How Did They Think of That?

　　It’s gooey like rubber. It bounces and it stretches. Play with it, or use it to take dog hair off the furniture. It’s Silly Putty.

　　The name is a bit of a giveaway because, just as it sounds, Silly Putty wasn’t invented on purpose! It was the stuff left over after engineers worked with other materials. No one knew what to do with it, until someone realised you could do a lot with it!

　　Some inventions are like that. Someone thinks of a new way to use something that has been around for a long time.

　　他们是如何想到这些发明的？

　　它像橡胶一样发粘，有弹性，可以用来玩或用来粘去家具上的狗毛。它就是弹性橡皮泥。

　　这个名字听起来有点儿像赠品，因为它是人们无意中发明的。橡皮泥是工程师在制造其他原料时剩下的废料。没有人知道它能用来做什么，直到有人意识到它可以用来做许多事情。

　　有些发明就是这样被创造出来的。有些人会想出新办法来使身边闲置很久的东西得以利用。

　　gooey: sticky. 粘的

　　bounce: spring back after hitting a surface. 弹起

　　stretch: be elastic. 有弹性(张力)

　　giveaway: sth. given away at no charge. 赠品

　　Hooping It Up

　　As long ago as 1,000 BC, children in ancient Greece and Rome played with hoops made from vines. In colonial days in America, children rolled hoops along the streets, guiding them with sticks. Australian children used bamboo hoops in sports classes at school. But in 1957 the idea was taken one step further. That was the year the Hula Hoop, a hollow plastic hoop, appeared in stores.

　　This hoopy toy became a huge success. People held contests to see who could twirl the most hoops around their waists, arms, wrists, legs, feet ?even around their heads and necks. But the company that made them was not able to get a patent for such an ancient idea. So soon others were making Spin-a-Hoops and Hoop-d-dos. It is estimated that between 60 and 100 million hoops were sold in two years!

　　让呼啦圈转起来

　　早在公元前1000年，古希腊和罗马的孩子就用藤条制成的圆圈玩耍。在殖民时代的美国，孩子们沿街用木棍引导滚圈玩耍。澳大利亚的孩子用竹制的圆圈上体育课。到了1957年，这个创想被改进了一大步。就在这一年，呼啦圈——一种空心塑料圈在商场里出现了。

　　这种圆圈形玩具的问世获得了巨大成功。人们举行比赛看谁能把最多的呼啦圈绕在腰部、手臂、手腕、腿部、脚部，甚至是在头部和脖子上。但是制造呼啦圈的公司并不能为这一古老创想申请专利。因此，很快其他公司便制出了各种名目的类似产品。估计在两年之内售出的呼啦圈在6000万到1亿之间!

　　vine: a weak-stemmed plant. 藤

　　contest: a competition. 竞赛

　　twirl: twist or wind around. 缠绕

　　estimate: calculate. 推测；估计

　　Great Big Copycats?

　　Some inventions mirror things in the natural world. Nature has given inventors big clues about how to make their inventions work.

　　When George de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, went for a walk in 1948 he had a close encounter with a burdock plant. After brushing against the plant, he realised that his clothes were covered with spiny burrs. As he removed the clinging burrs, he saw that they were covered in hundreds of small hooks. Then he had an idea...

　　伟大的模仿者

　　有些发明反映了大自然中的事物。大自然给予发明者许多重大线索，让他们知道如何使发明奏效。

　　1948年，一位名叫乔治·麦斯托的瑞士工程师外出散步，他与一种名叫牛蒡的带刺植物有了一次亲密的接触。当他从这种植物旁经过时，衣服上粘上了果刺。在把那些刺壳去掉时后，他看到刺壳上覆盖着成百的小钩子。于是，他有了一个主意……

　　clue: sth. that helps you to find an answer. 线索

　　encounter: a meeting. 相遇

　　burdock: plant having pink flower heads. 牛蒡

　　burr: the rough case around the seeds of some plants. 果刺

　　After eight years of experimenting, he finally succeeded in making two nylon strips. One strip had lots of tiny loops and the other had tiny hooks. When the strips were pressed together, they stuck firmly. Today, Velcro has many practical uses ?and a few crazy ones like Velcro wall jumping!

