What Causes Thunder and Lightning?

课文

1. Lightning occurs when massive static electricity builds up inside storm clouds due to collisions between ice particles and water droplets.

   闪电是雷暴云中冰粒与水滴碰撞，导致大量静电积聚而产生的。

2. When the electrical difference between cloud and ground—or between two clouds—becomes too great, a sudden discharge happens.

   当云层与地面之间（或两片云之间）的电位差过大时，就会突然放电。

3. This discharge heats the surrounding air to over 30,000°C, causing it to expand explosively and create a shock wave we hear as thunder.

   这种放电将周围空气瞬间加热至3万摄氏度以上，使其剧烈膨胀，形成我们听到的雷声冲击波。

4. Because light travels much faster than sound, we always see lightning before hearing thunder — roughly 1 second per 340 meters.

   因为光速远快于声速，我们总是先看到闪电、后听到雷声——约每340米延迟1秒。

5. A single lightning bolt can carry over one billion volts of electricity and last just 30 microseconds.

   一道闪电可携带逾10亿伏电压，持续时间仅30微秒。

6. Although lightning looks like a single flash, it often consists of several rapid strokes traveling along the same path.

   闪电看似单次闪光，实则常由沿同一路径快速发生的多次回击组成。

7. Thunder cannot occur without lightning, but sometimes distant lightning is too far to see — we call this 'heat lightning'.

   无闪电便无雷声；但有时远处闪电太远而不可见，我们称之为‘热闪电’。

8. Wearing rubber-soled shoes won’t protect you from lightning, since voltage overwhelms such small insulation.

   穿橡胶底鞋无法防雷，因为电压足以击穿这点微小绝缘。