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AshtonCofer_2016Y-_年轻发明家计画回收保丽龙_
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| It was just an ordinary Saturday. |
那天只是个平凡的星期六。 |
| My dad was outside mowing the lawn , my mom was upstairs folding laundry , my sister was in her room doing homework and I was in the basement playing video games. |
我爸在外面除草, 我妈在楼上折衣服, 我姊在她房间写作業, 我在地下室打电动。 |
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mowing:v.刈;割;修剪;(mow的现在分词) lawn:n.草地;草坪; laundry:n.洗衣店,洗衣房;要洗的衣服;洗熨;洗好的衣服;
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| And as I came upstairs to get something to drink, |
我上楼去喝东西的时候 |
| I looked out the window and realized that there was something that I was supposed to be doing, and this is what I saw. |
看向窗外, 才意识到有件事我应该要做, 这就是我看到的。 |
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supposed:adj.误信的;所谓的;v.认为;假设;设想;(suppose的过去分词和过去式)
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| No, this wasn't my family's dinner on fire. |
喔不,这不是我家的晚餐着火了, |
| This was my science project. |
这是我的科展计画。 |
| Flames were pouring out, smoke was in the air and it looked like our wooden deck was about to catch fire . |
火焰滚滚冒出, 烟散在空气中, 看起来就像 我家的木头露台快着火了。 |
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pouring:v.倾倒;倾泻;连续流出;倒出;喷发;(pour的现在分词) wooden:adj.木制的;木头的;木头似的;死板的 deck:n.甲板;舱面;层面;一副(为52张);v.装饰;打扮;布置;用力击倒; was about to:眼看就要;即将;正要;行将; catch fire:着火;
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| I immediately started yelling. |
我马上开始大叫。 |
| My mom was freaking out, my dad ran around to put out the fire and of course my sister started recording a Snapchat video. |
我妈快疯了, 我爸为了灭火跑来跑去, 当然我姊也开始用 Snapchat录影做记录。 |
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freaking:adj.该死的,他妈的;v.(使)强烈反应,畏惧;(freak的现在分词)
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| This was just the beginning of my team's science project. |
这是我的小组一开始的科展计画。 |
| My team is composed of me and three other students who are here in the audience today. |
小组有我和另外三个学生, 他们今天也都在观众席。 |
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composed:adj.由…组成的; v.组成; (compose的过去分词和过去式)
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| We competed in FIRST LEGO League which is an international |
我们参加过 FIRST 乐高联赛, 那是专设给儿童的 |
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competed:v.竞争,对抗(compete的过去分词); LEGO:n.乐高积木(商标名); League:n.联赛;联盟;协会;种类;v.(使)结盟;(使)联合[团结];一鼻孔出气;组成联盟;
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| LEGO robotics competition for kids, and in addition to a robotics game, we also worked on a separate science project, and this was the project that we were working on. |
世界级乐高机器人比赛, 而且除了机器人比赛, 我们也做了另一个科学实验, 这就是我们一直在做的计画。 |
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robotics:n.机器人学; competition:n.竞争;比赛,竞赛; in addition to:除…之外;
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| So the idea for this project all started when a few months earlier, a couple of my teammates took a trip to Central America and saw beaches littered with Styrofoam , or expanded polystyrene foam. |
这个计画的点子 是在那之前几个月前开始, 我的几个组员到中美洲去玩, 看到海滩上到处是保丽龙, 或是其他聚苯乙烯塑料。 |
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Central America:n.中美洲(包括危地马拉、伯利兹、洪都拉斯、萨尔瓦多、尼加拉瓜、哥斯达黎加以及巴拿马); Styrofoam:n.泡沫聚苯乙烯; expanded:adj.扩充的;展开的;vt.扩大(expand的过去式); polystyrene:n.[高分子]聚苯乙烯;
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| And when they came back and told us about it, we really started thinking about the ways in which we see Styrofoam every day. |
他们回来之后告诉我这件事, 我们就开始去想 日常生活中看到的保丽龙, |
| Get a new flat-screen TV? |
收到一台新的平板电视吗？ |
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flat-screen:adj.(电视或电脑显示器)平面的;n.平面银幕;
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| You end up with a block of Styrofoam bigger than the TV itself. |
