Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes

     Americans often say that there are only two things a person can be sure of in life: death and taxes. Americans do not have a corner on the "death" market, but many people feel that the United States leads the world with the worst taxes.

     Taxes consist of the money which people pay to support their government. There are generally three levels of government in the United States: federal, state, and city; therefore, there are three types of taxes.

     Salaried people who earn more than a few thousand dollars must pay a certain percentage of their salaries to the federal government. The percentage varies from person to person. It depends on their salaries. The federal government has a graduated income tax, that is, the percentage of the tax (14 to 70 percent) increases as a person's income increases. With the high cost of taxes, people are not very happy on April 15, when the federal taxes are due.

     The second tax is for the state government: New York, California, North Dakota, or any of the other forty-seven states. Some states have an income tax similar to that of the federal government. Of course, the percentage for the state tax is lower. Other states have a sales tax, which is a percentage charged to any item which you buy in that state. For example, a person might want to buy a packet of cigarettes for twenty-five cents. If there is a sales tax of eight percent is that state, when the cost of the cigarettes is twenty-seven cents. This figure includes the sales tax. Some states use income tax in addition to sales tax to raise their revenues. They state tax laws are diverse and confusing.

     The third tax is for the city. This tax comes in two forms: property tax (people who own a home have to pay taxes on it) and excise tax, which is charged on cars in a city. The cities use these funds for education, police and fire departments, public words and municipal buildings.

     Since Americans pay such high taxes, they often feel that they are wording one day each week just to pay their taxes. People always complain about taxes. They often protest that the government uses their tax dollars in the wrong way. They way that it spends too much on useless and impractical programs. Although Americans have different views on many issues, they tend to agree on one subject: taxes are too high.

萬稅，萬稅，萬萬稅    

     美國人常說凡是一個人一生中有兩件事是肯定的：一是必有一死，一是必須納稅。雖然美國人並沒有壟斷了世界"死亡殯葬業"的市場，但是美國確以最苛重的賦稅在世界上獨佔鰲頭。

     稅就是人民為了支持政府工作所交納的錢。在美國大體上有三級政府：聯邦政府、州政府和市政府。因此，徵稅也有三種。

     凡是年薪收在兩三千美元以上的人，必須按年薪的一定百分比向聯邦政府納稅。這百分比的多少，人與人是不同的。這取決於年薪大小。聯邦政府徵收累進所得稅，也就是說，隨著個人收的增長，徵稅的百分比率（百分之十到百分之七十）也在增長。由於徵稅數額高，在聯邦政府收稅日，即在四月十五日，那人們心情都不愉快。

     第二級徵稅的機構是州政府：紐約州，加里福尼亞州，北達科他州或另外的四十七個州。有些州徵收所得稅，這跟聯邦政府征的所得稅類似。還有些州徵收銷售稅，這按你在該州所購買的任何一件物品的價格的一定的百分比率來徵收。例如，某人想買25美分一包的紙煙，如果該州的銷售稅徵收率是物價的百分之八，那麼這包紙煙的實價就是27美分，這個數字裡面就包括了銷售稅。有些州除了徵收所得稅，還要加征銷售稅，以提高州政府的每年的收入。各州的銷售稅法顯然是很不相同的，也很混亂。

     第三級徵稅的機構是市政府。市政府徵收的有兩種稅：財產稅（凡擁有房產的人必須交納財產稅）和消費稅（這是對市內行馳的小汽車征的稅）。這些稅收資金用於教育、員警、消防等部門及公共設施和市政建設。

     由於美國人都要交納數額很高的各種稅款，所以他們都常常認為每週必須有一天資是為了納稅去工作。人們老是抱怨這些稅收。他們經常抗議說，政府對他們交納的稅金使用不當。雖然美國人民在許多問題上持不同觀點，但是在這個話題上卻傾向一致：賦稅太重了。

