剑桥雅思11Test1Passage2阅读原文翻译The Falkirk Wheel

剑桥雅思11Test1Passage2阅读原文翻译The Falkirk Wheel，今天中国教育在线就来为大家分析这个问题。

The Falkirk Wheel

法尔柯克水轮

剑桥雅思11 Test1 Passage2阅读原文翻译

第1段

The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland is the world’s first and only rotating boat lift.Opened in 2002,it is central to the ambitious￡84.5m Millennium Link project to restore navigability across Scotland by reconnecting the historic waterways of the Forth&Clyde and Union Canals.

苏格兰的法尔柯克水轮是世界上第一个也是唯一的旋转式船用升降机。它于2002年开放，是雄心勃勃的、耗资8450万英镑的Millennium Link项目的核心。该项目通过重新连接Forth＆Clyde和联合运河的历史航道来恢复整个苏格兰的航行能力。

第2段

The major challenge of the project lay in the fact that the Forth&Clyde Canal is situated 35 metres below the level of the Union Canal.Historically,the two canals had been joined near the town of Falkirk by a sequence of 11 locks–enclosed sections of canal in which the water level could be raised or lowered–that stepped down across a distance of 1.5 km.This had been dismantled in 1933,thereby breaking the link.When the project was launched in 1994,the British Waterways authority were keen to create a dramatic twenty-first-century landmark which would not only be a fitting commemoration of the Millennium,but also a lasting symbol of the economic regeneration of the region.

该项目的主要挑战在于，Forth＆Clyde运河位于联合运河水平面以下35米。从历史上看，这两个运河是在法尔柯克镇附近通过11道闸门在1.5公里的长度里逐渐下降从而连接在一起的-封闭的运河段文章来自 雅思可以升高或降低水位。这些装置在1933年被拆除，从而切断了运河之间的联系。当该项目于1994年启动时，英国水道局渴望创建一个引人注目的二十一世纪地标。这不仅是对新千年的恰当纪念，而且是该地区经济复兴的持久象征。

第3段

Numerous ideas were submitted for the project,including concepts ranging from rolling eggs to tilting tanks,from giant see-saws to overhead monorails.The eventual winner was a plan for the huge rotating steel boat lift which was to become The Falkirk Wheel.The unique shape of the structure is claimed to have been inspired by various sources,both manmade and natural,most notably a Celtic double-headed axe,but also the vast turning propeller of a ship,the ribcage of a whale or the spine of a fish.

人们为该项目提出了许多想法，包括从滚动装置到倾斜的水箱，从巨型跷跷板到高架单轨铁路等概念。最终的胜利者是巨大的旋转钢制船舶升降机计划，也就是之后的法尔科克水轮。据称，这种结构的独特形状是受到各种因素的启发，人为和自然的都有，最著名的是凯尔特人的双头斧，船上巨大的旋转螺旋桨，鲸鱼的胸膛或是鱼类的脊柱。

第4段

The various parts of The Falkirk Wheel were all constructed and assembled,like one giant toy building set,at Butterley Engineering’s Steelworks in Derbyshire,some 400 km from Falkirk.A team there carefully assembled the 1,200 tonnes of steel,painstakingly fitting the pieces together to an accuracy of just 10 mm to ensure a perfect final fit.This article is from Laokaoya website.In the summer of 2001,the structure was then dismantled and transported on 35 lorries to Falkirk,before all being bolted back together again on the ground,and finally lifted into position in five large sections by crane.The Wheel would need to withstand immense and constantly changing stresses as it rotated,so to make the structure more robust,the steel sections were bolted rather than welded together.Over 45,000 bolt holes were matched with their bolts,and each bolt was hand-tightened.

