8. The hardness of ice is similar to that of concrete. 冰的硬度和混凝土相仿。

　　9. A grasshopper can leap over obstacles 500 times its own height. In relation to its size, it has the greatest jumping ability of all animals. 蚱蜢能跳过自己身高500倍的障碍物。从身体大小这一比例来说，它是世界上最善跳的动物。

　　10. Albert Einstein, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921, was honored not for his famous theory of relativity published sixteen years earlier, but for his

　　lesser-known work on the photoelectric effect. 阿伯特·爱因斯坦于1921年被授予诺贝尔物理学奖，但不是为了奖励他16年前发表的著名的相对论，而是为了不太为人所知的光电效应。

　　11. Bricks are the oldest manufactured building material still in use. Egyptians used them 7,000 years ago.砖头是至今仍在使用的最古老的人造建筑材料。埃及人在7,000年前就使用砖头了。

　　12. A Venetian law decrees that all gondolas must be painted black. The only exceptions are the gondolas belonging to high public officials. 威尼斯有一条法律规定，所有的平底小船都必须漆成黑色，只有高级官员的船例外。

　　13. In ancient Egypt, when merchants left the country on business trips they carried small stone models of themselves. If they died while abroad, these figures were sent back to Egypt for proxy burial. 古埃及商人出国经商时身上都带着石制的本人小像。如果他们死在国外，这些石像就被送回埃及作为替身埋葬。

　　14. If one places a minute amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. 如果在蝎子身上放上少许的酒，它会立即发疯，将自己蜇死。

　　15. An electric eel can produce a shock of more than 600 volts, 3 times more powerful than a household outlet. It not only uses this power to kill its prey but to locate it as well. Though it is born with eyes, it is blind as an adult and employs its electricity to find food in much the same way as man uses radar. 电鳗能释放出超过600伏的电，是家用电压的3倍。它不仅用这一电力杀死猎物，还用它寻找猎物。电鳗虽然出生时有眼睛，长大后会变成瞎子，它像人使用雷达那样通过放电寻找食物。

　　16. A horse focuses its eyes by changing the angle of its head, not by changing the shape of the lens of the eye, as humans do.马通过转动头的角度使眼睛聚焦，不像人那样通过改变晶状体的形状聚焦。

　　(文/和宝君；英语辅导报高二版 04~05学年度第22期；版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)