Advertising
登廣告

     Advertising is only part of the total sales effort ,but it is the part that attracts the most attention. This is natural enough because advertising is designed for just that purpose. In newspapers, in mail, on radio and television, we constantly see and hear the messages for hundreds of different products and services. For the most part, they are the kinds of things that we can be persuaded to buy - food and drinks, cars and television sets, furniture and clothing, travel and leisure time activities.
     The simplest kind of advertising is the classified ad. Every day the newspapers carry a few pages of these ads; in the large Sunday editions there may be several sections of them. A classified ad is usually only a few lines long. It is really a notice or announcement that something is available.
     Newspapers also carry a large amount of display advertising. Most of it is for stores or for various forms of entertainment. Newspapers generally reach an audience only in a limited area. To bring their message to a larger audience, many who want to put out their ads use national magazines. Many of the techniques of modern advertising were developed in magazine ads. The use of bright colors, attractive pictures, and short messages is all characteristic of magazine ads. The most important purpose is to catch the eye. The message it self is usually short, often no more than a slogan which the public identifies with the product.
     The same techniques have been carried over into television advertising. Voices and music have been added to color and pictures to catch the ear as well as the eye. Television ads are shore -usually only 15,30,or 60seconds, but they are repeated over and over again so that the audience sees and hears them many times. Commercial television has mixed entertainment and advertising. 

Advertising
登廣告

      登廣告僅僅是整個促銷活動的一部分，但卻是最能吸引人們注意的一部分，這是十分自然的。因為設計出某一廣告正是為了達到這一目的。我們在報刊雜誌上和郵件上，在收音機裡和電視裡，會不斷地看到或聽到數以百計的不同的產品和服務專案的資訊。其中絕大部分都是那種要勸我們去購買食物和飲料、汽車和電視機、家俱和衣著，去參加旅遊和業餘活動的資訊。
     最簡單的一種廣告就是分類廣告。每天各種報紙都刊登有幾頁這種分類廣告。每逢星期天的擴大版上可能有好幾大類的分類廣告。每一則分類廣告的長度通常只有三兩行，這實際上就是通知某種東西或某種服務現在已經有了。
     報紙上也刊登大量圖文並用的廣告。其中絕大部分是為商店或各種娛樂活動而刊登的。報紙只能涉及到在一定地區內的讀者。為了把資訊傳達到更多的讀者，很多想刊登廣告的人都利用全國性的雜誌。在雜誌上刊登的各類廣告中運用了許多現代製作廣告的技巧。雜誌廣告的特徵是善於運用鮮豔的色彩，迷人的圖片和短小精闢的詞句，一般只有一條標語口號，要讓人民大眾認為這句口號與你宣傳的產品是等同的。
     同樣的技巧也被應用到電視廣告當中。廣告賞的聲音和伴奏的音樂再加上鮮豔的色彩和畫面既能吸引人們來看也能吸引人們來聽。電視廣告反復再三重播，以便讓觀眾和聽眾多次看多次聽。商業電視廣告把娛樂和廣告內容融為一體。

The Atlantic Ocean

    The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americas from being discovered by the people of Europe.

     It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000 km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) wide. This narrowest place is between the bulge of south America and the bulge of Africa.

     Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few islands. Also, it is the world's saltiest ocean.

     There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers. It would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average the water is a little more than two miles (3.2 km) deep, but in places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This "deep" measures 30,246 feet-almost six miles (9.6 km).

     One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises from the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands. The Azores are the tops of peaks in the mid-Atlantic mountain range.

     Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels the crew were afraid they would be becalmed here. Sometimes they were.

     Ocean currents are sometimes called "rivers in the sea." One of these "rivers" in the Atlantic is called the Gulf Stream. It is a current of warm water. Another is at he Labrador Current - cold water coming down from the Arctic. Ocean currents affect the climates of the lands near which they flow.

     The Atlantic furnishes much food for the people on its shores. One of its most famous fishing regions, the Grand Banks, is near New-foundland.

     Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is not, however, always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.

     We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!

