2 Chapter 1 Always Curious

Chapter 1 Always Curious Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, on a cold snowy night in Milan, Ohio. His parents, Nancy and Samuel, named him Thomas after his great-uncle and Alva after Captain Alva Bradley, a good friend of his father. The family didn't call him Tom or Tommy. They called him Al.

1847年2月11日，一个寒冷的雪夜，托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生出生在俄亥俄州米兰市。 他的父母南希和塞缪尔给他取名叫托马斯，以他叔父的名字命名，阿尔瓦以他父亲的好朋友阿尔瓦·布拉德利上尉的名字命名。 家里人不叫他汤姆或汤米。 他们叫他艾尔。

Little Al wanted to find out everything about the world around him. He went about it like a scientist doing an experiment. He didn't just ask questions; he liked to find out the answers himself. Once Al broke open a bumblebee's nest to see what was inside.

小阿尔想了解周围世界的一切。 他做这件事就像科学家做实验一样。 他不只是问问题;他喜欢自己找出答案。 有一次，阿尔撬开了一个大黄蜂的巢，想看看里面有什么。

Another time he watched birds eat worms and fly off. So Al made a mixture out of water and mashed worms. Then he gave it to a neighbor girl to drink. He wanted to see if eating worms would make her fly. But it just made her sick, and Al got a licking with a birch branch.

还有一次，他看到鸟儿吃了虫子就飞走了。 所以艾尔用水和蠕虫泥做了一种混合物。 然后他把它给邻居的一个女孩喝。 他想看看吃虫子是否能让她飞起来。 但这只会让她感到恶心，阿尔被一根桦树树枝舔了一下。

Nothing stopped Al—not bees, not a licking, not even falling into a grain-storage bin. He was walking around the rim of the bin when he fell in. Luckily someone pulled him out by the legs just before he was buried under the wheat. Al's father owned a small grain and timber mill in Milan. Boats like Captain Alva Bradley's carried timber down from Canada across Lake Erie, down the Huron River and through the Milan Canal. There it was cut into logs and planks at mills like Mr. Edison's.

没有什么能阻止阿尔——不是蜜蜂，不是舔，甚至不是掉进一个谷物储存箱。 他在绕着垃圾桶边缘走的时候掉了进去。 幸运的是，就在他被埋在小麦下面之前，有人抓住了他的腿把他拉了出来。 阿尔的父亲在米兰拥有一家小型谷物和木材加工厂。 像阿尔瓦·布拉德利船长这样的船把木材从加拿大运过来，穿过伊利湖，沿着休伦河，穿过米兰运河。 在那里，像爱迪生先生的工厂一样，它被切割成原木和木板。

Trucks and cars had not yet been invented, and trains didn't come to Milan. But one day a railroad line was built. Trains started chugging into town, and the canal wasn't so important anymore. The railroads were faster and easier to use for carrying things around the country. So when Al was seven, the family moved to a new home in Port Huron, Michigan, more than a hundred miles north of Milan. They lived in a big house on the St. Clair River. Al's father did lots of things to earn a living. He worked as a carpenter. He ran a grocery store. He had a vegetable garden. He tried farming. He even built a 100-foot tower overlooking the river. For

卡车和汽车还没有发明，火车也没有来到米兰。 但是有一天，一条铁路线建成了。 火车开始轰隆隆地驶入城镇，运河也不再那么重要了。 铁路在全国范围内运输货物更快、更容易。 因此，在艾尔七岁的时候，全家搬到了密歇根州休伦港的新家，那里距离米兰以北一百多英里。 他们住在大街上的一所大房子里。 克莱尔河。阿尔的父亲为了谋生做了很多事情。 他当过木匠。他经营一家杂货店。 他有一个菜园。 他尝试过务农。他甚至建了一座100英尺高的塔俯瞰河流。 为

twenty-five cents, anyone could climb up and watch the boats go by. The Edisons had only been there a short time when Al caught scarlet fever. It was a serious illness back then without the medicines used today. He ran a high fever. A red rash broke out on his skin. Al got better, but he realized that he couldn't hear as well as he used to, probably because of the scarlet fever. In school, the teacher complained that Al didn't pay attention. He would drift off. Maybe he was

25美分，任何人都可以爬上去看船经过。 爱迪生夫妇在那里住了不久，阿尔就得了猩红热。 当时没有今天使用的药物，这是一种严重的疾病。 他发高烧。他的皮肤上突然起了红疹。 阿尔好转了，但他意识到他的听力不如以前那么好了，可能是因为猩红热。 在学校里，老师抱怨阿尔不专心听讲。 他会迷迷糊糊地睡着。也许他是