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Charcoal: Energy to Burn 木炭：燃烧的能源

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Bertha and Elmore are on their balcony overseeing a hibachi:  伯莎和艾尔莫两人在阳台上检视他们的金属烤肉炭炉：

E: Man, I can’t wait to slap on those steaks. Hey, I know charcoal burns cleaner and more evenly than wood – as we’ll see in a sec with these lovely T-bones– but does it burn hotter?

哇，我简直等不及要把牛排放上去烤了。嘿，我晓得炭火烧得比木头干净又平均──待一会儿看看这些令人食指大动的丁骨牛排就晓得了──但是它燃烧的温度更高吗？

B: Oh yeah. We enjoy it for cooking, but up until the mid-nineteenth century, charcoal was used mostly to smelt iron in the forges of blacksmiths who shaped that iron. It’s literally wood distilled for its carbon content.

噢，是的。人类现在爱用它来煮东西，但直至十九世纪中叶，大多是打铁匠用它来镕炼钢铁用的。说来它其实就是从木头里炼出来的精碳。

E: Huh. So making charcoal removed the stuff you don’t want from burning.

噢。所以制炭就是把木头里面无用的物质除去？

B: Exactly. When charcoal is produced in an oxygen-deprived chamber, the process drives off water, methane, hydrogen, tars, and so on, but it keeps the carbon in the wood from burning.

正是。在无氧环境的制炭过程中，水、甲烷、氢、焦油等这些杂质都会被除去，但里面的碳被保留下来，没有燃烧掉。

E: Ever seen the traditional method for making charcoal? You bury tons of wood underground, cover it with sod, and bake it for a day or so.

你看过用传统方法制炭吗？把成堆的木头埋在地下，用草皮覆盖，让它在里面烤个一整天。

B: Sure, I saw a documentary about it on the History Channel. Over four thousand years ago, that slow-burning technique propelled societies from the Stone Age into the Bronze Age.

当然，我看过电视历史频道有关它的纪录片。四千年以前，这种缓慢燃烧的技法使得人类由石器时代进化到铜器时代。

E: To think that the same stuff is filling our barbecue. Hey, let’s slap that meat on!

想想看现在就是这东西在帮我们烤肉。嘿，让我们把牛排放上去烤！

B: Sure thing. Don’t want to forestall culinary progress, do we?

当然。不要妨碍到我们的美食出炉吧，对不对？

－by Dereck Crichton

Vocabulary

单词发音

charcoal [ˋtʃɑr͵kol] n. 木炭，炭

balcony [ˋbælkənɪ] n. 阳台，露台

oversee [ˋovɚˋsi] v. 监视；看管

hibachi [hiˋbɑtʃɪ] n. 日本火箱；烤肉炉

smelt [smɛlt] v. 熔炼（矿石）；炼取（金属）；精炼

forge [fɔrdʒ] v. 打（铁等）；锻造

blacksmith [ˋblæk͵smɪθ] n. 铁匠﹐锻工〔尤指马蹄铁匠〕

distill [dɪsˋtɪl] v. 抽出……的精华；提炼

chamber [ˋtʃembɚ] n. 室，房间

tar [tɑr] n. 焦油；柏油

sod [sɑd] n.【书】草地；草皮

fill [fɪl] v. 满足

barbecue [ˋbɑrbɪkju] n. 烤肉

forestall [forˋstɔl] v. 预先阻止; 抢先

Sentence of the Day

Charcoal is hot stuff.

木炭燃烧的质量很好。

hot stuff   第一流的人或事物