Edison

Edison (1) Born in 1847, and raised in Port Huron, Michigan — near the edge of a small country, then on the verge of becoming great — Thomas Edison was all pluck and initiative from the start. By his own account, he was curious to the point of mischief. He once spent hours sitting on the neighbor’s goose eggs in an effort to hatch them, and set fire to a barn “just to see what it would do”. Given just three months of formal schooling, he spent the carefree afternoons of boyhood reading his way through the library, and obsessively conducting chemistry experiments in the cellar. Money was tight, so to finance his dabbling, he went to work at the age of 12, taking a job as a newsboy on the train that ran daily between Port Huron and Detroit. Along the way, in the stations up and down the line, he became fascinated with the telegraph, which was beginning to knit the growing nation together as the rails were — only with links of copper wire. Edison’s fascination sparked a quest for mastery. He taught himself Morse Code and practiced sending and receiving telegraph messages for up to 18 hours a day, before finally landing his first job as an operator in 1862, when he was just 15. By the mid-1870s, Edison had a growing stack of successful telegraphic patents to his name and enough capital to finance his dream laboratory in Menlo Park.  Port Huron [pɔ(r)ːt ˈhjuˌrɑn] 休伦港（美国密歇根州东南部港市） Michigan [ˈmiʃigən] n. 美国密歇根州 edge [edʒ] n. 边缘；优势；刀刃（《背诵营1》第63课学过） verge [vɜːdʒ; vɜːrdʒ] n. 边缘；路边，路肩 pluck [plʌk] v. 摘；拔；解救 n. 胆识；胆量 initiative [ɪˈnɪʃətɪv] n. 倡议；新方案；主动性；积极性；主动权 mischief [ˈmɪstʃɪf] n. 恶作剧；淘气；顽皮 hatch [hætʃ] v. 孵出；孵化；策划，密谋 barn [bɑːn; bɑːrn] n. 谷仓；畜棚 schooling [ˈskuːlɪŋ] n. 学校教育 carefree [ˈkeəfriː; ˈkerfriː] adj. 无忧无虑的 obsessively [əbˈsesɪvli] adv. 着迷地；过分地（《背诵营1》第20课学过obsessive） cellar [ˈselə(r); ˈselər] n. 地窖；地下室 finance [ˈfaɪnæns] n. 财政；金融；财务 vt. 向……提供资金（《背诵营1》第9课学过financial） dabbling [ˈdæblɪŋ] n. 玩水；涉足；浅尝；涉猎 newsboy [ˈnjuːzbɒɪ; ˈnuːzˌbɔɪ] n. 报童 Detroit [diˈtrɔit] n. 底特律（美国城市） fascinated [ˈfæsɪneɪtɪd] adj. 着迷的；被深深吸引的 fascination [ˌfæsɪˈneɪʃn] n. 入迷；着迷 telegraph [ˈtelɪɡrɑːf; ˈtelɪɡræf] n. 电报 telegraphic [ˌtelɪˈɡræfɪk] adj. 电报的 knit [nɪt] v. 编织；结合 copper [ˈkɒpər; ˈkɑːpər] n. 铜 wire [ˈwaɪər] n. 金属丝；电线（《背诵营1》第82课学过wireless） spark [spɑːk; spɑːrk] n. 火花；诱因；导火线； v. 冒火花；引发 quest [kwest] n. 探索，寻找，追求 mastery [ˈmɑːstəri; ˈmæstəri] n. 精通；熟练掌握 stack [stæk] n.（整齐的）一叠，一摞，一堆 vt. 放成整齐的一叠（摞、堆） patent ['peɪtənt; ˈpætnt] n. 专利权；专利证书 adj. 有专利的 laboratory [ləˈbɒrətri; ˈlæbrətɔːri] n. 实验室 Menlo Park 门洛帕克（美国新泽西州密德萨克斯县的一个独立社区）