　　经过8年的实验，他终于成功地制造出了两条尼龙刺粘搭链。其中一条有许多微小的圆环，另一条则有许多小钩子。当两条尼龙带被压在一起时，它们会牢牢地粘在一起。今天，尼龙刺粘搭链有许多实用之处，还有像跳墙这样疯狂的玩法！

　　Velcro: a fastening tape. 尼龙刺粘搭链

　　trampoline: a strong sheet attached with springs to a metal frame. 蹦床

　　When One Thing Leads to Another

　　Sometimes an idea that doesn’t work can lead to an idea that does. Levi Strauss didn’t set out to become the most famous maker of jeans in history, but that’s what happened.

　　Strauss went to San Francisco in 1853 when the California gold rush was in full swing. He hoped to sell canvas to the prospectors so they could use this thick, sturdy material to make tents and wagon covers. But he made a mistake. Nobody wanted to buy his canvas.

　　What the prospectors really needed was trousers. People worked hard in the goldfields and their trousers wore out quickly. So Levi Strauss made trousers out of the brown canvas he couldn’t sell. They quickly sold out. Then Strauss switched to a heavy blue fabric. Today, Levi’s blue jeans are worn in every country in the world.

　　当一件事引发另一件事时

　　有时，一个不成功的创想会引发另一个好主意。利瓦伊·施特劳斯当初并没有想到他会成为历史上最著名的牛仔裤制造商，但这的的确确发生了。1853年，施特劳斯来到旧金山，当时正值加利福尼亚淘金热潮。他想把一些粗帆布卖给淘金者，以为他们会用这种又厚、又结实的材料搭造帐篷及马车顶篷。但他错了，没人愿意买他的粗帆布。

　　淘金者真正需要的是裤子。他们在金矿里辛苦劳作，裤子很快就被磨烂了。因此，利瓦伊·施特劳斯把卖不掉的棕色帆布做成了裤子，很快就被卖光了。接下来他又转用一种粗糙的蓝色的织物来做裤子。今天，在全世界的每个国家都有人穿着利瓦伊的蓝色牛仔裤。

　　canvas: a heavy, closely woven fabric. 帆布

　　prospector: person who searches for gold. 淘金者

　　sturdy: stout. 耐用的

　　wear out: be reduced to a useless state. 穿破

　　switch: shift; transfer. 转变

　　fabric: a cloth produced by weaving. 织物

　　Pop! Goes the Invention

　　Accidents happen... and they can lead to great ideas. Sometimes those ideas can stare you in the face —or send a message to your stomach. Other times it can be years before you realise you realise invented something pretty good.

　　In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson mixed some flavour with water. By mistake, he left the drink outside all night —with the stirring stick still in it. It was a very cold night. In the morning, Frank saw that the drink had frozen to the stick. It tasted delicious!

　　啪！发明来了！

　　意外之事发生了……它们往往可以引发伟大的创想。有时那些创想就在你眼前，或给你的胃送去信号。有时会在过了许多年以后，你才会意识到自己曾发明了非常好的东西。

　　1905年，11岁的弗兰克·爱普森把一些调味料和水和在了一起。他不小心把这杯饮料放在了外面整整一夜，搅动饮料的小棍也在里面。这是一个非常寒冷的夜晚。第二天早上，弗兰克发现他的饮料已经冻成了冰棍，并且尝起来味道好极了！

　　delicious: tasty. 可口的

　　Eighteen years later, Frank remembered the frozen sticks. He applied for a patent and began to produce Epsicles. By now he had children of his own and they didn’t like the name. They changed it to Popsicles.

　　18年过去了，弗兰克想起了那些冰棍。他申请了一项专利并开始生产名为“Epsicles”的冰棍。现在他有了自己的孩子，但他们不喜欢“Epsicles”这个名字，并把它改成了“Popsicles”。

　　Popsicle: a flavored ice confection with one stick for a handle. 冰棍

　　grumpy: bad-tempered. 脾气暴躁的

　　curl: twist into coils. 卷曲