英语听力文摘 English Digest 547、气球不见之后发生了什么？

 　　High Inflation

 

　　Fairs, carnivals¹, festivals or anywhere you can buy helium-filled balloons, you’re sure to see at least one balloon rising into the sky after someone accidentally lets it go off.

 

　　What happens to the balloon after it rises out of sight? well,that depends on how high the balloon goes!

 

　　When you inflate² a balloon, you’re actually putting gases, mostly helium,in this case , into an elastic³ container. As you add more gas, the pressure inside the balloon increases, and in response, the balloon expands…up to a point, that is! If you put in too much helium, and the pressure inside the balloon gets too much higher than

 

　　the atmospheric⁴ pressure on the outside of the balloon, the balloon will burst.

 

　　So what happens to a rising balloon? Well, if it gets caught by an air current and is carried along level to the earth’s surface, it could go a long way,

 

　　even across the ocean,if the winds arrived! Of course, no balloon is perfectly⁵ sealed, no matter how tightly you tie it, so eventually the helium will leak out, and the balloon will sink.

 

　　气球不见之后发生了什么？

 

　　在集市，狂欢节，节庆日，或是在任何可以买到氦气球的地方，你肯定能至少一次看到过一只气球在人们不小心松手时，飞向天空。

 

　　气球上升到肉眼看不到的高空时会发生什么事呢？这个呢，就得看看气球升到哪个高度了！

 

　　当你让气球膨胀时，实际上是把气体，多数情况是氦气充到一个橡胶容器里。充气越多，气球内的压力也就越大。相应的，当气球膨胀到某一点时......答对了！如果气球内的氢气太多，多到气球内的气压超过外部的大气压，气球就会爆炸。

 

　　那么升到高空的气球会发生什么事呢？如果气球搭上了气流这个顺风车并沿着地球表面平移，它就会飘很长一段路，甚至能穿越海洋！当然，没有哪个气球是完全不会漏气的，无论扎的多紧，球内的氦气都会漏光，气球就掉了下来。

1 carnivals   

狂欢节( carnival的名词复数 )； 嘉年华会； 激动人心的事物的组合； 五彩缤纷的颜色组合

参考例句：

• The Venice Carnival is one of the oldest and most famous international carnivals in the world. 威尼斯嘉年华是世界上最古老、最富盛名的国际嘉年华会之一。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年2月号
• A few exceptions would be made, he said, such as for carnivals. 他说一些免责条款将被制定出来，例如嘉年华会。

2 inflate   

vt.使膨胀，使骄傲，抬高（物价）

参考例句：

• The buyers bid against each other and often inflate the prices they pay.买主们竞相投标，往往人为地提高价钱。
• Stuart jumped into the sea and inflated the liferaft.斯图尔特跳到海里给救生艇充气。

3 elastic   

n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的

参考例句：

• Rubber is an elastic material.橡胶是一种弹性材料。
• These regulations are elastic.这些规定是有弹性的。

4 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。