(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Sarah Long and Bob Doughty tell about the inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He had a major effect on the lives of people around the world. Thomas Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. Thomas Edison's major inventions were designed and built in the last years of the eighteen hundreds. However, most of them had their greatest effect in the twentieth century. His inventions made possible the progress of technology.
It is extremely difficult to find anyone living today who has not been affected in some way by Thomas Edison. Most people on Earth have seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of sound recording. And almost everyone has at least seen an electric light. These are only three of the many devices Thomas Edison invented or helped to improve. People living in this century have had easier and more enjoyable lives because of his inventions.
Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh, eighteen forty-seven in the small town of Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children. Thomas Edison was self-taught. He went to school for only three months. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned from books and he experimented. At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. He experimented with chemicals and electricity. He built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages. At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen, he went to work as a telegraph operator. He later worked in many different places. He continued to experiment with electricity. When he was twenty-one, he sent the United States government the documents needed to request the legal protection for his first invention. The government gave him his first patent on an electric device he called an Electrographic Vote Recorder. It used electricity to count votes in an election.
In the summer months of eighteen sixty-nine, the Western Union Telegraph Company asked Thomas Edison to improve a device that was used to send financial information. It was called a stock printer. Mister Edison very quickly made great improvements in the device. The company paid him forty thousand dollars for his effort. That was a lot of money for the time. This large amount of money permitted Mister Edison to start his own company. He announced that the company would improve existing telegraph devices and work on new inventions. Mister Edison told friends that his new company would invent a minor device every ten days and produce what he called a "big trick" about every six months. He also proposed that his company would make inventions to order. He said that if someone needed a device to do some kind of work, just ask and it would be invented.
Within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were working on more than forty different projects. They were either new inventions or would lead to improvements in other devices. Very quickly he was asking the United States government for patents to protect more than one hundred devices or inventions each year. He was an extremely busy man. But then Thomas Edison was always very busy. He almost never slept more than four or five hours a night. He usually worked eighteen hours each day because he enjoyed what he was doing. He believed no one really needed much sleep. He once said that anyone could learn to go without sleep. Thomas Edison did not enjoy taking to reporters. He thought it was a waste of time. However, he did talk to a reporter in nineteen seventeen. He was seventy years old at the time and still working on new devices and inventions.
The reporter asked Mister Edison which of his many inventions he enjoyed the most. He answered quickly, the phonograph. He said the phonograph was really the most interesting. He also said it took longer to develop a machine to reproduce sound than any other of his inventions. Thomas Edison told the reporter that he had listened to many thousands of recordings. He especially liked music by Brahms, Verdi and Beethoven. He also liked popular music. Many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to in nineteen seventeen can still be enjoyed today. His invention makes it possible for people around the world to enjoy the same recorded sound. The reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardest invention to develop. He answered quickly again -- the electric light. He said that it was the most difficult and the most important.
Before the electric light was invented, light was provided in most homes and buildings by oil or natural gas. Both caused many fires each year. Neither one produced much light. Mister Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light. He believed that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful. He and his employees began work on the electric light. An electric light passes electricity through material called a filament or wire. The electricity makes the filament burn and produce light. Thomas Edison and his employees worked for many months to find the right material to act as the filament. Time after time a new filament would produce light for a few moments and then burn up. At last Mister Edison found that a carbon fiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up. The electric light worked. At first, people thought the electric light was extremely interesting but had no value. Homes and businesses did not have electricity. There was no need for it.
Mister Edison started a company that provided electricity for electric lights for a small price each month. The small company grew slowly at first. Then it expanded rapidly. His company was the beginning of the electric power industry. Thomas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of the movie industry. While he did not invent the idea of the motion picture, he greatly improved the process. He also invented the modern motion picture film. When motion pictures first were shown in the late eighteen hundreds, people came to see movies of almost anything -- a ship, people walking on the street, new automobiles. But in time, these moving pictures were no longer interesting. In nineteen-oh-three, an employee of Thomas Edison's motion picture company produced a movie with a story. It was called "The Great Train Robbery." It told a simple story of a group of western criminals who steal money from a train. Later they are killed by a group of police in a gun fight. The movie was extremely popular. "The Great Train Robbery" started the huge motion picture industry.
Thomas Alva Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. However, he also invented several devices that greatly improved the telephone. He improved several kinds of machines called generators that produced electricity. He improved batteries that hold electricity. He worked on many different kinds of electric motors including those for electric trains. Mister Edison also is remembered for making changes in the invention process. He moved from the Nineteenth Century method of an individual doing the inventing to the Twentieth Century method using a team of researchers. In nineteen thirteen, a popular magazine at the time called Thomas Edison the most useful man in America. In nineteen twenty-eight, he received a special medal of honor from the Congress of the United States. Thomas Edison died on January sixth, nineteen thirty-one. In the months before his death he was still working very hard. He had asked the government for legal protection for his last invention. It was patent number one thousand ninety-three.
重点解析
1.make possible 使…变成可能
Today's clever financial instruments make it possible for firms to hedge their risks.
现今各种巧妙的金融手段使得各公司防范风险成为可能。
2.self-taught 自学的；自修的
She was a great reader, however, and from the age of17 was entirely self taught.
她极其好学，17岁以后全靠自学。
3.count 计算
He was counting slowly under his breath.
他在低声慢慢地数数。
4.propose 建议
She proposed that the book be banned.
她提议查禁这本书。
5.lead to 导致
A lack of prudence may lead to financial problems.