大西洋

     大西洋是把亞、歐、非這個舊世界與南北美洲這個新發現的世界相隔開的一片大灃。若干世紀以來由於有大西洋相隔，使歐洲人一直沒能發現南北美洲。

     在哥倫布橫渡大西洋的地方，洋面寬達4000多英里（6000公里）。即使在洋面最窄的地方寬度也約有2000英里（3200公里）。這洋面最窄的地方就是介於南美洲的突出點和非洲的突出點之間。

     有兩點使大西洋非同一般。一是，這麼大的一片汪洋，裡面幾乎沒有島嶼。二是，這裡是世界上海水最咸的大洋。

     大西洋裡有很多很多的海水，以致很難讓人想像出來到底有多少海水。假如現在就不再有雨水落進大西洋，假如一切河流的水現在也都不往大西洋裡面流，那麼大西洋大約再過4000年就會乾涸。大西洋平均水深稍微超過兩英里（合3.2公里），不過有些地方卻更深得多，最深的地方是在波多黎各附近。這裡水深達30246英尺--，幾乎是6英里（9。6公里）。

     世界上最長的山脈之一就是從大西洋的洋底升起來的。這條山脈在大洋中間，是南北走向的。山脈的幾處頂峰向上突出了海平面就形成了島嶼。亞速爾群島就是中部大西洋山脈的幾座山峰的尖端。

     從佛羅里達半島往東幾百英里，大洋的那一小部分水域被稱為馬尾藻海。這裡海面平靜，因為幾乎沒有風。在使用帆船的那些年代裡，船員們都害怕船走到那裡就會原地不能動了。有時也真的是這樣。

     大洋裡的海水流動有時被稱為"海洋中的洋流"。大西洋中這些潮流之一稱為墨西哥灣流。這是一股暖水流。另一股是拉布拉多灣流--從北冰洋下來的一股寒水流。這些海洋潮流影響著所流經過的附近的陸地的氣候。

     大西洋為岸邊的居民提供了豐富的食物。可是，它並不總是平穩安全的航道。暴風雨會橫掃過大西洋向上掀起層層巨浪。像冰山一樣巨型浮冰塊會從北冰洋向南漂浮下來橫著阻擋住海船的條條航道。

     現在我們有很多非常快速的方法到國外旅行，以致這個大西洋使我們覺得比以前小多了。哥倫布用了兩個多月才橫渡了大西洋。現在用現代的快輪用不了四天就能完成這段航程。飛機從紐約飛到倫敦只用八個小時，而從南美洲飛到非洲只用四個小時就行了。

The Moon

     We find that the moon is about 239,000 miles (384,551 km) away from the earth, and, to within a few thousand miles, its distance always remains the same. Yet a very little observation shows that the moon is not standing till. Its distance from the earth remains the same, but its direction continually changes. We find that it is traveling in a circle - or very nearly a circle - round the earth, going completely round once a month, or, more exactly, once very 27 1/3 days. It is our nearest neighbour in space, and like ourselves it is kept tied to the earth by the earth's gravitational pull.

     Except for the sun, the moon looks the biggest object in the sky. Actually it is one of the smallest, and only looks big because it is so near to us. Its diameter is only 2,160 miles (3,389 km), or a little more than a quarter of the diameter of the earth.

     Once a month, or, more exactly, once every 29 1/2 days, at the time we call "full moon," its whole disc looks bright. At other times only part of it appears bright, and we always find that this is the part which faces towards the sun, while the part facing away from the sun appears dark. Artists could make their pictures better if they kept this in mind - only those parts of the moon which are lighted up by the sun are bright. This shows that the moon gives no light of its own. It merely reflects the light of the sun, like a huge mirror hung in the sky.

     Yet the dark part of the moon's surface is not absolutely black; generally it is just light enough for us to be able to see its outline, so that we speak of seeing "the old moon in the new moon's arms." The light by which we see the old moon does not come from the sun, but from the earth. We know well how the surface of the sea or of snow, or even of a wet road, may reflect uncomfortable much of the sun's light on to our faces. In the same way the surface of the whole earth reflects enough of the sun's light on to the face of the moon for us to be able to see the parts of it which would otherwise be dark.

     If there were any inhabitants of the moon, they would see our earth reflecting the light of the sun, again like a huge mirror hung in the sky. They would speak of earthlight just as we speak of moon-light. "the old moon in the new moon's arms" is nothing but that part of the moon's surface on which it is night, lighted up by earth light. In the same way , the lunar inhabitants would occasionally see part of our earth in full sunlight, and the rest lighted only by moon-light; they might call this "the old earth in the new earth's arms."

