In 1877 Edison decided he could no longer continue both manufacturing and inventing. He
sold his share in the factory and built a new laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was the first laboratory of its kind devoted to organized industrial research. One of the first inventions to come from his new laboratory was an improvement of Alexander Bell's telephone. Edison invented a
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more powerful mouthpiece which removed the need to shout into the telephone. But his great inventions were still to come.
On August 12, 1877, Edison began experimenting with an instrument which he had designed
and ordered to be built. It was a cylinder, wrapped in tinfoil and turned by a handle. As it revolved, a needle made a groove in the foil. Turning the handle, Edison began to shout.
"Mary had a little lamb
Whose fleece was white as snow!"
He stopped and moved the needle back in the starting position. Then, putting his ear close to
the needle, he turned the handle again. A voice came out of the machine:
"Mary had a little lamb,
Whose fleece was white as snow!"
Edison had just invented the phonograph, a completely new concept: a talking machine.
While he was perfecting his phonograph, Edison also worked on another invention. He called
it "an Electric Lamp for Giving Light by Incandescence". Today we call it the light bulb.
For years other inventors had experimented with electric lights, but none of the lights had
proven economical to produce. Edison, in studying the problem, spent over a year experimenting. He tested 1,600 materials (even hairs from a friend's beard) to see if they would carry electric current and glow. Finally, on October 21, 1879, he tried passing electricity through a carbonized cotton thread in a vacuum glass bulb. In his own words Edison described the experiment: "... before nightfall the carbon was completed and inserted in the lamp. The bulb was exhausted of air and sealed, the current turned on, and the sight we had so long desired to see met our eyes." The lamp gave off a feeble, reddish glow, and it continued to bum for 40 hours. Edison's incredible invention proved that electric lighting would be the future light of the world.
Edison was now so famous as an inventor that people thought there was nothing he could not
do. They began to call him "the wizard", as if he could produce an invention like magic. Few people realized how hard Edison worked, often 20 hours a day, and that most of his inventions were the results of hundreds of experiments.
For 60 years Edison was the world's leading inventor. He patented over 1,000 inventions
which changed our way of living. He was one of the earliest inventors of the motion-picture machine. His invention of the phonograph was joined with photography to produce talking pictures. He also perfected the electric motor which made streetcars and electric trains possible.
It is no wonder that Edison received many honors during his life for contributions to the
progress of mankind. The United States gave him its highest award, a special Congressional Medal of Honor. Yet, in spite of all his fame, Edison remained a modest man. He preferred to continue his work, rather than rest on his achievements. His motto was: "I find what the world needs; then I go ahead and try to invent it." He never considered himself a brilliant man and once remarked that genius was "2 percent inspiration and 98 percent perspiration".
When Edison died in 1931, it was proposed that the American people mm off all power in
their homes, streets, and factories for several minutes in honor of this great man. Of course, it was quickly realized that such an honor would be impossible. Its impossibility was indeed the real tribute to Edison's achievements. Electric power had become so important and vital a part of America's life that a complete shut-down for even a few seconds would have created chaos. As "one of the great heroes of invention", Edison rightfully belongs among America's and the world's great contributors to the progress of man.
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Task 7:
【答案】
A.
1) c
2) a
3) d
4) c
5) c
6) a
B.
1) That‘s because the explosion robs the fire of oxygen.
2) Once the fire is out, the well still needs to be covered, or capped, to stop the flow of oil. This is the most dangerous part of the process. Any new heat or fire could cause the leaking well and the surrounding area to explode.
3) In March of 1991, Red Adair went to Kuwait. He and his crews were called in to help put out oil well fires.
4) He has spent his 76th birthday in Kuwait working side by side with his crew.
5) At his funeral, many family members and friends honored him by wearing red clothes.
【原文】
Paul Neal Adair was born in Houston, Texas in nineteen fifteen. He was one of five sons of a metal worker. He also had three sisters. While growing up, he became known as Red Adair