那些不為人知的發明家們

Aldous Huxley was a most unfortunate man. When he died in 1963 he must have expired in the confident belief that the event would be given wide coverage in the press the next day. After all，his career had not been without distinction. Where he made his big mistake was in dying on the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As a result Huxley got about three column inches at the bottom of page 27.

In the same way the death of Victor Farris has gone widely unnoticed because he foolishly shuffled off this mortal coil at the same time as Mr Konstantin Chernenko. Now， as you all know， Victor Farris was the chap who invented the paper clip. The paper milk carton too. And paper clips and milk cartons will be in use long after everyone has forgotten the name of the comrade who came between Andropov and whatever this new bloke is called.

“The same goes for the inventor of the supermarket trolley who died in Switzerland a few months ago.”①Fell off his trolley， so to speak.“For all I know， he may be a household name in his own canton and they are putting up a statue of home wheeling his trolley， and are going to commemorate him on one of those ever-so-tasteful Swiss postage stamps we used to collect when we were younger and wiser，”②but I doubt if his name will be remembered outside the borders of his small country. Personally I forgot it within minutes of reading of his decease.

Not that it matters. Somehow it is hard to imagine things like paper clips and supermarket trolleys having had a named inventor. It’s like discovering that at a particular moment of history a particular person invented the spoon， or the chair， or socks. One assumes that these everyday objects just happened， or evolved through natural selection.

It isn’t necessarily so. I read only the other day that Richard Ⅱ invented the handkerchief. Almost everything else was invented either by Leonardo da Vinci（scissors， bicycles， helicopters， and probably spoons， socks and the Rubik cube as well）or by Benjamin Franklin（lightning-conductor， rocking-chair， bifocals）or else by Joseph Stalin（television).

It’s quite possible that Leonardo or Benjamin Franklin or Stalin also invented the supermarket trolley. Certainly it has been invented more than once. Hardly was Herr Edelweiss（or whatever the Swiss chap was called）in his grave， than news came of the death of Sylvan N. Goodman at the age of 86. Sylvan also invented the supermarket trolley or， as the Los Angeles Times report calls it， the shopping cart.

Be that as it may， Herr Edelweiss or Sylvan Goodman， or both， did a grand job and made supermarket shopping far less hellish than it would otherwise be. The next step will be to get the trolleys out of the shops and into the streets. You could put an engine in the front and call it a car. Or give it big wheels and a canopy and call it a pram. The possibilities are endless.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that Herr Edelweiss_____.

A. was remembered by people all over the world

B. made a lot of money from his invention

C. was not very famous

D. was a business partner of Sylvan Goodman

2. The author writes this article in order to illustrate that_____.

A. the names of the people who invented the most useful things are usually forgotten

B. everyday objects are invented and evolve through natural selection

C. many everyday objects are invented more than once

D. many famous people have passed away without being noticed

3. Who probably invented spoons？

A. Leonardo da Vinci. B. Benjamin Franklin.

C. Victor Farris. D. A person unknown.

4. By stating that Leonardo da Vinci invented helicopters， the author means_____.

A. he really did it

B. he is a military scientist

C. he painted in one of his masterpieces—a helicopter

D. people turn to ascribe inventions to him but they are wrong

5.What can be inferred about Aldous Huxley？

A. His death was not reported by the press.

B. He was a famous inventor.

C. He made a very big mistake in his late years.

D. He died on the same day as John F. Kenneddy.

Vocabulary

1.canopy n. 天篷2.pram n. 嬰兒車

長難句解析

①【解析】“the same goes”意思為“同樣的事情也發生”，例：The same goes for our classmates. 同樣的事情也發生在我的同學身上。who 引導的定語從句修飾inventor。

【譯文】同樣的事情也發生在超市手推車發明者的身上，他就在幾個月以前死于瑞士。

②【解析】“a household name”應譯為“家喻戶曉的名字”，2個“and”連接3個并列句。“for all I know”作插入語，譯為“據我所知”。

【譯文】據我所知，在他的家鄉他的名字家喻戶曉，人們甚至為紀念他的手推車為他造了塑像，還將他印在了我們曾經收集過的非常有意義的瑞士郵票上了。

答案與詳解

【短文大意】正是由于發明家們的偉大作品，我們的生活才得以更加美好，但是，由于各種原因，他們的名字卻并不為人們熟知。生活中有許多看似平常的東西其實都是發明家的杰作。

1. C推斷題。雖然文中第三段對他進行了詳細的介紹，但是直到第六段才第一次出現Herr Edelweiss這個名字，根據上下文可以看出他是瑞士人，剛剛去世。因為他發明了supermarket trolley，在他的家鄉人們以塑像和發行郵票的方式紀念他，但即便如此作者懷疑if his name will be remembered outside the borders of his small country，而作者自己也在幾分鐘后忘掉了他的名字。由此可以推斷出Herr Edelweiss was not very famous. Edelweiss并不是Sylvan Goodman的商業伙伴，但他們都發明了超級市場的手推車。

2. A主旨題。作者在文中提到了幾位人們所不熟悉的發明家，如Victor Farris，Herr Edelweiss和Sylvan Goodman，他們發明了像paper clips，milk cartons和supermarket trolleys等非常有用的日常物品，但是他們的名字常常不為人所知；人們更不曾記得是誰發明了scissors，bicycles，spoons...，因此文章的主旨是稱贊那些默默無聞的發明家，A是最佳選項。

3. D推斷題。本題的關鍵是對文中第五段第三句的理解，不能按照字面意思理解成Leonardo da Vinci 發明了剪子、自行車、直升機、勺子、襪子和骰子，本杰明#8226;富蘭克林發明了避雷針、搖椅和兩用眼鏡，斯大林發明了電視機，作者的本意是說人們只記得一些著名人物，卻根本不知道是誰發明了這些重要的日常用品。

4. D細節題。達芬奇不可能發明直升機。答案應為D。人們只是喜歡把他想像成發明了很多東西的人。

5. D推斷題。從文中第一段我們可以得知Aldous Huxley很有名(his career had not been without distinction)，但文中并沒說他是個發明家；他的不幸之處是dying on the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated，報紙以大量篇幅報道肯尼迪遇刺，Huxley的死訊只出現在報紙第27版的末尾部分，因此D為正確選項。

編輯/希卡魯