你收到的保丽龙会比那台电视大。 |
| Drink a cup of coffee? |
喝咖啡吗？ |
| Well, those Styrofoam coffee cups are sure going to add up. |
嗯,保丽龙咖啡杯 当然会越积越多。 |
| And where do all these items go after their one-time use? |
这些东西被用过一次之后 会跑哪去？ |
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items:n.项目;一件商品(或物品);一则,一条(新闻)(item的复数) one-time:adj.以前的;古时的;adv.一度(等于onetime);从前;
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| Since there aren't any good existing solutions for used Styrofoam, almost all of them end up right in the landfill , or the oceans and beaches, taking over 500 years to degrade . |
既然目前没有处理 废弃保丽龙的好方式, 几乎所有保丽龙 最后都会直接到掩埋场, 或是海洋里、沙滩上, 要花超过五百年时间分解。 |
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landfill:n.垃圾填埋地;垃圾堆; degrade:v.降低…身份;使受屈辱;(使)退化,降解;分解;降低;
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| And in fact, every year, the US alone produces over two billion pounds of Styrofoam, filling up a staggering 25 percent of landfills . |
而且事实上,光是美国一整年 就生产 20 亿磅的保丽龙, 足足可以填满 25% 的掩埋场。 |
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staggering:adj.惊人的; v.蹒跚; (stagger的现在分词) landfills:n.废物填埋地(或场);废物填埋;填埋的废物;(landfill的复数)
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| So why do we have these ghost accumulations of Styrofoam waste? |
为什么我们会有这些幽灵 囤积废弃的保丽龙？ |
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ghost:n.鬼,幽灵;v.作祟于;替…捉刀;为人代笔; accumulations:n.积聚,累积;堆积物;
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| Why can't we just recycle them like many plastics? |
为什么不能像很多塑胶一样 回收保丽龙？ |
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recycle:v.回收利用;再利用;
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| Well, simply put, recycled polystyrene is too expensive and potentially contaminated ,so there is very little market demand for Styrofoam that has to be recycled. |
简而言之,回收保丽龙太贵, 而且保丽龙本身有可能受汙染, 所以回收保丽龙的市场需求非常小。 |
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recycled:n.再生纸;回收站;adj.[环境]回收利用的;可循环再造的; potentially:adv.可能地,潜在地; contaminated:v.污染;玷污,毒害(人的思想或品德);(contaminate的过去分词和过去式)
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| And as a result , Styrofoam is considered a nonrenewable material, because it is neither feasible nor viable to recycle polystyrene. |
结果是保丽龙被当成是 非再生材料, 因为回收保丽龙既不可行也不可能。 |
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as a result:结果; nonrenewable:adj.不可再生的;不可更新的; feasible:adj.可行的;可能的;可实行的; viable:adj.可行的;能养活的;能生育的;
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| And in fact, many cities across the US have even passed ordinances that simply ban the production of many products containing polystyrene, which includes disposable utensils , packing peanuts , takeout containers and even plastic beach toys, all products that are very useful in today's society. |
事实上很多美国城市 甚至已经通过法令 禁止很多含有聚苯乙烯的产品生产, 包括了免洗餐具、 填充用的保丽龙球、外带餐盒, 甚至是塑胶制的海滩玩具, 所有产品在当代社会都很实用。 |
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ordinances:n.[管理]条例;[法]法令(ordinance的复数); ban:v.下令禁止;查禁;n.禁令; disposable:adj.可任意处理的;可自由使用的;用完即可丢弃的; utensils:n.餐具;[轻]器具;炊具(utensil的复数); peanuts:花生(peanut的复数) takeout:n.外卖;(桥牌中)示意搭档改叫的叫牌;adj.外卖的,供顾客带出外吃的;
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| And now France has become the first country to completely ban all plastic utensils, cups and plates. |
现在法国也成为第一个 完全禁止塑胶餐具 和杯盘的国家。 |
| But what if we could keep using Styrofoam and keep benefiting from its cheap, lightweight , insulating and excellent packing ability, while not having to suffer from the repercussions of having to dispose of it? |
但有没有可能我们可以继续用保丽龙, 保有它便宜、轻量、绝缘 和绝佳的包装特性, 而不必苦于必须丢弃的下场？ |
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what if:如果…怎么办? lightweight:n.轻量级选手;无足轻重的人;adj.重量轻的;平均重量以下的; insulating:adj.起隔热(或隔音、绝缘)作用的; v.使免除; (insulate的现在分词) repercussions:n.反响,影响(repercussion的复数形式); dispose:v.布置;安排;排列;使倾向于;
