2011年职称英语阅读中英语句(55)

【小编寄语】职称英语考试中的阅读理解有3篇文章，每篇300-450词，每篇文章后有5道题（四选一，第31-45题，每题3分，共45分），考查应试者对文章主旨和细节信息的理解能力。这里，小编给大家精选了阅读理解的中英文语句材料，帮助大家积累词汇，复习语法知识，为考试打下基础。

The Versatile Lead Pencil（万能的铅笔）

6. There are many novelty pencils. Some have the Ten Commandments, calendars or the multiplication table on them. Some are in the shape of umbrellas, canes, baseball bats and traffic signals. One may be 12 feet long, while others are only 1/2 inch.

6、还有许多新颖的铅笔。有的上面有（基督教的教条的）十诫、日历或者乘法表。有的铅笔被做成雨伞、手杖、棒球、甚至交通信号灯的样子。有的可能长达12英尺，而另有一些只有半英寸长。

7. One recent novelty is a pencil with paper in it. A small roll of paper fits in the center of the pencil and is drawn out through a slit in the side. It’s just the thing for those who are always looking for a scrap of paper.

7、最近的一种新奇铅笔，里面有一卷纸。小小的一卷纸恰好放在铅笔的中央部分，纸可以通过在铅笔边的缝抽出来。它适用于那些总是需要小纸片的人。

8. A popular idea is that a check, will, or other legal paper written in pencil is not legal. This is not true. Any legal document which does not specify otherwise can be legally signed in pencil.

8、一般认为用铅笔签署的支票或其它法律性文件是不合法的。事实并不是这样。任何法律文件只要没有明确指出，都可以用铅笔签署。

9. By one means or another, man has been writing for thousands of years. The Greeks and Romans used metallic lead for drawing faint lines. But it was not until around 1400 A.D. that graphite, the main part of the modern pencil, first appeared. And for a long time it was used without any covering.

9、无论怎样，人类数千年来一直在书写。古希腊和古罗马人使用金属铅来画暗淡的线。但是直到公元1400年，现代铅笔的主要部分石墨才被发现，并且在相当长一段时间，都是用没有木头外套的石墨直接书写。

10. About a century and a half later, in 1564, a high wind blew over a heavy oak tree near Cumberland, England. The earth revealed a slab of black rock which was actually a huge deposit of almost pure graphite. Shepherds used it to brand their sheep. George II controlled the graphite by declaring it a crime to ship it out of the country.

10、大约一个半世纪之后，也就是1546年，在英国坎伯兰郡附近，一场大风吹倒了一棵大橡树，一层厚厚的黑色岩石在地表显露出来，这实际上是一块巨大的几乎纯净的石墨矿藏。当地的牧羊人用它给自己的羊打标记。乔治二世为了控制石墨开采，宣告用船运石墨出国是一种犯罪。