月球

     我们发现月球距离地球约23万9千英里（38万4千551公里）。月球与地球总保持这个距离，变化不超过两三千英里。虽然它离地球的距离仍然是那么远，但是它运转的方向却不断地在变。我们发现月球环绕地球的轨道总是圆周形--或很近似圆周形。每一个月，或者更确切些说是每27又1/3天就环绕地球转一圈。在太空中月球是我们最近的邻居。正像我们本身摆脱不了地心吸引力一样，月球也摆脱不了地球的吸引力。

     除了太阳而外，月球好像天空中最大的天体了。可是实际上它却是最小的天体之一。只是因为它距离我们太近了，所以看起来才显得大。月球的直径只有2160英里（3389公里）仅仅比地球直径的1/4稍多一点。

     每一个月或者更精确些说每29又1/2天有一次有个我们称之为"望月"的时候。这个时候整个月亮的园盘看起来很明亮。在其他一些时候，月亮的园盘只有一部分看起来觉得亮。我们总是发现这亮的部分是面向着太阳的、面背着太阳的那一部分看起来就黑暗。如果画家们能记住这一点，即只有被太阳照射得发高的那部分月球是明亮的，那他们作起画来就会画得更好。这就表明了月球本身是下发光的。月球就像悬在画龙点睛的一面巨型的大镜子一样，它只能反射出太阳光。

     但是月球表面上黑暗的部分并不上绝对黑的。一般地这一部分也能有足够的光让我们能勉强刚刚能看清月球的轮廓，这就是我们所说的"新月抱着旧月"的现象。我们用来看到旧月轮廓的光并汪是来自太阳，而是来看地球。我们都清楚地知道，海水的表面、雪地的表面，甚至下雨天的路面都会把很强的太阳光反射到我们的脸上，照得我们很不舒服。同样道理，整个地球的表面也足可以让我们看清月球的轮廓，如果没有地球的反射光，那月球的这一部分将会是黑暗的。

     假定月球上也有居民，他们就会看到，地球也像一面高悬在天空中的巨型的镜子一样，反射太阳光到月球上。"月球居民们"也会谈到地球光，正像我们地球人谈到月亮光一样。"新月抱旧月"只不过就是月球表面上正处于黑夜的那一部分被地球的反射光反照的结果。同理，月球上的居民偶尔也会看到我们地球一部分完全处在阳光的照射下，而地球的其余的部分只能照到月光；月球的居民们或许也会把这种现象称作"新地球抱着旧地球"吧。

     Psychological research has focused on a number of basic principles that help memory: meaningfulness, organization, association, and visualization. It is useful to know how these principles work.

     Meaningfulness affects memory at all levels. Information that does not make any sense to you is difficult to remember. There are several ways in which we can make material more meaningful. Many people, for instance, learn a rhyme to help them remember. Do you know the rhyme "Thirty days has September, April, June, and November… "? It helps many people remember which months of the year have 30 days.

     Organization also makes a difference in our ability to remember. How useful would a library be if the books were kept in random order? Material that is organized is better remembered than jumbled information. One example of organization is chunking. Chunking consists of grouping separate bits of information. Fox example, the number 4671363 is more easily remembered if it is chunked as 467,13,63. Categorizing is another means of organization. Suppose you are asked to remember the following list of words: man, bench, dog, desk, woman, horse, child, cat, chair. Many people will group the words into similar categories and remember them as follows: man, woman, child; cat, dog, horse; bench, chair, desk. Needless to say, the second list can be remembered more easily than the first one.

     Association refers to taking the material we want to remember and relating it to something we remember accurately. In memorizing a number, you might try to associate it with familiar numbers or events. Fox example, the height of Mount Fuji in Japan - 12,389 feet - might be remembered using the following associations: 12 is the number of months in the year, and 389 is the number of days in a year (365) added to the number of months twice (24).

