All About Kites

All About Kites. Written by Elizabeth Austin. Illustrated by Maria Voris.

《认识风筝》 文字：伊丽莎白·奥斯汀 插画：玛丽亚·沃里斯

Introduction. Few things are as bright and energetic as a sky filled with colorful dancing kites. Each design is competing for your attention. Long -tailed dragons, spinning metallic stars, and favorite cartoon characters. Kites are no longer just simple toys. Modern aerodynamic materials and engineering techniques make new kite designs bigger. lighter, and stronger and allow them to perform like aerial acrobats.

引言 没有什么比满天彩鸢飞舞更活泼亮眼了 每一款造型都抢着吸引你的注意力 长尾龙、会旋转的金属星星，还有你最爱的卡通形象 风筝早就不只是简简单单的玩具啦 现代空气动力学材料和工程技术让新款风筝做得更大 更轻也更结实，还能像空中杂技演员一样表演各种动作

History of kites Thousands of years ago, the first toy kites were named after the kite bird, a large, graceful bird with a very wide wingspan. In imitation, many early kites were shaped like birds, but people continually experimented with kite designs. Slowly, kites became increasingly elaborate and took on identifiable characteristics and consistent flight patterns. Kite flying so captured people's imaginations that stories were written about fliers. One famous Chinese legend tells a story about a man who used a kite to attack a fort. Unable to penetrate the walls, he tied himself to a huge kite, flew over the fort's high walls and frightened the soldiers away.

风筝的历史 几千年前，最早的玩具风筝以鸢命名，这是一种体型硕大、姿态优雅、翼展极宽的鸟类 受此影响，很多早期风筝都做成了鸟的形状，但人们一直不停尝试新的风筝设计 慢慢的，风筝的制作越来越精巧，拥有了鲜明的特点和稳定的飞行轨迹 放风筝太能激发人们的想象力，还诞生了不少和风筝有关的故事 中国有一个著名传说，讲了一个人借助风筝攻打堡垒的故事 他没法攻破城墙，就把自己绑在大风筝上，飞过堡垒高墙，把守城士兵都吓跑了

Some kites have made history. The famous American diplomat and inventor Ben Franklin loved testing ideas. He used a kite to prove his idea that lightning was made of electric current. On a stormy day, he and his son tied a metal key to a kite string and flew their kite high into the storm clouds. Just as he predicted, electricity from the clouds ran down the wet string to the metal key. When he reached toward the key, the electricity jumped from the key and gave him a shock. Warning, don't try this experiment. When Franklin tried it again, he was hurt badly.

有些风筝还改写了历史 美国著名外交官兼发明家本·富兰克林最喜欢验证自己的想法 他用风筝证明了闪电是由电流构成的猜想 一个暴风雨天，他和儿子把一把金属钥匙绑在风筝线上，把风筝送上了高空的暴风云里 正如他预测的那样，云里的电流顺着湿透的线流到了金属钥匙上 他伸手靠近钥匙时，电流从钥匙窜出，电了他一下 提醒：千万不要尝试这个实验 富兰克林第二次做这个实验时，受了重伤

Unusual uses for kites. Fishing. Fish like to chase things in the water. To reach fish that swim far from shore, some people attach a shiny baited fish hook to the long tail of a kite. The airborne kite skips the bait through the water so the fish can see it, bite it, and be caught and reeled in. Weather charts. For years, scientists used a specially built box kite to carry delicate weather instruments aloft, to chart and record wind speeds and air temperatures.

风筝的奇妙用途 钓鱼 鱼儿喜欢追逐水里移动的东西 想钓离岸很远的鱼，有些人会把带诱饵的亮闪闪鱼钩绑在风筝长尾上 飞在空中的风筝带着诱饵掠过水面，鱼儿看见就会咬钩，就能钓起收线了 绘制气象图 多年来，科学家用特制箱形风筝把精密气象仪器带到高空，测量记录风速和气温

real wind power. Long distance cargo ships burn large amounts of fuel and contribute to air pollution. One German shipping company is experimenting with special kites to help reduce both problems. The big kite helps to pull the ship so the ship's engines will burn less fuel every day. As they burn less fuel the amount of air pollution the engines produce will also be reduced.

真正的风力利用 长途货船消耗大量燃料，还会加剧空气污染 一家德国航运公司正在试验用特制风筝缓解这两个问题 大风筝可以帮忙拉动船身，让船的发动机每天少烧不少燃料 燃料烧得少了，发动机排放的空气污染也会随之减少