The pencil with which you write upon it is also a piece of soft slate.

你在板石上写字的笔, 也是较软的石头, 叫做板石。

Every week 30,000 tonnes of slate are gouged out of the mountains.

【gouge】山上每个星期都开采出3万吨的板石。

The slate is not at all like the lump of putty which we made.

板石, 跟我们以前做过的腻子儿, 点也不像。

They do not stick to the slate, but can easily be rubbed off with a wet sponge.

这些白印子不是黏在板石上的, 用湿海绵很容易就能擦。

When you rub the soft slate-pencil upon the slate, many little pieces of the pencil are broken off.

把软的板石笔在板石上蹭蹭, 就会有很多板石笔的碎来。

The slater makes two little holes in each slate, and then nails them on to the roof.

装板石的工人在每板石上钻出两个洞, 用钉子把板石固定在屋顶上。

However much we squeeze it, we cannot change its shape.

可是板石很硬, 不管怎么使劲儿地挤, 都不能改变它的形状。

Like all solids, slate keeps its shape, and it keeps its size too.

跟所有的固体样, 板石有固定的形状, 也有固定的大小。

But where do slates come from?

板石是怎么来的呢?

So we say that the slate is brittle; it snaps or breaks easily.

所以我们说, 板石很" 脆" , 很容易就能折断、打碎。脆的英语叫brittle.

You cannot change a little slate into a big one, however hard you pull at it to try to stretch it.

不管怎么拉它, 拽它, 都不能把小板石变成大板石。

The putty did not break when it fell to the ground; but if we drop a slate, it will break.

腻子儿在地上是不会碎的, 可要是把板石到地上就会摔碎。

Pieces of slate are put on the roofs of houses, to keep out the rain. Water cannot pass through slate.

板石也放在屋顶上, 用来挡雨。水是透不过板石的。

We can tell slate from all other rocks by the way it splits into very thin layers.

板石跟其他石头的不同, 就在于它能分成非常薄的石。

Some men break off great lumps of the rock, and then other men split these lumps into the thin pieces we call slates.

些人把板石开采出来, 然后另些人, 把这些大石分成我们叫" 板石" 的细。

If you ever go to Wales, or to Cornwall, or to Scotland, you may see great holes in the hill-sides-" quarries, " the men call them- where all the rock or stone is nothing but slate.

如果你去趟威尔士、康沃尔郡, 或者苏格兰, 你可能会在山坡上看见些大洞, 人们管这种大洞叫" 采石场" , 英语叫quarry.在这些地方, 所有的石头全是板石。