不够谨慎可能会导致财政上出现问题。
6.work on 影响，对…起作用；继续工作；从事于…
He promised to get to work on the state's massive deficit
他承诺着手解决国家庞大的财政赤字问题。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天，莎拉·朗和鲍勃·道蒂将为大家讲述发明家托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生的故事。他对世界人民的生活有着重大的影响。托马斯·爱迪生主要因电灯、他的留声机以及电影贡献而被人铭记。托马斯·爱迪生的主要发明都是在十九世纪八十年代后期设计制成的。但大多数发明都是在上世纪才产生最伟大的影响。他的发明使科技进步成为可能。要在现在找到一个没有受托马斯·爱迪生影响的人极其困难。地球上的大部分人都看过电影，也听过留声机。几乎所有人至少都见过电灯。而这些仅是托马斯·爱迪生发明或帮助改善的设备中的三件。因他的这些发明，本世纪的人生活变得更便捷愉悦。
1847年2月11日，托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生出生于俄亥俄州一个叫做米兰的小镇。他是7个孩子中年纪最小的那个。托马斯·爱迪生自学成才。他只去学校读了三个月。他的老师认为他有心理问题，无法学习。但是年轻的托马斯·爱迪生可以学。他从书中和实验中学习。十岁的时候，他建了自己的一个化学实验室。他用化学物品和电力做实验。他做了一个电报机，并且很快学会发送接收电报消息。那时，通过电线发送电信号是长途消息传递最快的方法。十六岁的时候，他成了一名报务员。之后，他做过很多工作。他继续用电做实验。21岁的时候，他向美国政府发送了一份文件，要求对他的第一件发明提供法律保护。政府为他的电子记票器颁发了他的首个专利。这个设备用于在投票中计算票数。
1869年夏天，西联电报公司让托马斯·爱迪生对用于发送财务信息的设备进行改善。这个设备被称为股票打印机。爱迪生很快便对设备进行了重大改良。该公司向他支付了四万美元的报酬。那时这是一大笔钱。爱迪生可以用这笔钱开一家自己的公司。他宣布这家公司将改善现有的电报设备并致力于新的发明。爱迪生告诉朋友他的新公司将每隔十天就发明一个小设备每隔约六个月就产出一个“大花招”。他还提议他的公司将接受发明定制。他说如果有人需要某种设备完成某个工作，只需前来询问，就能被发明出来。几周时间内，托马斯·爱迪生和他的员工都在致力于四十多种不同项目的产出。这些要么是新发明，要么是对其他设备进行改良。很快，他便要求美国政府为他每年一百多件设备或发明办法专利。
他是个大忙人。但是那时托马斯·爱迪生总是那么忙。每天他的睡觉时间几乎不超过四五个小时。他每天通常工作18个小时，因为他享受自己的工作。他认为人们并不需要睡眠。他曾说每个人都可以学会不睡觉一直工作。托马斯·爱迪生并不喜欢和记者交谈。他认为这是在浪费时间。但1917年，他确实和一名记者有过交谈。那时他70岁，仍在忙于新设备和发明。记者问爱迪生这么多发明中，他最喜欢哪个。他脱口而出，留声机。他说留声机真的是最有趣的一个发明。他还说开发能够发出声音的机器所花费的时间比任何其他发明都多。托马斯·爱迪生告诉记者他听过数千只唱片。他尤其喜欢布拉姆斯、威尔第和贝多芬的音乐。他也喜欢流行乐。托马斯·爱迪生在1917年听过的很多音乐至今仍受欢迎。他的发明让全世界的人倾听同一首音乐变为可能。
记者还问托马斯·爱迪生最难开发的是哪一个发明。他又迅速回答—电灯。他说这个发明是最难也是最重要的。电灯发明之前，多数家庭和大楼都是用油和天然气点灯照明。每年都会引起很多场火灾。光也不是很亮。爱迪生看过很多巨大且闪亮的电灯。他认为小一些的电灯就够用了。他和他的员工开始研究电灯。电灯通过灯丝导电。电让灯丝然后并发出亮光。托马斯·爱迪生和他的员工工作数月终于找到了充当灯丝的材料。新的灯丝数月内产生灯光，然后耗尽。最后，爱迪生发现一种碳化纤维可以产生光，并能持续很长一段时间而不被烧尽。电灯起作用了。起初，人们认为电灯极其有趣但并没有什么价值。家庭和公司里没有电，就没有必要用电灯。爱迪生开了一家公司为电灯供电，每月收费不高。起初，这家小公司增长缓慢，然后迅速扩张。他的公司开启了电力行业。
托马斯·爱迪生也是开启电影业人物之一。虽然电影这个想法并非他的发明，但是他极大地改善了其进程。他还发明了现代电影胶片。电影出现于十九世纪末期，人们看的电影画面包括—船只、街上的行人、新车。而这些移动的画面变得不再有趣。1903年，托马斯·爱迪生电影公司的一名员工制作了一部带故事情节的电影。这部电影是《火车大劫案》，讲的是一个西部罪犯团伙从火车上偷钱的简单故事。之后，他们在枪战中被警察杀死。这个电影非常受欢迎。《火车大劫案》开启了电影工业。
托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生主要因他的电灯、留声机和电影贡献而被人铭记。但是他还有其他一些发明，极大改良了电话。他改良了一些被称为发电机的机器，也改良了储电电池。还有很多不同的电动机，包括电气列车的电动机。爱迪生也因在发明进程中所做的改变而被铭记。他从19世纪的方法—一个人发明，转向了20世纪的方式—使用研究团队进行发明工作。1913年，当时的一本流行杂志称托马斯·爱迪生是美国最有用的人。1928年，他获得了美国国会的荣誉勋章。托马斯·爱迪生于1931年1月6日去世。在去世前的几个月内，他仍在非常努力的工作。他要求政府为他的最后一件发明提供法律保护，该发明专利编号为1093.
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
