[教育补习] 有关词根kilo-和micro-的讲解

英语中存在着一类是可以独立使用的符号——单词（如moon,eat等），另一类是不可独立使用的符号——词根（如lun,vis等），正是这种“一个意义，二种符号”的现象形成了数以万计的英语词汇。

英语词根(root)是有限的，但是它们的能量很大，它们“领导”和“统辖”了英语中约80%的词汇，这是我们快速、科学、有效记忆大量英语词汇基础。

今天我们来看两个词根，kilo-和micro-。

KILO是希腊词语chilioi的法语版，意思是“thousand”。

法国大革命后，采用了强制性的新单位——公制，一种国际的度量衡制度。继而公制逐渐被全世界多个国家定为官方制度。1858年，公制传入中国。

在英语中，kilo-主要在公制单位中出现，如kilometer。

在计算机发明之前，大家最熟悉的单位莫过于kilowatt和kilowatt-hour。kilowatt的意思是“1000瓦特”，kilowatt-hour的意思是“千瓦时”——一千瓦在一小时内消耗的能量。

同样，当今人们在表示工资时，常用3k、8k、1.1k来表示，后面的k即kilo的意思，表示“千”。

A kilometer is equal to about 62/100 of a mile, and amile is equal to about 1.61 kilometers.

Footraces are usually measured in meters or kilometers,just like the Olympic races. Runners ofter abbreviate kilometer to K:“ a 5K race” or “a 10K run”, and so on.

The original concept of the kilogram, as the mass of acubic decimeter of water was adopted as the base unit of mass by the newrevolutionary government of France in 1793.

In 1889 a new international standard for the kilogram, ametal bar made of platinum iridium, was agreed to.

Hertz honor the great German physicist Henrich Hertz, the first person tobroadcast and receive radio waves.

If your favourite AM radio station has a frequency of 680 kilohertz(kHz),that means the station’s transmitter isoscillating(vibrating) at a rate of 680,000 cycles per second.

A related term is megahertz(MHz), meaning “millions of cycles per second.”

MICRO来源于希腊词汇mikros，意思是“small”，小的，微观的。

A microscopelets the eye see microscopic objects. 显微镜可以让眼睛看到微观事物。

在老报刊、报纸行业，人们还保留着只有原始大小的1/400比例的microfilm（微缩胶卷）。

在现实生活中，micro-是一个非常常见、易于理解的前缀，如microbus（小型公共汽车）、microquake（微型地震）、Microsoft（微软公司）。

在科学方面，科学家常用micro-表示“millionth”，“百万分之一”。因此，microsecond（微秒，百万分之一秒）是一秒的百万分之一，micrometer是一米的百万分之一。

A hint of theGreek word bios, meaning “life”, can be seen in microbe.

Microbes, ormicroorganisms, include bacteria, protozoa, fungi, algae, amoebas and slimemolds.

Many peoplethink of microbes as simply the causes of disease, but every human is actuallythe host of billions of microbes, and most of them are essential to our life.

Sincemicroorganisms are involved in almost every aspect of life on earth,microbiologists work across a broad range of subject areas.

A marinemicrobiologist studies the roles of microbial communities in the sea.

A soilmicrobiologist might focus on the use and spread of nitrogen.

Some arestudying whether microbes could adapt to life on the surface of Mars.

Microbrews areusually beers or ales made with special malts and hops.

Many microbreweriesdouble as bar/restaurants, call brewpubs, where the gleaming vats may bevisible behind a glass partition.

But noteveryone is willing to pay extra for a beer, and lots of people are simply usedto the blander taster of the best-selling beers, so by 2008 microbrews stillonly accounted for about 4% of all beer sold in the U.S.

今天的词根讲解就为大家介绍到这里，分别学习了kilo-(千）和micro-（微小的），大家在学习之后，再次在词汇中见到它们，不妨根据组合的意思做一个猜测，再去根据真实意思做一下判断。随着反复使用，一定会有更好的理解进步。

好奇下次给大家带来什么故事和词根吗？敬请期待。