湖北省宜昌市第二十中學(xué) 袁芳供稿

James Watt was an English boy.He was clever and bright.He liked to ask questions and was always thinking hard.詹姆斯瓦特是一個(gè)英國(guó)小男孩。他聰明伶俐。他總是喜歡問(wèn)問(wèn)題，總是在思考。

One day,he was sitting in the room with his old grandmother.There he saw a kettle on the fire.It was rising and rising.And the lid was moving.一天，他和奶奶在家里。當(dāng)時(shí)爐子上的水壺正燒著開水。水在往上冒，蓋子也在動(dòng)。

“Grandma,what’s in the kettle?”Little Watt asked.“奶奶，水壺里是什么啊？”小瓦特問(wèn)道。

“Water,”his grandma answered.“水?！蹦棠袒卮鸬?。

“I know there’s something else.Look,it is pushing the lid up.”“我知道肯定有什么其他東西的。你瞧，它正把蓋子掀起來(lái)呢?！?/p>

“Oh,that’s only steam.”“哦，那是水蒸氣。”“How does the steam get under the lid?”“水蒸氣怎么可以在蓋子下面呢？”“It comes from the water.”“它是水里來(lái)的?！?/p>

“The steam must be very strong,”the boy said to himself.It can push things.If there is more water,the steam will be much stronger.“水蒸氣肯定很厲害了，”小男孩想到。它居然可以把東西掀起。如果水更多，那么水蒸氣肯定更厲害了。

Many many years later,James tried hard to make steam work for people.Finally he gave the world the first steam engine.His name lives forever.多年以后，瓦特努力嘗試讓蒸汽為人類服務(wù)。最后他研制了人類歷史上第一臺(tái)了蒸汽機(jī)。他的名字將永遠(yuǎn)被世人記住。

The word“horsepower”was first used two hundred years ago.Watt had made the world’s first widely used steam engine.He had no way of telling people exactly how powerful it was,for at that time there were no units for measuring power.馬力是兩百多年前第一次開始使用的。瓦特發(fā)明了世界上第一臺(tái)蒸汽機(jī)。但是他找不到辦法告訴大家它的力量有多大，因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)沒(méi)有什么單位可以用來(lái)測(cè)量力量的大小。

Watt decided to find out how much work one strong horse could do in one minute.He called that unit one horsepower.With this unit he could measure the work his steam engine could do.瓦特決定找到測(cè)量一匹馬一分鐘內(nèi)所能做的功。他把這個(gè)單位稱作馬力。用這個(gè)單位他就可以測(cè)量他的蒸汽機(jī)的力量了。

He discovered that a horse could lift a 3300-pound weight 10 feet into the air in one minute.His engine could lift a 3300-pound weight 100 feet in one minute.他發(fā)現(xiàn)一匹馬在一分鐘內(nèi)可以把3300磅重的物體舉10英尺高。他的蒸汽機(jī)可以在一分鐘內(nèi)舉起3300磅重的物體100英尺。

Because his engine did ten times as much work as the horse,Watt called it a ten horsepower engine.因?yàn)樗恼羝麢C(jī)做的功是一匹馬的十倍，瓦特把它稱作十馬力引擎。

Decide whether the following sentences are True(T)or False(F)according to the passage.

( )1.James Watt made the first kettle in the world.

( )2.He was always thinking hard and liked to ask questions.

( )3.He thought there must be people made the kettle rise.

( )4.He made up a unit of measurement based on the strength of a horse.

( )5.One horsepower would equal the work a horse could do in a minute.