爱迪生的伟大发明.docVIP

爱迪生的伟大发明 　　There are many people who say Thomas Edison single-handedly invented the twentieth century. Although there are those who may disagree， one thing cannot be denied： Edison was a genius， and his inventions greatly affected the development of modern society. 　　有许多人认为是爱迪生一手创造了20世纪。虽然不少人可能有不同的看法，但有一件事无法否认：爱迪生是个天才，他的发明深刻地影响了现代社会的发展。 　　Born in 1847 in Ohio， Thomas Edison attended school for only three months. After his teacher claimed that he could not learn， Edison’s mother decided to teach him at home. There he was allowed to explore the subjects that most interested him. By age ten， Edison had built a science laboratory in the basement of his family’s home and had become an avid experimenter. 　　1847年，爱迪生出生于俄亥俄州。他仅仅上了三个月的学。在爱迪生的老师声称他有学习障碍之后，他的母亲决定在家教他。在家里，爱迪生可以随心所欲地探索最使他感兴趣的事物。十岁那年，爱迪生在家里的地下室建了一间科学实验室。从此，爱迪生就成为一位孜孜不倦的实验者。 　　Edison got his first job at age twelve on the railway selling candy and newspapers. Three years later， he suffered an ear injury from a train accident and lost much of his hearing. He could have had an operation， but he refused. He insisted that being deaf helped him concentrate on his experiments. 　　十二岁时，爱迪生得到了他的第一份工作――在火车上卖糖果和报纸。三年后，一场火车事故导致他耳朵受伤，几乎完全失聪。他本可以接受手术治疗，但他拒绝了，因为他坚信，听觉的丧失可以让他更专心地做实验。 　　Thomas Edison’s first invention was the automatic telegraph repeater. He was already an expert on the telegraph before he came up with a gadget that sent telegraph signals between unmanned stations. Thanks to Edison， people were then able to send several telegraph messages simultaneously. 　　?报自动转发器是爱迪生的第一个发明。他发明的这种装置，用于在无人看管的两站之间传输电报信号。在此项发明前，爱迪生就已经是位电报专家了。幸亏有爱迪生，我们才能在同一时间传送好几封电报讯息。 　　Next came the electric vote recorder. It made voting quicker and more accurate， yet no one wanted to buy it. Edison then moved on to tackle the stock market ticker， the machine that gave information about stock market prices. Edison improved it， and sold the rights for $40，000. 　　接下来的电子计票器让统计票数的速度更快、更准确，但却没有人买。之后，爱迪生转而进行股票行情收录器的研究，他改进了收录器，并将该项专利以四万美元卖出。