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, 都不能改变它形。

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

【gouge】每个星期都开采出3万吨板石。

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

板石, 跟我们以前做过腻子块儿, 一点也不像。

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

板石片也放在屋顶, 来挡雨。水是透不过板石。

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, 海绵很容易就能擦掉。

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

板石跟其他石头不同, 就在于它能分成非常薄石片。

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

一些人把板石块开采出来, 然后另一些人, 把这些大石块分成我们叫" 板石" 细片。

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

跟所有固体一样, 板石有固定形, 也有固定大小。

But where do slates come from?

板石是怎么来呢?

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

装板石工人在每一块板石钻出两个洞, 钉子把板石固定在屋顶。

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

把软板石笔在板石蹭蹭, 就会有很多板石笔碎片掉下来。

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, 都不能把一块小板石变成一块大板石。

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

腻子块儿掉在地是不会碎, 可要是把一块板石掉到地就会摔碎。

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

你在板石写字笔, 也是一块比较软石头, 叫做板石。

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。脆英语叫brittle.

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.

如果你去一趟威尔士、康沃尔郡, 或者苏格兰, 你可能会在坡看见一些大洞, 人们管这种大洞叫" 采石场" , 英语叫quarry.在这些地方, 所有石头全是板石。