英語文章朗讀短篇

　　堅持英語朗讀訓練既是大學生培養和保持英語學習興趣,不斷增強自信和語感的一種有效途徑,也是大學英語教學走出困境的突破口之一。下面是小編帶來的，歡迎閱讀!

　　1

　　Topaz

　　Topaz is a hard, transparent mineral. It is a compound of aluminum, silica, and fluorine. Gem topaz is valuable. Jewelers call this variety of the stone “precious topaz”. The best-known precious topaz gems range in color from rich yellow to light brown or pinkish red. Topaz is one of the hardest gem minerals. In the mineral table of hardness, it has a rating of 8, which means that a knife cannot cut it, and that topaz will scratch quartz.

　　The golden variety of precious topaz is quite uncommon. Most of the world’s topaz is white or blue. The white and blue crystals of topaz are large, often weighing thousands of carats. For this reason, the value of topaz does not depend so much on its size as it does with diamonds and many other precious stones, where the value increases about four times with each doubling of weight. The value of a topaz is largely determined by its quality. But color is also important: blue topaz, for instance, is often irradiated to deepen and improve its color.

　　Blue topaz is often sold as aquamarine and a variety of brown quartz is widely sold as topaz. The quartz is much less brilliant and more plentiful than true topaz. Most of it is variety of amethyst: that heat has turned brown.

　　黃水晶

　　黃水晶是一種堅硬、透明的礦物質。它是鋁、矽和氟的化合物。黃水晶寶石價值不菲。珠寶商把這種石頭稱為"黃玉"。最出名的黃玉有各種顏色如深黃色、淡棕色、淺紅色等。黃水晶是最堅硬的寶石礦中的一種。在礦石硬度表上，它的硬度為8，這表明刀子不能割開它而它可在石英上劃痕。

　　金黃色的黃玉品種非常罕見。世界上大多數的黃水晶是白色或藍色的。這些白色或藍色的黃水晶晶體很大，常常有數千克拉重。由於這個原因，黃水晶的價值不像鑽石和許多其它寶石那樣主要依賴於其大小，重量翻一番價值即上升約四倍。黃水晶的價值很大程度上取決於其品質，但顏色也很重要。舉例來說，藍色的黃水晶常需放射處理以加深和改善其顏色。

　　藍色的黃水晶常被作為海藍寶石出售，許多種棕色石英被當作黃水晶廣為販賣。石英光亮度遠小於黃水晶，礦藏儲量也遠較黃水晶豐富。大多數石英是一種紫水晶，高溫使其變為棕色。

　　2

　　Raising Oysters

　　In the past oysters were raised in much the same way as dirt farmers raised tomatoes - by transplanting them.

　　First, farmers selected the oyster bed, cleared the bottom of old shells and other debris, then scattered clean shells about. Next, they "planted" fertilized oyster eggs, which within two or three weeks hatched into larvae. The larvae drifted until they attached themselves to the clean shells on the bottom. There they remained and in time grew into baby oysters called seed or spat. The spat grew larger by drawing in seawater from which they derived microscopic particles of food. Before long, farmers gathered the baby oysters, transplanted them in other waters to speed up their growth, then transplanted them once more into another body of water to fatten them up. Until recently the supply of wild oysters and those crudely farmed were more than enough to satisfy people's needs. But today the delectable seafood is no longer available in abundance. The problem has become so serious that some oyster beds have vanished entirely.

　　Fortunately, as far back as the early 1900's marine biologists realized that if new measures were not taken, oysters would become extinct or at best a luxury food. So they set up well-equipped hatcheries and went to work. But they did not have the proper equipment or the skill to handle the eggs. They did not know when, what, and how to feed the larvae. And they knew little about the predators that attack and eat baby oysters by the millions. They failed, but they doggedly kept at it. Finally, in the 1940's a significant breakthrough was made. The marine biologists discovered that by raising the temperature of the water, they could induce oysters to spawn not only in the summer but also in the fall, winter, and spring. Later they developed a technique for feeding the larvae and rearing them to spat. Going still further, they succeeded in breeding new strains that were resistant to diseases, grew faster and larger, and flourished in water of different salinities and temperatures. In addition, the cultivated oysters tasted better!

