2017考研英語閱讀精選：元素周期表再添四名新成員

考研英語來源：the guardian 2016-01-08　

Periodic table’s seventh row finally filled as four new elements are added

元素周期表再添四名新成員化學課本將要改寫

Four new elements have been added to the periodic table, finally completing the table’s seventh row and rendering science textbooks around the world instantly out of date.

元素周期表將要新添四名新成員，第七行將獲完整，而這將使全世界的化學教材瞬間成為過去時。

The elements, discovered by scientists in Japan, Russia and America, are the first to be added to the table since 2011, when elements 114 and 116 were added.

由日本、俄羅斯和美國科學家發現的元素是既2011年114和116號元素加入周期表以來首批加入的元素。

The four were verified on 30 December by the US-based International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the global organisation that governs chemical nomenclature, terminology and measurement.

這四個元素由位于美國的國際純粹與應用化學聯合會于12月30日證實，這個世界性的組織負責著化學界的命名法、術語和測量。

IUPAC announced that a Russian-American team of scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California had produced sufficient evidence to claim the discovery of elements 115, 117 and 118.

國際純粹與應用化學聯合會宣稱，一支由俄羅斯杜布納聯合原子核研究所與美國加利福尼亞勞倫斯利弗莫爾國家實驗室的美俄科學家組成的隊伍已掌握了充分的證據來證實115號、117號和118號元素。

The body awarded credit for the discovery of element 113, which had also been claimed by the Russians and Americans, to a team of scientists from the Riken institute in Japan.

俄羅斯和美國的科學家們還宣布發現了113號元素，聯合會把這一榮譽授予日本理化研究所的科學家隊伍。

Kosuke Morita, who was leading the research at Riken, said his team now planned to “look to the unchartered territory of element 119 and beyond.”

理化研究所的Kosuke Morita是這次研究的領導者，他說他們的隊伍正計劃“探索119號元素尚未開墾的領域以及其他領域。”

Ryoji Noyori, former Riken president and Nobel laureate in chemistry said: “To scientists, this is of greater value than an Olympic gold medal”.

研究所前主席和諾貝爾化學獎獲得者野依良治表示：“對于科學家來說，這比獲得奧運金牌的價值還要重大。”

The elements, which currently bear placeholder names, will be officially named by the teams that discovered them in the coming months. Element 113 will be the first element to be named in Asia.

現在這幾個元素還是無名氏，接下來的幾個月，它們的發現者隊伍將會正式為其命名，113號元素將是第一個在亞洲命名的元素。

“The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row,” said Professor Jan Reedijk, president of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC.

國際純粹與應用化學聯合會無機化學部門主席Jan Reedijk發表聲明稱，“化學界都急迫地想看到，他們最珍視的周期表能完整到第7排。”

“IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalising names and symbols for these elements temporarily named as ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118).”

國際純粹與應用化學聯合會現在已經開始為這些元素正式命名并賦予符號。它們現在暫時被稱為Uut(113號元素)、Uup(115號元素)、Uus(117號元素)和Uuo(118號元素)。

New elements can be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist.

新元素可以依據某一虛擬概念、礦物或者按發現地點、發現者的國家或者由元素的特性或某個科學家來命名。

The four new elements, all of which are man-made, were discovered by slamming lighter ?nuclei into each other and tracking the following decay of the radioactive superheavy elements.

這四個新元素都是人造的，是由火花與原子核相互撞擊并且循著放射性超重元素衰變的軌跡而發現的。

Like other superheavy elements that populate the end of the periodic table, they only exist for fractions of a second before decaying into other elements.

就像其他超重元素都位于周期表最后，在它們衰變為其他元素之前，僅僅在一秒鐘內分級存在。