2025.10.26 青少年新闻速递
Hello everyone, and welcome to our weekly news report. I’m your host, ready to share some amazing stories from the worlds of nature and science. Have you ever felt really cool and comfortable on a hot summer day wearing a special kind of shirt? You may have been wearing linen, and today, we’re going to discover the fantastic plant behind it. Then, we will travel to a place where old machines whir and click again.
Our first story is about a truly beautiful plant called flax, or by its scientific name, Linum usitatissimum. This is where the famous linen fabric comes from. Flax is an annual plant, which means it completes its life cycle in just one year, and its growth speed is amazing. It can grow up to one meter tall in just about 100 days! That’s as tall as a doorknob, and it grows that high in about the time of a summer vacation! It has long, slender leaves and a tall, graceful stem.
But the most magical thing about flax is its flowers. Imagine you are standing in a huge field. You don’t see green grass, but a sea of beautiful sky-blue flowers waving in the gentle breeze. You can feel the soft petals and see the tall, thin stems reaching for the sun. This amazing sight, like a reflection of the sky on the ground, has made many people fall in love with flax fields. While many flax plants have blue flowers, other species in the flax family have surprised us with white, yellow, or even red blossoms. Because it’s so pretty, flax is not just an important economic crop for making fabric; it’s also a wonderful ornamental/decorative plant that people grow in gardens. So, this busy, beautiful plant has given us both useful things and natural beauty. What other natural materials do you know that help us in our daily lives?
Now, for our second story, we are stepping into a time machine of sorts. We’re visiting the Tsinghua University Science Museum in China, a place that is bringing science history to life. This isn’t your typical museum. It is the first comprehensive, collection-based science museum in the country, and it has gathered over 8,000 scientific items! That’s a huge collection! If you lined up all the display cases, they would stretch for more than 2 kilometers. That’s like running around a standard 400-meter school track five times!
The team at the museum has worked hard to build this collection. They have followed a simple but powerful plan: “collect, buy, and make.” They collect old instruments from within the university and from alumni donations. They use funds to buy historical treasures from other countries. But the most exciting part is that they “make” history by creating perfect replicas of lost technological masterpieces.
These aren’t just simple models. The museum team has a special lab dedicated to this. For example, they have rebuilt a full-scale, fully functional replica of the “Northern Song Water-powered Astronomical Clock Tower.” This was a machine from over 1,000 years ago and represented the greatest achievement of ancient Chinese engineering and astronomy. Picture yourself in a quiet workshop. You can smell the scent of wood and metal. You hear the soft sounds of tools as a team carefully puts together this complex machine with gears and chains. They are not just building something new; they are bringing a 1,000-year-old wonder back to life to inspire a new generation.
Recreating these ancient inventions is a serious challenge. The team once tried to replicate/copy Hauksbee’s electrical machine, an early device for creating static electricity. They hit a strange problem: their machine didn’t work as well as the original one described in history books. After much investigation, they discovered the reason. The glass they used was too modern and too pure! Old glass had more impurities, which actually helped it generate static electricity more easily. So, what did they do? They learned the ancient glass-making method and created a new glass ball just like the original. It worked perfectly!
The museum also helps us understand science correctly. A student volunteer there shared an interesting story. Many people have heard that James Watt invented the steam engine after seeing a kettle lid being pushed up by steam. The volunteer explained that this story is not completely accurate. The real principle of the steam engine is more about how steam turns back into water, a process called liquefaction. It shows that science is about finding the true story, not just repeating popular myths. By remaking these ancient/very old tools, scientists can truly understand how they worked. If you had to recreate an old tool with modern materials, what challenges do you think you would face?
And that’s all the time we have for today. We have seen the simple elegance of the fast-growing flax and the brilliant minds that are reviving the mechanical wonders of the past. Keep your eyes open, stay curious, and join us next time for more News Discovery Time!
