And its slow story of success
以及它漫長的成功故事
1.
Imagine this. You go to a 1)department store and spend US$125 on a new kind of pen. It's 2)advertised as the best pen ever made, and you 3)rush home to 4)try it out. But when you try to write, the pen only 5)scratches the paper and no ink comes out. You press a little harder, and suddenly ink starts 6)pouring out of the pen making a big 7)inky 8)mess! Disappointed? So were the 5,000 people who had this happen to them back in 1945.
想像一下。你去百貨公司，花了一百二十五美金買了支新型筆。這支筆廣告上說是有史以來最好的筆，你趕緊回家試寫。但是試寫之際，這支筆只會刮紙，沒有墨水出來。你壓重一點，突然間墨水開始大量從筆中流出，弄得到處都是！感到失望嗎？一九四五年有五千人曾經碰到這樣的事情，他們也都很失望。
1) department store (n.) 百貨公司
2) advertise (v.) 做廣告
3) rush (v.) 衝，趕忙
4) try ... out (v.) 試用
5) scratch (v.) 刮
6) pour (v.) 傾倒
7) inky (a.) 墨水弄髒的
8) mess (n.) 一團亂
2.
The common pen was once an expensive 1)high-tech 2)item. And in the early days, they did not work very well. It took many years of 3)experimentation before pens became the cheap, 4)disposable writing tools they are today.
普通的筆曾經是件昂貴的高科技產品。在早期，筆不是很好寫。經過多年的實驗，筆才成為今日廉價又可隨意拋棄的書寫工具。
1) high-tech (a.) 高科技的
2) item (n.) 項目，物品
3) experimentation (n.)（做）實驗
4) disposable (a.) 用完即丟的
3.
Generally speaking, a pen is any tool used for writing or 1)drawing that uses ink. By this 2)definition, the first “pens” were the writing brushes used by the Chinese around 2,500 years ago. The early Egyptians had writing tools made from reeds. And Europeans were using 3)feather, or quill, pens at least as early as the 7th century. The pens we use today are mostly ballpoint pens, and it is this style of pen that has 4)benefited most from improvements in 5)technology.
一般而言，所謂筆是任何使用墨水來書寫或繪畫的工具。在這個定義下，第一支筆是大約兩千五百年前中國人使用的毛筆。古埃及人有蘆葦製成的書寫工具。歐洲人至少早在第七世紀就已經在使用羽毛筆。如今我們使用的大都是原子筆，這種筆也是自科技進步當中獲利最多的筆。
1) draw (v.) 繪圖
2) definition (n.) 定義
3) feather (n.) 羽毛
4) benefit from (phr.) 自……獲利
5) technology (n.) 科技，技術
4.
A ballpoint pen has a 1)metal ball at its 2)tip. The top of the ball is 3)coated in ink from the ink 4)supply, and the bottom of the ball spreads the ink onto paper as one writes. The ball also acts as a cover to keep the ink supply from drying out when not in use.
原子筆的筆尖有一顆金屬球。球的頂端被墨水管中的墨水覆蓋，球的底部則在寫字時把墨水塗在紙上。這顆球也是一個蓋子，防止管中的墨水在不用時會乾掉。
1) metal (a.) 金屬的
2) tip (n.) 尖端，末端
3) coat (v.) 包裹
4) supply (n.) 補給，供應
5.
The first ballpoint pens were sold in 1895. And they had their 1)share of problems. When the weather was cold, the ink would 2)clog and the pen wouldn't write. When the weather was hot, the ink would flow out of the pen too fast. And if you didn't hold the pen exactly 3)vertical, it wouldn't write at all.
最早的原子筆在一八九五年賣出，這些筆都有些問題。天氣冷的時候墨水會阻塞，筆就沒辦法寫。天氣熱的時候墨水會太快流出筆外。而且你若沒把筆管握成九十度垂直，就完全寫不出來。
1) share (n.) 一份
2) clog (v.) 阻塞，堵塞
3) vertical (a.) 垂直
6.
The problem with these early pens was not really with the pen itself, but with the ink. By 1949 an American 1)chemist, named Fran Seech, had 2)come up with a better 3)formula for making ink. He sold his formula to Patrick Frawley, who created the first successful pen company.
這些早期筆的問題不是真的出在筆上面，而是出在墨水上。到了一九四九年，一位名叫法蘭西區的美國化學家研究出一個更好的墨水製造配方。他把配方賣給派區克法羅利，法羅利開創了第一間成功的筆公司。
1) chemist (n.) 化學家
2) come up with (v.) 想出，研究出
3) formula (n.) 配方，方程式
7.
Nowadays, pens come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. There are pens that can write 1)underwater, pens that write upside down and even pens that write in the low-2)gravity 3)environment of space. Now that is something worth writing about!
如今，筆有各種大小、形狀和顏色。有可以在水面下書寫的筆、可以上下顛倒寫的筆，甚至還有可以在太空低重力環境下寫的筆。這倒是件值得大書特書的事！
1) underwater (adv.) 在水裏
2) gravity (n.) 重力
3) environment (n.) 環境
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