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CAMBRIDGE IELTS 9 NOTE
原文真题
Reading
Passage 1
William Henry Perkin
The man who invented
synthetic
dyes
William Henry Perkin was born
on
March 12, 1838,
in
London, England.
As a boy, Perkin’s curiosity prompted
early interests in the arts, sciences,
photography, and engineering. But it
was a chance stumbling upon a run-
down,
yet
functional,
laboratory
in
his
late
grandfather’s
home
that
solidified the young
man’s enthusiasm for chemistry.
As a student at the City of
London School, Perkin became immersed in
the
study
of
chemistry.
His
talent
and
devotion
to
the
subject
were
perceived by his teacher, Thomas Hall,
who encouraged him to attend a
series
of lectures given by the eminent scientist Michael
Faraday at the
Royal Institution. Those
speeches fired t
he young chemist’s
enthusiasm
further, and he later went
on to attend the Royal College of Chemistry,
which he succeeded in entering in 1853,
at the age of 15.
At the
time of Perkin’s enrolment, the Royal College of
Chemistry was
headed by the noted
Germa
n chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann.
Perkin’s
scientific gifts soon caught
Hofmann’s attention and, within two years, he
became Hofmann’s youngest assistant.
Not long after that, Perkin made
the
scientific breakthrough that would bring him both
fame and fortune.
At the
time, quinine was the only viable medical
treatment for
malaria.
The
drug is derived from the bark of the cinchona
tree, native to South
America, and by
1856 demand for the drug was surpassing the
available
supply.
Thus,
when
Hofmann
made
some
passing
comments
about
the
desirability of a
synthetic substitute for quinine, it was
unsurprising that
his star pupil was
moved to take up the challenge.
During his vacation in 1856, Perkin
spent his time in the laboratory on the
top floor of his family’
s
house. He was attempting to manufacture quinine
from aniline, an inexpensive and
readily available coal tar waste product.
Despite his best efforts, however, he
did not end up with quinine. Instead,
he produced a mysterious dark sludge.
Luckily, Perkin’s
scientific
training and nature prompted him to
investigate the substance further.
Incorporating potassium dichromate and
alcohol into the aniline at
various
stages of the experimental process, he finally
produced a deep
purple solution. And,
providing the truth of the famous scientist Louis
Pasteur’s words ‘chance favours only
the prepared mind’, Perkin saw the
potential of his unexpected find.
Historically, textile dyes
were made from such natural sources as plants
and
animal
excretions.
Some
of
these,
such
as
the
glandular
mucus
of
snails,
were
difficult
to
obtain
and
outrageously
expensive.
Indeed,
the
purple coulour extracted from a snail
was once so costly that in society at
the time only the rich could afford it.
Further, natural dyes tended to me
mu
ddy in hue and fade
quickly. It was against this backdrop that
Perkin’s
discovery was made.
Perkin quickly
grasped
that
his purple
solution
could be
used
to
colour
fabric,
thus
making
it
the
world’s
first
synthetic
dye.
Realizing
the
importance
of
this
breakthrough,
he
lost
no
time
in
patenting
it.
But
perhaps
the most fascinating of all Perkin’s reactions to
his find was his
nearly instant
recognition that the new dye had commercial
possibilities.
Perkin
originally
named
his
dye
Tyrian
Purple,
but
it
later
became
commonly known as mauve (from the
French for the plant used to make
the
colour violet). He asked advice of Scottish dye
works owner Robert
Pullar, who assured
him that manufacturing the dye would be well worth
it
if
the
coulour
remained
fast
(i.e.
would
not
fade)
and
the
cost
was
relatively low. So, over the fierce
objections of his mentor Hofmann, he
left college to give birth to the
modern chemical industry.
With
the
help
of
his
father
and
brother,
Perkin
set
up
a
factory
not
far
from London. Utilising
the cheap and plentiful coal tar that was an
almost
unlimited byproduct of London’s
gas street lighting, the dye works began
producing
the
world’s
first
synthetically
dyed
material
in
1857.
The
company
received
a
commercial
boost
form
the
Empress
Eugenie
of
France, when she decided the new colour
flattered her. Very soon, mauve
was the
necessary shade for all the fashionable ladies in
that country. Not
to be outdone,
England’s Queen Victoria also appeared in public
wearing
a mauve gown, thus making it
all the rage in England as well. The dye
was bold and fast, and the public
clamoured for more. Perkin went back
to
the drawing board.
Although
Perkin’s
fame
was
achieved
and
fortune
assured
by
his
first
discovery,
the
chemist
continued
his
research.
Among
other
dyes
he
developed and introduced
were aniline red (1859) and aniline black (1863)
and, in the late 1860s, Perkin’s green.
It is important to note that Perkin’s
synthetic dye discoveries had outcomes
far beyond the merely decorative.
The
dyes
also
became
vital
to
medical
research
in
many
ways.
For
instance,
they
were
used
to
stain
previously
invisible
microbes
and
bacteria,
allowing
researchers
to
identify
such
bacilli
as
tuberculosis,
cholera, and
anthrax. Artificial dyes continue to play a
crucial role today.
And,
in
what
would
have
been
particularly
pleasing
to
Perkin,
their
current use is in the search for a
vaccine against malaria.
甲
简单单词居然不解其中玄机。
1
late
, his late
grandfather
’
s home .
已故的。
2
gift.
Perkin
’
s scientific gifts
soon caught Hofmann
’
s
attention.
天才
3
bark
. The drug is derived
from the bark of the cinchona tree.
树皮。
4
solution
. he finally
produced a deep purple solution.
溶液
5
fast
.the dye would be well
worth it if the colour remained fast and the cost
was relatively low.
牢固的，紧紧的。
乙
其他生词
（逐个查阅的，太多了啊）
1.
synthetic
合成的，人造的，假的
Synth
,n.
综合者，【电】合成器。
Syntheses.n .
【化】合成，【语】综合；综合体
，结合，【医】接合。【逻
辑】综合法，语词的合成，【物】合成，综合；文献。统一体
。
Syn, same
大概有统一，同一类的意思；
thesis, n .
毕业论文，论题，论
点，命题之意。同一论题的结合，就有了合成，综合
之意。
2.
curiosity
n.
好奇心，稀奇的人事物。
~ shop
< br>古玩店。
~drive,
好奇驱动力
Curiosity
kill the cat.
3.
stumble upon.
偶尔发现。