中文版本 新闻探索时间！今天我们将要疾驰探索… 砰！啪！哇！… 一种绽放着天空之蓝的奇妙植物，还要潜入一座能让历史上的伟大发明原地复活的超酷博物馆！
大家好，欢迎收听本周的新闻快报。我是你的主播，准备好带大家去自然和科学的世界里逛一逛啦。你有没有在炎热的夏天穿过一件特别的衬衫，感觉又凉快又舒服？你穿的可能就是亚麻衫。今天，我们就去认识一下它背后的神奇植物。然后，我们还要去一个能让古老机器再次“活”过来的地方。
我们的第一个故事，关于一种非常美丽的植物，它的名字叫亚麻。我们常说的亚麻布就是用它做的。亚麻是一年生植物，意思就是它一年就能走完自己的一生，而且长得超级快。它在大约100天里就能长到一米高！差不多有门把手那么高，长这么高也就用一个暑假的时间，简直不要太快！它的叶子又细又长，茎干又高又直，身姿很挺拔。
不过，亚麻最神奇的地方还是它的花。想象一下，你正站在一片广阔的田野里。眼前不是绿色的草地，而是一片天空蓝色的花海，在微风中轻轻摇曳。你能感觉到柔软的花瓣，看到细长的花茎努力地向着太阳生长。这片美景，简直就像天空的倒影，让很多人都爱上了亚麻田。虽然很多亚麻开的是蓝花，但它家族里的其他成员也带给我们惊喜，有的开白花、黄花，甚至是红花。因为它太漂亮了，所以亚麻不仅是用来做布料的重要经济作物，还是一种很棒的观赏植物，人们喜欢把它种在花园里。所以说，这种又忙碌又美丽的植物，既给了我们实用的东西，也给了我们自然的美景。你还知道哪些来自大自然的材料，在我们的日常生活中帮上了大忙呢？
接下来，是我们的第二个故事。我们要坐上“时光机”，去参观中国的清华大学科学博物馆，一个让科学史变得鲜活起来的地方。这可不是一个普普通通的博物馆。它是国内第一家收藏型、综合类的科学博物馆，里面聚集了超过8000件科学仪器和制品！这收藏品也太多了吧！要是把这些展品一个个排队站好，队伍能有好几公里长，相当于绕着学校400米跑道狂奔5圈呢！
博物馆的团队为了这些收藏付出了很多努力。他们有一个简单但厉害的计划：“收”、“买”、“造”。他们收集学校里外的旧仪器，号召校友们捐赠；他们用筹集来的钱从国外买回珍贵的历史文物。但最让人激动的部分是，他们通过“制造”历史，完美地复原那些已经失传的科技杰作。
这些可不是简单的模型。博物馆有一个专门的实验室来做这件事。比如，他们按一比一的比例，重新造出了功能完备的“北宋水运仪象台”。这是一台1000多年前的机器，代表了中国古代在机械和天文学领域的最高成就。想象一下，你置身于一个安静的作坊，能闻到木头和金属的气味，听到工具发出的细微声响。一个团队正在小心翼翼地组装着这台有齿轮和链条的复杂机器。他们不只是在造一个新东西，而是让一个千年奇迹复活，用来激励我们新一代的年轻人。
复原这些古代发明可是一项巨大的挑战。团队曾经尝试复原早期的静电发生装置“霍克斯比起电机”。他们遇到了一个奇怪的问题：他们造出来的机器，效果没有历史书里记载的原版好。经过反复研究，他们终于找到了原因。原来，他们用的玻璃太现代化、太纯净了！古代的玻璃含有更多杂质，反而更容易产生静电。那该怎么办呢？他们就学习古法玻璃制造工艺，重新吹制了一个和原版一样的玻璃球。这下，机器完美运行了！
这个博物馆还能帮助我们正确地理解科学。一位学生志愿者分享了一个有趣的故事。很多人都听说过，瓦特是因为看到蒸汽顶起壶盖才发明了蒸汽机。但这位志愿者解释说，这个故事并不完全准确。蒸汽机真正的原理，更多是和蒸汽变回水的过程有关，这个过程叫作“液化”。这件事告诉我们，科学的精神就是寻找真相，而不仅仅是重复那些流行的故事。通过亲手复原这些古老的工具，科学家们才能真正理解它们的工作原理。如果是你，要用现代材料去复原一件古代工具，你觉得会遇到哪些挑战呢？
以上就是今天的所有内容了。我们既看到了快速生长的亚麻所展现的简约之美，也见证了那些让古代机械奇迹重现的智慧头脑。请大家保持开放的视野和好奇心，我们下期“新闻探索时间”再见！
听力问题（中英文）
- How tall can a flax plant grow in about 100 days? (亚麻植物在大约100天内能长多高？)
- What was the main problem scientists faced when trying to recreate Hauksbee’s electrical machine? (科学家们在尝试复原霍克斯比起电机时遇到的主要问题是什么？)
- Besides collecting and buying, what is the third way the Tsinghua Science Museum acquires its exhibits? (除了收集和购买，清华大学科学博物馆用哪第三种方法来获得展品？)
- According to the museum volunteer, why is the popular story about James Watt and the steam engine not entirely correct? (根据博物馆志愿者的说法，为什么那个流传很广的关于瓦特和蒸汽机的故事不完全正确？)
参考答案（中英文)
- It can grow up to one meter tall. (它可以长到一米高。)
- The modern glass they used was too pure to generate static electricity easily, unlike the older glass with more impurities. (他们使用的现代玻璃太纯净了，不像含有更多杂质的古法玻璃那样容易产生静电。)
- The third way is to “make” them, by creating replicas of lost technological masterpieces. (第三种方法是“制造”它们，也就是复原那些已经失传的科技杰作。)
- Because the real principle of the steam engine is more about steam liquefaction (turning back into water), not just the simple pushing force of steam. (因为蒸汽机真正的原理更多是关于蒸汽的液化（变回水的过程），而不仅仅是蒸汽的推力。)