Lesson 35 Getting up Steam
第35课 蒸汽往上冒!
Do you want to know what steam is? Let us get a lump of ice, or a snow-ball, and place it in a saucer in a warm room. It soon melts, and then the saucer is half full of water. If we leave the saucer in the warm room for a few hours, we shall find that it has become quite empty.
小朋友,你想知道蒸汽是什么东西吗?咱们拿一块冰或者一个雪球,放在一个碟子里,放到温暖的房间里。冰雪很快就会熔化,碟子里会盛上半碟子水。要是把碟子留在温暖的房间里几个小时,里面就会空了。
The ice or snow was solid water. The heat changed it into liquid water, such as we drink. And then, by more heat, the liquid water was changed into water-vapour, which mixed with the air and was lost to our sight.
冰和雪都是“固态”水。热量让固态水变成了“液态”水,就是我们喝的水。然后,如果再加热,液态水就会变成“水蒸气”,水蒸气和空气混在一起,我们就看不见了。
This shows that water can exist in three forms—first, as the solid we call ice or snow; second, as the liquid water we drink; and third, as the gas we call water-vapour.
这说明,水的存在形态有三种——第一种,我们叫做冰雪的“固态”;第二种,我们喝的“液态”;第三种,我们叫水蒸气的“气态”。
If we put the liquid water into a little sauce-pan on the fire, the heat of the fire will change it into vapour in a few minutes. Vapour made by the boiling of water is called steam.
要是我们把液态水倒进汤锅,放在火上煮,火焰的热量,只要几分钟,就能把液态水变成水蒸气。水开了散发出来的水蒸气,就是三点水的“蒸汽”。
Now hold a tea-spoon, or something cold, in the steam as it rises. In a moment the spoon will be covered with little beads of water. The cold spoon has turned the steam back into water. Heat turns water into steam; cold turns steam into water again.
拿一把茶匙或者别的冷东西,放在往上冒的蒸汽里面。马上,茶匙就会盖上一层小水珠。冷的茶匙又把蒸汽变回了水。热可以把水变成蒸汽,冷又能把蒸汽变回水。
Suppose we were to put some water into a kettle, and then close up its spout, fasten down its lid, and put it over a hot fire, what do you think would happen?
假如,我们把水倒进水壶,堵住壶嘴,封死了壶盖,再放在火上烧,会发生什么事?