英国学生科学读本 第28期:一块盐(1)

 　　Lesson 28 A Block Of Salt

　　第28课 一块盐

　　Every day we eat some of the white powder which we call salt. Salt does our bodies good, and keeps them healthy. We eat it at dinner along with our meat. We eat it, too, with eggs, and watercress, and with many otherkinds of food. The baker¹ also puts salt in our bread.

　　每天, 我们都会吃掉一种叫做“盐”的白色粉末。盐对身体有好处, 能保持身体健康。我们在吃饭的时候, 把盐跟肉一块儿吃下去, 也跟鸡蛋、豆瓣菜和其他很多种食物, 一块儿吃下去。面包师傅也会往我们的面包里放盐。

　　But where does our white table-salt come from? In the county called Cheshire there are beds of salt far down below the ground.

　　但是, 我们吃的白色精盐是从哪儿来的呢? 在英格兰有一个郡, 叫“柴郡”（Cheshire）；在柴郡, 地下很深的地方, 有很多盐的矿床。

　　This salt is like a reddish rock or stone, and it is called rock-salt. The red colour is caused by a little rust² of iron being mixed with the salt.

　　这种盐的样子, 像一种红色的石头, 叫“岩盐”。红色是跟盐混在一起的少量铁锈的颜色。

　　When it rains, the rain-water soaks into the ground and dissolves some of the salt. Then the men pump up this salt water, which is called brine.

　　下雨的时候, 雨水渗到地下, 把一些盐溶解了, 人们就可以把这些盐水抽出来。这种盐水叫“卤水”。

　　When this brine is boiled in big iron pans, the water goes away in steam, and leaves the salt behind in little white crystals.

　　卤水放在大铁锅里煮的时候, 水变成了蒸汽, 留下的是小小的白色晶体, 这就是盐。

　　Let us shake up some salt in a glass of water. See how soon the salt is lost sight of. We cannot see it because it is now mixed with the water, but we can taste it.

　　咱们把一些盐放到一杯水里, 摇一摇, 看看食盐是怎么消失的。食盐现在跟水混合到一块儿了, 我们看不到, 但是可以尝到。

　　Now we will boil the water in a little sauce-pan. After a time all the water changes into steam, and the bottom of the sauce-pan is covered with crystals of salt. We have got our salt back again.

　　现在, 用小汤锅煮一下这些水。过一会儿, 水就都变成了蒸汽, 汤锅的底下盖满了盐的结晶。我们又重新得到了这些盐。

1 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

2 rust   

n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退

参考例句：

• She scraped the rust off the kitchen knife.她擦掉了菜刀上的锈。
• The rain will rust the iron roof.雨水会使铁皮屋顶生锈。