美国小学英语教材6:第216课 电灯的五十周年纪念(5)

Finally his parents consented to his new plan.

最终，爱迪生的父母同意了他的新计划。

He began to sell fruit, peanuts, and papers on the train.

他开始在火车上售卖水果、花生和报纸。

When he was through with his duties, he set up a small laboratory in an empty express car of the train he traveled on.

当他完成自己的任务后，他在自己乘坐的一节空车厢上建立了一个小实验室。

Here, if he wasn’t experimenting with strange liquids and powders, he was printing a little paper that he had started, called the “Weekly Herald¹.”

在这里，如果他没有试验奇怪的液体和粉末，那么他就在印刷一份他已经开业的小报《每周先驱报》。

It is not hard to imagine a young boy going through a train calling, “Papers — books — buy a book.”

不难想象这样一个场景：一个男孩在车厢里叫卖“报纸，书籍，买一本书吧。”

But it is more difficult to picture him, alone in the empty car, printing some seven hundred copies of the little three-cent newspaper.

但难以想象的是，他一个人独自在空车厢里，印刷大约七百份三美分的报纸。

A sudden swaying of the train one day jarred a piece of phosphorus from a shelf in the boy’s train laboratory, and the car took fire.

一天，火车突然晃动，爱迪生车厢实验室架子上的磷块发生碰撞，车厢着火了。

The conductor was furious at the thought of the danger young Al’s experimenting had caused;

列车长对年轻的爱迪生的实验所导致的危险感到愤怒，

so he hurled² the entire outfit³, including the printing plant and the young inventor, off at the next station.

所以他在下一站将整个设备、包括印刷器械和年轻的爱迪生都扔下车。

3686950c83cbea22b7cde99188dac734.pngEdison’s inventions

爱迪生的发明

The next step ahead for young Edison was an opportunity to learn telegraphy.

年轻的爱迪生下一步获得了学习电报的机会。

He had saved the life of a railroad man’s little boy.

他救了铁路人员家小男孩的性命。

The child had wandered onto the tracks, and young Edison had snatched him out of the way of the oncoming train.

这个小孩走到了铁轨上，年轻的爱迪生把他拽到一边，避开了驶来的火车。

The grateful father had no money to reward Edison; so he offered to teach him telegraphy.

小男孩的父亲感激之余没有钱奖励爱迪生，于是提出教爱迪生发电报。

In a few days the boy had learned it, and had made a telegraph set of his own between his cellar and the house of one of his chums.

几天后，爱迪生学会了发电报，还在自己的地下室和其中一个伙伴的房子之间制作了一套自己的电报机。

Edison’s inventions had begun!

爱迪生的发明生涯开始了！

1 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

2 hurled   

v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂

参考例句：

• He hurled a brick through the window. 他往窗户里扔了块砖。
• The strong wind hurled down bits of the roof. 大风把屋顶的瓦片刮了下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。