     The last principle is visualization. Research has shown striking improvements in many types of memory tasks when people are asked to visualize the items to be remembered. In one study, subjects in one group were asked to learn some words using imagery, while the second group used repetition to learn the words. Those using imagery remembered 80 to 90 percent of the words, compared with 30 to 40 percent of the words for those who memorized by repetition. Thus forming an integrated image with all the information placed in a single mental picture can help us to preserve a memory.

     心理學家的研究工作已把焦點對準了增強記憶的基本方法上了，這些基本方法就是：賦予意義、資訊編組、建立聯想、直觀形象。知道支用這些方法是很有用的。

     "賦予意義"能影響暫態記憶也能影響到長期記憶。沒有任何意義的資訊要記住就比較困難。有些方法可以使要記憶的材料賦予意義。例如，有很多人利用合轍押韻的辦法來幫助記憶。你知道"一三五七八十臘，三十一天准不差，其餘月份三十天，只有二月二十八"這首順口溜幫助很多人記住了哪些月份有三十天。

     "資訊編組"對我們的記憶力也起很大作用。假如一座圖書館裡的藏書亂七八糟，沒有順序，那這座圖書館還能有處嗎？按著一定編目的材料要比雜亂無章的混亂資訊好記得多。資訊編組的典型例子就是分塊記憶。每塊記憶材料是由一些零散孤立的資訊所組成的。例如，要記住4671363這個數字，如果把它再分成三塊467，13，63，就更容易記住了。分類編組是另一種方法。假如要求你記住下列生詞：男人、凳子、狗、課桌、女人、馬、孩子、貓、椅子。很多人會把這些按詞義相近編成下列三個小類：男人、女人、孩子；貓、狗、馬；凳子、椅子、課桌。不用多說，第二種分三小類的辦法比第一種不分類的辦法更容易記住。

     "建立聯想"指的是把我們要記的材料和我們已經精確的記住的材料之間聯想起來。要記住一個數位，你可以把這一數字與你已經熟悉的數位或事情聯繫起來。例如：日本富士山的海拔高度是12，389英尺，你可以把這一數位用下列聯想方法：一年有12個月，389是一年365天再加上一年12個月乘上2（24）。

     "直觀形象"是最後一種方法。研究的結果已經表明，如果讓人們把要記憶的事物都想像出生動的直觀形象，在完成各種不同類型的記憶工作中，記憶都會產生驚人的效果。有一項調查研究：要求一組受試者使用直觀形象法來記住一些生詞，在此相對照的第二組受試者只用重複法來記住這些生詞。調查結果是，凡是能用直觀形象法記生詞的人都能記住80%-90%，在之成鮮明對比的是，凡是用機械重複法記生詞的人只能記住30%-40%。這種能形成一幅完整的形象，把所有的資訊都存放到腦海裡的一幅畫面中去的方法，有助於我們儲存記憶材料。

     There are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term. Information in long-term memory can be recalled at a later time when it is needed. The information may be kept for days or weeks. Sometimes information in the long-term memory is hard to remember. Students taking exams often have this experience. In contrast, information in short-term memory is kept for only a few seconds, usually by repeating the information over and over. For example, you look up a number in the telephone book, and before you dial, you repeat the number over and over. If someone interrupts you, you will probably forget the number. In laboratory studies, subjects are unable to remember three letters after eighteen seconds if they are not allowed to repeat the letters to themselves.
     Psychologists study memory and learning with both animal and human subjects. The two experiments here show how short-term memory has been studied.
     Dr. Hunter studied short-term memory in rats. He used a special apparatus which had a cage for the rat and three doors. There was a light in each door. First the rat was placed in the closed cage. Next, one of the lights was turned on and then off. There was food for the rat only at this door. After the light was turned off, the rat had to wait a short time before it was released form its cage. Then, if it went to the correct door, it was rewarded with the food that was there. Hunter did this experiment many times. He always turned on the lights in a random order. The rat had to wait different intervals before it was released from the cage. Hunter found that if the rat had to wait more than ten seconds, it could not remember the correct door. Hunter's results show that rats have a short-term memory of about ten seconds.
     Later, Dr. Henning studied how students who are learning English as a second language remember vocabulary. The subject in his experiment were 75 students at the University of California in Los Angeles. They represented all levels of ability in English: beginning, intermediate, advanced, and native-speaking students.
     To begin, the subjects listened to a recording of a native speaker reading a paragraph in English. Following the recording, the subjects took a 15-question test to see which words they remembered. Each question has four choices. The subjects had to circle the word they had heard in the recording. Some of the questions had four choices that sound alike. For example, weather, whether, wither, and wetter are four words that sound alike. Some of the questions had four choices that have the same meaning. Method, way, manner, and system would be four words with the same meaning. Some of them had four unrelated choices. For instance, weather, method, love, and result could be used as four unrelated words. Finally the subjects took a language proficiency test.
     Henning found that students with a lower proficiency in English made more of their mistakes on words that sound alike; students with a higher proficiency made more of their mistakes on words that have the same meaning. Henning's results suggest that beginning students hold the sound of words in their short-term memory, while advanced students hold the meaning of words in their short-term memory.     

