【英语时差8,16】碳，氧，氢（下）

That’s because when carbon and oxygen merge¹ to form carbon dioxide, for example, they give off energy. If the merging² process is very slow–say in a decaying woodpile–that energy will be very subtle. Speed it up a bit, though, and the energy can be felt as heat. Even more and you can see it as light. And that’s what fire is: light and heat coming from the rapid combination of atoms. Now, all living things are chock full of carbon and hydrogen. And the air has plenty of oxygen in it. So when a pile of dead wood is left out for a while, the carbon and hydrogen atoms slowly combine with oxygen, leaving behind a gradually diminished pile. There are also microorganisms helping³ things along. But even without them, there would still be the slow, smokeless burning of decay.

1 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。

2 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。