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| What if we could turn it into something else that's actually useful? |
我们有没有可能 把它变成有用的东西？ |
| What if we could make the impossible possible? |
我们有没有可能,让不可能变成可能？ |
| My team hypothesized that we could use the carbon that's already in Styrofoam to create activated carbon, which is used in almost every water filter today. |
我的小组假设我们能 用存在保丽龙里的碳 制造活性碳, 现在过滤水都用这个。 |
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hypothesized:v.假定,假设,猜测(hypothesize的过去式); carbon:n.[化学]碳;碳棒;复写纸;adj.碳的;碳处理的; activated:v.使活动;激活;使活化;(activate的过去式和过去分词)
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| And activated carbon works by using very small micropores to filter out contaminants from water or even air. |
而且活性碳用非常小的微孔 过滤出水,甚至是空气中的汙染物。 |
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contaminants:n.[环境]污染物;污垢物(contaminant的复数);
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| So we started out by doing a variety of heating tests, and unfortunately , we had many failures. |
所以我们开始各种加热测试, 不幸的是我们失败很多次。 |
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variety:n.多样;种类;杂耍;变化,多样化; unfortunately:adv.不幸地;
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| Literally , nothing worked. |
说真的,没有成功过。 |
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Literally:adv.按字面:字面上:确实地:
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| Besides my dad's grill catching on fire, most of our samples vaporized into nothing, or exploded inside expensive furnaces , leaving a horribly sticky mess . |
除了我爸的烤肉架着火, 我们大部分的样品也都人间蒸发, 或是在昂贵的火炉里爆炸, 留下一团黏黏的东西。 |
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Besides:adv.此外;而且;prep.除…之外; grill:n.烤架;一盘烧烤食物;烤肉餐馆;vt.烧烤;审问;责问; vaporized:汽化了的; exploded:adj.分解的; v.爆炸; (explode的过去分词和过去式) furnaces:n.炉子,[炉窑]熔炉(furnace复数形式); horribly:adv.可怕地;让人吃惊 sticky:adj.粘的;粘性的; mess:n.混乱;餐厅;杂乱;肮脏;v.使不整洁;弄脏;弄乱;随地便溺;
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| In fact, we were so saddened by our failures that we almost gave up. |
其实我们大受失败打击 到几乎想要放弃。 |
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saddened:v.使…悲伤;使…黯然(sadden的过去分词);adj.悲伤的;惨然的;
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| So why did we keep trying when all the adults said it was impossible? |
那为什么我们还继续试, 即使所有大人 都跟我们说不可能？ |
| Well, maybe it's because we're kids. |
嗯,可能因为我们是小孩, |
| We don't know any better. |
我们什么也不懂。 |
| But the truth is, we kept trying because we thought it was still possible. |
但真相是我们继续尝试 是因为我们认为还有可能。 |
| We knew that if we were successful, we would be helping the environment and making the world a better place. |
我们知道如果成功, 就可以幫助环境、 让地球变成更好的地方。 |
| So we kept trying and failing and trying and failing. |
所以我们继续尝试、 继续失败、 继续尝试、 继续失败。 |
| We were so ready to give up. |
我们都已经准备好要放弃了。 |
| But then it happened. |
但后来成功了。 |
| With the right temperatures,times and chemicals , we finally got that successful test result showing us that we had created activated carbon from Styrofoam waste. |
有了对的温度、时间和化学物质, 我们终于测试成功, 看到废弃保丽龙变成活性碳。 |
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chemicals:n.化学制品;化学品;(chemical的复数) finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地;
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| And at that moment, the thing that had been impossible all of a sudden wasn't. |
在那当下, 那个一直以来不可能的事情 瞬间都变可能了。 |
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all of a sudden:突然地,出乎意料地;
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| It showed us that although we had many failures at the beginning , we were able to persevere through them to get the test results that we wanted. |
我们看见虽然一开始失败很多次, 我们还是坚持到底, 从中得到想要的结果。 |
