunchtime, Fiona had kissed him on the cheek in front of everybody in the tearoom. Edward had flushed crimson(深红色)with embarrassment⁹.
But now was the moment. He climbed the stepladder(活动梯子) and peered into the trumpet. The curved mirror at its base magnified his reflected image and he admired his golden curly hair and his green eyes, but loathed(讨厌) his big ears.
Edward sipped¹⁰ on a glass of cheap soda¹¹ and whispered, “Black holes are the mysteries of our universe. Everything that enters them never leaves——even light.” He had a collection of hardware items arranged near him so that he could throw them into the Black Hole and watch them disappear. Edward sat at the computer controls for the Black Hole Generator¹².
“That’s one small step for a man…” Edward intoned(拖长音) and double-clicked on the start icon⁴. There was a loud vibrating noise and a strange glaring effect in the horn. Edward didn’t realize that a simple software mistake had reversed the polarity(极性) of his black hold generator. Yes, he could see that the interior of the horn was indeed the deepest, blackest thing that he had ever seen, but within the blackness he could soon make out sparkling points of every color imaginable.
“Stars?” he thought just before he died. Within a few seconds, around a hundred million colorful ballpoint pens shot out of the horn, bounced off the roof and filled up the garage, spearing poor Edward to death. As every lost ballpoint pen in the world poured out of the black hole, the pressure blew the top off the garage and the mountain of pens continued to grow.
Soon every lost sock in the world flew into the air from the trumpet, and covered the mountain of pens. Then a great number of shopping lists fluttered into the air, followed by an emission¹³ of lottery¹⁴ tickets, and train, tram, bus and concert tickets. This was followed by every letter, telegram and E-mail that had never arrived.
Edward’s garage then collapsed¹⁵ as millions of metal keys shot out of the horn and rained down---lost front door keys, car keys and locker¹⁶ keys. The overflow¹⁷ continued as sewing needles, cuff(袖口) links, pencil sharpeners, razors and lost passports, followed by countless¹⁸ of pins.
Can openers, bottle openers and corkscrews(开塞钻) were followed by sink plugs and remote controls. As these flooded over the local community, they were covered by clothes pegs(衣夹), the caps of toothpaste tubes and a flow of overdue(过期的) library books.
A veritable(真正的) mountain of lost-receipts needed by the taxman was followed by every lost screw nut from a world of car engines, household appliances and technical instruments.
As the city sagged(下陷) beneath the weight of all these lost things, millions of credit cards fluttered into the air and rained down.
Edward would have been amazed, except that he was long dead.
Finally, just before the black hole generator disappeared in a puff¹⁹ of smoke, every lost love in the history of the world was expelled into the air and rained down in an overflow of desolation.
注释:
incredible→★credit
marvel(l)ous
create
genuine→★gene
mini
experiment
attendant→★attend
notebook
stumble
pants
modify
coil
copper
permanent→★remain
magnet→★magnet
alumin(i)um
foil
construct
intricate
apparatus
vertical
horn
trumpet
circulation→★bicycle
librarian
flush
embarrassment
curve
magnify
reflect
image→★imagine
curly→★curl
soda
universe
hardware→★hard
item
generator→★gene
vibrate
software
reverse
interior
imaginable→★imagine
bounce
spear
pressure
flutter→★flow
emission
tram
E-mail→★mail
collapse
locker→★lock
overflow→★flow
link
razor
plug
remote
community
toothpaste→★paste
receipt→★accept/receive
household→★house
appliance
instrument
credit→★credit
puff
expel
desolation

1 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

2 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

3 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

4 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

5 apparatus   

n.装置，器械；器具，设备

参考例句：

• The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
• They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。

6 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

7 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

10 sipped   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sipped his coffee pleasurably. 他怡然地品味着咖啡。
• I sipped the hot chocolate she had made. 我小口喝着她调制的巧克力热饮。 来自辞典例句

11 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

12 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

13 emission   

n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发

参考例句：

• Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施，降低污染物排放总量。
• Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后，指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。

14 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

15 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

16 locker   

n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人

参考例句：

• At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
• He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。

17 overflow   

v.(使)外溢，(使)溢出；溢出，流出，漫出

参考例句：

• 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。

18 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

19 puff   

n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气

参考例句：

• He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
• They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。