法尔柯克水轮的各个部分都在德比郡布特利工程公司的钢铁厂（距福尔柯克约400公里）中建造和组装，就像一组巨大的玩具一样。那里的团队精心组装了1200吨钢铁部件，竭尽全力地以仅为10毫米的精确度将零件装配在一起，以保证最终的完美组合。2001年夏天，该设备被拆除，并用35辆卡车运输到法尔柯克，然后全部重新固定在地面上，最后用起重机将五大部分吊装到位。水轮在旋转时需要承受巨大且不断变化的应力，因此为了使结构更加牢固，钢制部分采用螺栓连接而不是焊接在一起。超过45,000个螺栓孔与它们的螺栓匹配，并且每个螺栓都是手动拧紧的。

第5段

The Wheel consists of two sets of opposing axe-shaped arms,attached about 25 metres apart to a fixed central spine.Two diametrically opposed water-filled‘gondolas’,each with a capacity of 360,000 litres,are fitted between the ends of the arms.These gondolas always weigh the same,whether or not they are carrying boats.This is because,according to Archimedes’principle of displacement,floating objects displace their own weight in water.So when a boat enters a gondola,the amount of water leaving the gondola weighs exactly the same as the boat.This keeps the Wheel balanced and so,despite its enormous mass,it rotates through 180°in five and a half minutes while using very little power.It takes just 1.5 kilowatt-hours(5.4 M J)of energy to rotate the Wheel–roughly the same as boiling eight small domestic kettles of water.

水轮由两组相对的斧形悬臂组成。它们以约25米的距离连接到固定的中心支柱上。两个截然相反的充满水的“贡多拉”，分别装在悬臂的末端，容量为360,000升。无论贡多拉是否载着船，它们的重量始终相同。这是因为，根据阿基米德的位移原理，漂浮物体会在水中排除自身的重量。因此，当船只进入贡多拉时，离开贡多拉的水的重量与船只的重量完全相同。这样可以使水轮保持平衡，因此尽管水轮质量巨大，但它能用非常少的能量在五分半钟内旋转180°。旋转水轮仅需1.5千瓦时（5.4 MJ）的能量-大约与煮沸八个家用小水壶所需要的能量相同。

第6段

Boats needing to be lifted up enter the canal basin at the level of the Forth&Clyde Canal and then enter the lower gondola of the Wheel.Two hydraulic steel gates are raised,so as to seal the gondola off from the water in the canal basin.The water between the gates is then pumped out.A hydraulic clamp,which prevents the arms of the Wheel moving while the gondola is docked,is removed,allowing the Wheel to turn.In the central machine room an array of ten hydraulic motors then begins to rotate the central axle.The axle connects to the outer arms of the Wheel,which begin to rotate at a speed of 1/8 of a revolution per minute.As the wheel rotates,the gondolas are kept in the upright position by a simple gearing system.Two eight-metre-wide cogs orbit a fixed inner cog of the same width,connected by two smaller cogs travelling in the opposite direction to the outer cogs–so ensuring that the gondolas always remain level.When the gondola reaches the top,the boat passes straight onto the aqueduct situated 24 metres above the canal basin.

需要升起的船只以Forth&Clyde运河的高度进入运河港池，然后进入水轮的下部吊舱。两个水力钢闸门被抬起，从而将调仓封闭于运河港池之中。然后闸门之间的水会被泵出。防止吊舱停靠时水轮悬臂移动的液压夹板会被移走，让水轮得以旋转。在中央机房中，由十个液压马达组成的阵列开始旋转中心轴。中心轴连接到水轮的外臂，外臂开始以每分钟1/8转的速度旋转。随着水轮的转动，吊舱通过简单的齿轮系统保持在垂直位置。两个八米宽的齿轮绕着相同宽度的固定内嵌齿轮旋转，它们由两个转动方向与外部齿轮相反的小齿轮连接，从而确保吊舱始终保持水平。当吊舱到达顶部时，船只直接穿过位于运河港池上方24米处的沟渠。

第7段

The remaining 11 metres of lift needed to reach the Union Canal is achieved by means of a pair of locks.The Wheel could not be constructed to elevate boats over the full 35-metre difference between the two canals,owing to the presence of the historically important Antonine Wall,which was built by the Romans in the second century AD.Boats travel under this wall via a tunnel,then through the locks,and finally on to the Union Canal.

到达联合运河所需的剩余11米距离是通过一对水闸来实现的。由于在历史上十分重要的安东尼墙的存在（该墙是罗马人在公元二世纪建造的），人们无法在两条运河之间搭建水轮以升起船只跨越35米的高度。船只通过隧道在这堵墙下面行驶，然后穿过船闸，最后到达联合运河。

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