     有兩種記憶：短時記憶和長時記憶。處於長期記憶中的資訊，在後來需要的時候能夠回想起來。這一資訊可以保持數天或數周。有時處於長時記憶中的資訊很難記起。參加考試的學生經常會有這種經歷。反之，短時記憶中的資訊只能保持三兩秒鐘，通常還得再三複習這一資訊。例如，你在一本電話號碼簿中查到一個號碼，在你還沒撥號之前，你得再三複習這一號碼。如果這時有人打擾了你，你也許會把這個電話號碼忘了。通過實驗研究表明，如果不准被測試的人複習，那麼十八秒以後，被測試的人連三個字母都記不住。

     心理學家們以動物和人這二者做測試物件分別研究了記憶和學習的情況。這裡這兩類試驗都表明了研究短時記憶的情況。

     亨特博士研究了大老鼠的短時記憶。他用了一種特殊裝置，這種裝置上有個鼠籠和三扇門。每扇門上都有一盞燈。首先，把大老鼠放到一個關著的鼠籠裡。接著，把其中一盞燈打開然後再關上。只有在這扇門那裡才有給老鼠吃的東西。在把燈關掉以後，必須讓這個老鼠等候一段短時期，這才把它從鼠籠中放出去。接下來，如果這個老鼠走對了門，那麼，門那裡擺著的食物就是對他的獎賞。亨特博士多次做過這種實驗。他總是沒有按固定順序隨便打開任何一盞燈。讓老鼠等候的時間間隔也完全不同，然後才把大老鼠從鼠籠中放出去。亨特博士發現，如果老鼠必須等候10秒鐘以上才放出，那它就記不住哪扇門是正確的。亨特博士實驗的結果表明大老鼠能有大約10秒鐘的短期記憶。

     後來，享尼希博士研究了那些把英語作為第二種語言來學習的人，是怎樣記生詞的。他實驗的對象是洛杉磯加州大學的75名學生。他們都是各種程度的英語學生中的代表人物：初級的、中級的、高級和以英語為母語的學生。

     開頭，先讓受試者們聽一段以英語為母語的人所朗讀的一小段英文文章的錄音。聽了錄音以後接著讓受試者參加一次共15個問題的考試，看看他們都記住了哪些生詞。每個問題有四個選擇項。受試者必須圈出他們在錄音中所聽到的單詞。每個問題有四個選擇項聽起來很像是一樣的。例如：weather天氣，whether是否，wither枯萎，wetter潤濕劑。有些問題的選擇項的意義像是一樣的：method,way,manner和system.有些問題的四個選擇項之間沒有任何關連：weather,method,love和result.最後，受試者們都參加一次語言熟練程度的測試。

     享尼希博士發現，凡是英語熟練程度低的學生多在聲音相似的單詞中會弄錯；凡是英語熟練程度高的學生多在意義相似的詞彙上會出錯。享尼希的實驗結果表明：初學者能把單詞的聲音保持短期記憶。享尼希的實驗結果表明：初學者能把單詞的聲音保持短期記憶，而程度高的學生能把詞彙的意義保持短期記憶。

     Diamonds are rare, beautiful, and also quite useful. They are the hardest substance found in nature. That means a diamond can cut any other surface. And only another diamond can make a slight cut in a diamond.