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at the beginning:首先;从一开始;起初;从头开始; persevere:vi.坚持;不屈不挠;固执己见(在辩论中);
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| And moreover , not only were we able to create activated carbon for purifying water, but we were also able to reduce Styrofoam waste, solving two global problems with just one solution . |
而且,不只是我们可以制造活性碳 来过滤水, 我们还可以减少废弃保丽龙, 只用一个方法 解决全球的两个麻烦。 |
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moreover:adv.而且;此外; purifying:n.净化;精制;v.使纯净;精炼(purify的ing形式); global:adj.全球的;总体的;球形的; solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答;
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| So from then on , we were inspired to take our project further, performing more tests to make it more effective and testing it in real world situations. |
从那之后,我们受到鼓舞, 让计画更进一步 做更多测试,让它更有效益, 并用在真实生活之中。 |
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from then on:从那时起 inspired:adj.受到启发的; v.鼓舞; (inspire的过去分词和过去式) performing:adj.表演的;演奏的;v.做;执行;演出;运转(perform的现在分词) effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象;
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| We then proceeded to receive funding from the NSTA's eCYBERMISSION |
我们开始收到资金, 来自全美科学教师协会的 |
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proceeded:v.继续做;接着做;继而做;行进;前往;(proceed的过去分词和过去式) funding:n.基金;资金;提供资金;v.为…提供资金;拨款给;(fund的现在分词)
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| STEM-in-Action program sponsored by the US Army, as well as FIRST Global Innovation Awards sponsored by XPRIZE. |
E 网路科学竞赛 STEM 行动计画, 由美军赞助, 以及第一全球创新奖, 由 XPRIZE 基金会赞助。 |
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sponsored:adj.(活动或比赛)为慈善筹款而举办的; v.赞助(活动、节目等); (sponsor的过去式和过去分词) as well as:也;和…一样;不但…而且; Innovation:n.创新,革新;新方法;
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| And we were also honored with the Scientific American |
我们也很榮幸 得到美国科学创新奖, |
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Scientific:adj.科学的,系统的;
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| Innovator Award from Google Science Fair. |
由 Google 科学展颁发。 |
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Innovator:n.改革者,创新者; Google:谷歌;谷歌搜索引擎;
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| And using these funds , we plan to file a full patent on our process and to continue to work on our project. |
运用这些资金,我们预计为 这个程序申请完全专利, 并继续我们的计画。 |
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funds:n.[会计]资金,现金(fund的复数);基金;v.资助(fund的三单形式);提供资金; patent:vt.授予专利; adj.专利的; n.专利权; process:v.处理;加工;列队行进;n.过程,进行;方法,adj.经过特殊加工(或处理)的;
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| So yes, although we started with catching my dad's grill on fire and failing so many times that we almost quit , it was well worth it when we look back at it now. |
没错,虽然我们 是从烧了我爸的烤架开始, 而且失败无数次到几乎要放弃, 现在回头看都还是觉得非常值得, |
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quit:v.离开;放弃;停止;使…解除;n.离开;[计]退出;adj.摆脱了…的;已经了结的;
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| We took a problem that many people said was impossible and we made it possible, and we persevered when it looked like nothing that we did would work. |
我们把每个人都认为 不可能解决的麻烦 变成可能, 我们坚持到底, 即使我们做的事看起来毫无希望。 |
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persevered:vi.坚持;不屈不挠;固执己见(在辩论中);
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| We learned that you can't have success without a little, or a lot, of failure. |
我们学到了你不可能成功, 却没经历过一些 或是非常多失败。 |
| So in the future, don't be afraid if your grill goes up in flames, because you never know when your idea might just catch fire. |
所以未来你的烤架着火时, 不要害怕, 因为你永远不知道 你的点子什么时候可能点燃。 |
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you never know:(非正式)很难说,不可预知;
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| Thank you. |
谢谢。 |
| (Applause) |
（掌声） |