时差N小时 黄金是黄色的吗?(上)

Many people associate the metal gold with the color gold.

很多人认为金子应该是金色。

But, some gold jewelry¹ is not golden at all: it’s white.

但一些黄金首饰的颜色并不是金色，而是白色。

Gold is one of the heaviest and softest metals. Pure gold, called 24-carat gold, is so soft that it can be easily dented².

黄金是最重也是最软的金属之一。纯金，即24k金的质地非常软，很容易产生凹陷。

In the movies, old-time prospectors³ bite on yellow nuggets to see if they’re real gold because 24-carat gold will show a bite mark.

在电影中，以前的勘探者通常会咬一下黄金来试验是否为真金，因为24k黄金会出现咬痕。

In the real world, jewelers don’t want to use metal that can be dented so easily. So, most jewelry is actually an alloy⁴ of gold with harder metals.

然而现实世界中，珠宝商不希望使用那种易产生凹陷的金属。因此，大多数珠宝其实是黄金与其他硬金属铸成的合金。

Since pure gold is called 24-carat gold, an alloy of half gold and half other metals is called 12 carat gold, because, well, 12 is half of 24.

由于纯金被称为24k金，那么由黄金和其他金属各半铸成的合金被称作12k金，因为12是24的一半。

1 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

2 dented   

v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等）

参考例句：

• The back of the car was badly dented in the collision. 汽车尾部被撞后严重凹陷。
• I'm afraid I've dented the car. 恐怕我把车子撞瘪了一些。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 prospectors   

n.勘探者，探矿者( prospector的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The prospectors have discovered such minerals as calcite,quartz and asbestos here. 探矿人员在这里发现了方解石、石英、石棉等矿藏。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The prospectors have discovered many minerals here. 探矿人员在这里发现了许多矿藏。 来自辞典例句

4 alloy   

n.合金，(金属的)成色

参考例句：

• The company produces titanium alloy.该公司生产钛合金。
• Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.青铜是铜和锡的合金。