听力文摘：神奇的电子墨水

If you thought erasable¹ ink was cool, wait until you hear about today’s topic on A Moment of Science: electronic ink.

如果你觉得可擦墨水很酷的话，那就等你听完今天所讲的这个话题---电子墨水后再下结论吧。

To begin with a slightly technical explanation, electronic ink consists of three parts: millions of tiny, microscopic² capsules, an oily liquid filling the capsules, and negatively charged colored chips or spheres floating inside the capsules. Electrical charges cause the colored chips or spheres to arrange themselves into letters, numbers, and other characters when the ink is spread on a surface.

理论上来讲，电子墨水主要由三部分组成：数以百万的细小微型胶囊，填充胶囊的油状液体以及浮在胶囊里的带有负电荷的彩色芯片（或球体）。当墨水洒在物体表面时，彩色芯片在电荷的作用下就会形成字母、数字或文字。

If that description is slightly confusing, try imagining electronic ink as consisting of millions of clear beach balls. Each ball contains hundreds of white Ping-Pong balls floating in blue dye. The Ping-Pong balls make the top of the beach ball appear white, while the bottom appears blue.

如果我这么讲你有点难以理解的话，那就把电子墨水想象成是由数以百万的沙滩球组成。每个沙滩球球内都含有数百个白色的乒乓球浮在蓝色液体中。乒乓球会让沙滩球顶部呈现白色，而底部呈现出蓝色。

Now imagine that you’ve spread millions of these beach balls on a wide, flat surface and gone up in a helicopter for a bird’s-eye view. You see an all-white field. Using a device to control the movement of the Ping-Pong balls, you cause some of them to sink, revealing the blue dye. With precise control, you could use the resulting patterns of light and dark to create characters.

现在想象一下你将这些沙滩球放在一个宽而平的表面上，然后乘上直升机从上面俯瞰。你会看到一片白色。然后，你用设备来控制乒乓球的运动，让某些球下沉，呈现出蓝色。通过准确的控制颜色的深浅，你就可以写出字了。

In a nutshell, that’s how electronic ink works. So what’s it good for? Electronic books, for one. In the near future we may leaf through a volume written with electronic ink that contain hundreds of different texts. With the push of a button, Shakespeare may morph into Dr. Seuss. Another push and the ink re-arranges itself into Crime and Punishment. No matter how it’s used, electronic ink is sure to jolt³ our understanding of the printed page.

简单来说，这就是电子墨水的工作原理。那么电子墨水有什么好处呢？就拿电子书来举个例子，在不远的将来，我们可能会阅读用电子墨水写成的书卷，这些书卷包含着数百种书籍。只要轻轻一摁，莎士比亚就会变成瑟斯博士，再摁一下，就会变成罪与罚。电子墨水无论怎么样被使用，它终将颠覆我们对于印刷页面的理解。

1 erasable   

adj.可消除的，可抹去的，使被忘却的

参考例句：

• Such devices are divided into blocks, called sectors, that are individually-erasable. 一些设备被分成叫段组的块，能个别地可擦。 来自互联网
• Electrically Erasable, Prograable Read-Only Memory -- PROM. A type of ROM that can be erased electronically. 电可擦的，可编程的只读存储器。一种ROM能被电擦除。 来自互联网

2 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

3 jolt   

v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸

参考例句：

• We were worried that one tiny jolt could worsen her injuries.我们担心稍微颠簸一下就可能会使她的伤势恶化。
• They were working frantically in the fear that an aftershock would jolt the house again.他们拼命地干着，担心余震可能会使房子再次受到震动。