　　飼養牡蠣

　　過去人們飼養牡蠣的方式很大程度上類似於田地裡的農夫種植蕃茄--通過移植來飼養它們。

　　首先，農夫選好牡蠣苗床，清除底部的舊殼和其它雜物，然後四處撒播乾淨的殼。接著，他們"栽種"已受精的牡蠣卵。這些卵在 2～3 周內會孵化成幼貝。幼貝一直漂流直到粘在苗床底部乾淨的殼上為止。它們會呆在那兒並逐漸長成小牡蠣。我們稱之為種子或貝苗。貝苗吸進海水中的微小生物作為食物從而越長越大。不久之後，農夫將這些小牡蠣收集起來，把它們移種進其他的水域加快其生長，然後再次將它們移種進另外的水域以使其肥壯起來。直到最近，野生的以及人工飼養的牡蠣完全能夠滿足人們的需要。但是今天這種可口的海味已不再大量存在。這個問題已經變得如此嚴重以至於一些牡蠣苗床已完全消失。

　　幸運的是，早在 20 世紀初期海洋生物學家們就意識到如果不採取新的措施，牡蠣將會滅絕或至少會變為一種奢侈的食品。因此他們建造了裝備良好的孵卵場所並開始工作。但是他們尚沒有適當的裝置或技術來處理牡蠣卵。他們不知道何時、用什麼以及如何餵養幼貝。他們對捕食數百萬幼小牡蠣的動物天敵也所知無幾。他們失敗了，但他們頑強地堅持了下來。終於，在 20 世紀 40 年代，一個重要的突破性的進展產生了。海洋生物學家發現，升高水溫能夠誘導牡蠣不僅在夏季也在秋季、冬季和春季裡產卵。後來他們發展了一項技術來餵養幼貝至其長成貝苗。他們進一步成功地培養出了新的品種，可以抵抗疾病、長得更快、更大並且在不同的鹽度和溫度的水中都能茁壯生長。此外，這些培殖出的牡蠣口感更佳!

　　3

　　Oil Refining

　　An important new industry, oil refining, grew after the Civil war. Crude oil, or petroleum – a dark, thick ooze from the earth – had been known for hundreds of years, but little use had ever been made of it. In the 1850’s Samuel M. Kier, a manufacturer in western Pennsylvania, began collecting the oil from local seepages and refining it into kerosene. Refining, like smelting, is a process of removing impurities from a raw material.

　　Kerosene was used to light lamps. It was a cheap substitute for whale oil, which was becoming harder to get. Soon there was a large demand for kerosene. People began to search for new supplies of petroleum.

　　The first oil well was drilled by E.L. Drake, a retired railroad conductor. In 1859 he began drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The whole venture seemed so impractical and foolish that onlookers called it “Drake’s Folly”. But when he had drilled down about 70 feet***21 meters***, Drake struck oil. His well began to yield 20 barrels of crude oil a day.

　　News of Drake’s success brought oil prospectors to the scene. By the early 1860’s these wildcatters were drilling for “black gold” all over western Pennsylvania. The boom rivaled the California gold rush of 1848 in its excitement and Wild West atmosphere. And it brought far more wealth to the prospectors than any gold rush.

　　Crude oil could be refined into many products. For some years kerosene continued to be the principal one. It was sold in grocery stores and door-to-door. In the 1880’s refiners learned how to make other petroleum products such as waxes and lubricating oils. Petroleum was not then used to make gasoline or heating oil.

　　煉油

　　一種重要的新興工業--煉油業在國內戰爭後成長起來。未加工的石油，或原油--一種深色的地下的稠漿--數百年來一直為大眾所知，但是人們卻很少使用過它。在十九世紀五十年代，薩繆爾M科爾，賓西法尼亞西部的一位製造商，開始從當地的溢位物中收集石油並將它煉成煤油。與冶煉礦石一樣，石油提煉是一個從未加工的原料中除去雜質的過程。

　　煤油被用來點燈。它是鯨油的一種便宜的替代品，而鯨油正變得越來越難以獲得。不久就產生了對煤油的大量需求。人們開始尋找新的石油供應。

　　第一口油井為EL瑞克，一個退休的火車檢票員所鑽得。1859年他開始在賓西法尼亞的泰特斯維爾鑽井。整個的這項冒險事業看起來是如此不現實和愚蠢以致旁觀者稱之為"鴨子的蠢行"。***譯者注：Drake'sFolly,drake在這裡意含雙關，即指瑞克的名字，又指該詞的本義即鴨子。*** 但當瑞克往下鑽至70英尺***21米***的時候，他發現了石油。他的油井從此每天生產20桶原油。

　　瑞克成功的訊息將石油勘探者們吸引到現場。截止到19世紀60年代早期，這些冒險者為尋找"黑色的金子"鑽探遍了整個賓西法尼亞西部。這項繁榮的事業在刺激性和粗獷的西部氣氛上可與1848年的加州淘金熱相媲美，而且它為勘探者帶來了遠超過淘金潮的財富。

　　原油能被提煉成許多產品。多年以來煤油一直是主要的一種產品。它在雜貨店中出售由人挨戶推銷。19世紀八十年代煉油者們懂得了生產其它石油產品，如蠟和潤滑油。那時石油還沒有被用來製造汽油或採暖裝置用油。