【英语时差8,16】别在家里试！！！

Time once again for Don't Try This At Home, the segment of our show in which we discourage people from doing things that may destroy your house or frighten the neighbors. A healthy sense of curiosity is essential to the scientific spirit, but safety must come first! Let's see what's in the file . . .  (RUSTLING PAPERS) . . . building your own parachute . . . no . . . My Pet Python . . . no . . .

Aha! "Did Ben Franklin really discover electricity with a kite?" That's a good one. Everybody has heard the famous story of how pioneering experimenter--and part-time founding father--Ben Franklin tied a key around a kite string and flew the kite in a thunderstorm. The kite was hit by lightning, and zap! Franklin had discovered electricity.

Well, it makes a better story than it does an experiment. The danger is that lightning is not something you want to play with, and you certainly don't want to attract it to yourself! Were this story to be true, I'm afraid, the result would have been fried Franklin.

What Ben actually did in his famous 1752 experiment was to cause some excess electrical charge near a storm cloud to ground out through his kite string--still an impressive demonstration¹, but a much less powerful prospect² than an actual lightning strike.

Nor is it true that Franklin discovered electricity, as people tend to say. What he was trying to do was to demonstrate that lightning itself is simply a powerful electric discharge between the clouds and the earth. In this he was entirely³ correct.  

1 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

2 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

3 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。