     Diamonds are made from carbon. Carbon is found in all living things, both plant and animal. Much of the carbon in the earth comes from things that once lived.

     Scientists know that the combination of extreme heat and pressure changes carbon into diamonds. Such heat and pressure exist only in the hot, liquid mass of molten rock deep inside the earth. It is thought that millions of years ago this liquid mass pushed upward through cracks in the earth's crust. As the liquid cooled, the carbon charged into diamond crystals.

     There are only four areas where very many diamonds have been found.

     The first known area was in India, where diamonds were found thousands of years ago. In the 1600's, travelers from Europe brought back these beautiful stones from India. Diamonds became very popular with the kings and queens of Europe.

     In the 1720's, diamonds were discovered in Brazil. This discovery came at a good time, too. India's supply of diamonds was finally running out after 2,500 years of mining the stones.

     In the 1800's, two other important areas were found in Russia and South Africa. Today, most diamonds used in industry come from Russia. Most diamonds used as gems come from South Africa. Only 25 percent of all diamonds mined are good enough for cutting into gems.

     Most of the diamonds in India were found in stream beds. People would pick up handfuls of gravel from the bottom of the streams and sort out the diamonds. These diamonds were probably carried from where they were formed to India by great sheets of moving ice that covered parts of the earth 20,000 years ago.

     Most diamonds today are not found in stream beds, however. They are mined from rock formations deep inside the earth called pipes. Scientists believe that these are parts of volcanoes that were formed when molten rock pushed upward through the earth's crust. The hand rock in which diamonds are found is called blue ground.

     鑽石既珍貴稀缺，又美麗晶瑩，也用途很廣。鑽石是自然界裡最堅硬的物質。這就意味著鑽石能劃破任何物體的表面。只有另一塊鑽石才能在一塊鑽石上留下輕微的劃痕。

     鑽石（金剛石）由純碳所組成。在一切生物中，包括動物和植物，都含有碳。地球上的絕大部分碳都是來自從前的生物。

     科學家們都知道，只有在極高的高溫和高壓這兩個條件結合起來的情況下，才能把碳轉化成金剛石（鑽石）。這種極其高的高溫和高壓只有在地球內部深處，溶化了的岩石成極熱的液體狀態下才能存在。據認為在數百萬年以前，這種液態的物質冷卻以後，純碳就變成了鑽石結晶。

     在全世界只有四個地區發現有大量的鑽石：

     第一個著名產區就是印度，這裡在成千上萬年前就發現有鑽石。在17世紀從歐洲到印度來的旅行者們從印度帶回去一些美麗的寶石，於是鑽石就成了歐洲各國的國王和王后們最珍愛的寶物了。

     到了18世紀20年代在巴西發現了鑽石，這一發現恰逢其時。因為印度的寶石經過了2500多年的開採，采到最後已經快被採光了。

     到了19世紀，在俄國和南非也發現了兩個重要的鑽研礦區。今天大部分工業用金剛石都產自俄國。作珍寶裝飾用的絕大部分鑽石都產自南非。在開採出來的鑽石總數當中只有25%的鑽石，品級夠得上可以打磨成珍寶。

     印度的鑽石絕大部分是在河床中發現的。眾都是從河床底上捧起一大把一大把的礫石，然後從中挑揀出鑽石來。這些鑽石很可能在兩萬年前，整個地球各地都被大片大片的冰川所覆蓋著的時期，從鑽石生盛典的地方順著冰川流到印度來的。

     可是，今天絕大多數的鑽石都不是在河床上找到的；今天的鑽石都是從地球內部很深的地方，從被稱為岩筒的管狀礦脈的礦井中開採出來的。專家們認為這些岩筒都是火山的一部分，是在溶岩從地殼的裂縫中擠壓到上面來的時候形成的。裡面含有鑽石的堅硬的礦石叫藍脈礦。