2017考研英语阅读精选：元素周期表再添四名新成员

考研英语来源：the guardian 2016-01-08　

Periodic table’s seventh row finally filled as four new elements are added

元素周期表再添四名新成员化学课本将要改写

Four new elements have been added to the periodic table, finally completing the table’s seventh row and rendering science textbooks around the world instantly out of date.

元素周期表将要新添四名新成员，第七行将获完整，而这将使全世界的化学教材瞬间成为过去时。

The elements, discovered by scientists in Japan, Russia and America, are the first to be added to the table since 2011, when elements 114 and 116 were added.

由日本、俄罗斯和美国科学家发现的元素是既2011年114和116号元素加入周期表以来首批加入的元素。

The four were verified on 30 December by the US-based International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the global organisation that governs chemical nomenclature, terminology and measurement.

这四个元素由位于美国的国际纯粹与应用化学联合会于12月30日证实，这个世界性的组织负责着化学界的命名法、术语和测量。

IUPAC announced that a Russian-American team of scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California had produced sufficient evidence to claim the discovery of elements 115, 117 and 118.

国际纯粹与应用化学联合会宣称，一支由俄罗斯杜布纳联合原子核研究所与美国加利福尼亚劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室的美俄科学家组成的队伍已掌握了充分的证据来证实115号、117号和118号元素。

The body awarded credit for the discovery of element 113, which had also been claimed by the Russians and Americans, to a team of scientists from the Riken institute in Japan.

俄罗斯和美国的科学家们还宣布发现了113号元素，联合会把这一荣誉授予日本理化研究所的科学家队伍。

Kosuke Morita, who was leading the research at Riken, said his team now planned to “look to the unchartered territory of element 119 and beyond.”

理化研究所的Kosuke Morita是这次研究的领导者，他说他们的队伍正计划“探索119号元素尚未开垦的领域以及其他领域。”

Ryoji Noyori, former Riken president and Nobel laureate in chemistry said: “To scientists, this is of greater value than an Olympic gold medal”.

研究所前主席和诺贝尔化学奖获得者野依良治表示：“对于科学家来说，这比获得奥运金牌的价值还要重大。”

The elements, which currently bear placeholder names, will be officially named by the teams that discovered them in the coming months. Element 113 will be the first element to be named in Asia.

现在这几个元素还是无名氏，接下来的几个月，它们的发现者队伍将会正式为其命名，113号元素将是第一个在亚洲命名的元素。

“The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row,” said Professor Jan Reedijk, president of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC.

国际纯粹与应用化学联合会无机化学部门主席Jan Reedijk发表声明称，“化学界都急迫地想看到，他们最珍视的周期表能完整到第7排。”

“IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalising names and symbols for these elements temporarily named as ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118).”

国际纯粹与应用化学联合会现在已经开始为这些元素正式命名并赋予符号。它们现在暂时被称为Uut(113号元素)、Uup(115号元素)、Uus(117号元素)和Uuo(118号元素)。

New elements can be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist.

新元素可以依据某一虚拟概念、矿物或者按发现地点、发现者的国家或者由元素的特性或某个科学家来命名。

The four new elements, all of which are man-made, were discovered by slamming lighter ?nuclei into each other and tracking the following decay of the radioactive superheavy elements.

这四个新元素都是人造的，是由火花与原子核相互撞击并且循着放射性超重元素衰变的轨迹而发现的。

Like other superheavy elements that populate the end of the periodic table, they only exist for fractions of a second before decaying into other elements.

就像其他超重元素都位于周期表最后，在它们衰变为其他元素之前，仅仅在一秒钟内分级存在。