High 2 · Reading series
Lesson 10 · The Useful Word “Maybe”
Audio track 10
Listen first
Listen once before opening the English passage.
Open the English passage and hover for word help
When our stream turned cloudy, I immediately blamed construction upstream. The timing seemed obvious. My partner wrote “maybe” beside my sentence, and I thought she was being weak.
We collected water samples with our teacher on three different days. The stream was clearest after a dry week and cloudier after heavy rain. Soil washed from several paths could explain part of the change. Construction might still have contributed, but our observations could not separate it from the rain.
Our final report used words such as “may,” “suggest,” and “under these conditions.” At first I worried that readers would think we had learned nothing. Then I saw how these words protected the real discovery: we had found a pattern and identified what further evidence was needed.
“Maybe” is not an escape from thinking. Used carefully, it marks the boundary between what we know and what we still need to test. That boundary helped us ask a better question next time.
Check your understanding
After reading, state the main idea in one sentence and find a line that supports it.
Chinese translation
小溪变浑浊时，我立刻把原因归咎于上游施工。时间刚好对得上，我觉得答案显而易见。搭档却在我的句子旁写下‘也许’，当时我还觉得她太不坚定。
在老师陪同下，我们在不同的三天采集水样。连着一周天晴后，小溪最清；大雨后则更浑。多条小路上的泥土被冲进水里，也能解释部分变化。施工可能仍有影响，但现有观察无法把它与降雨的作用分开。
最后的报告用了‘可能’‘提示’‘在这些条件下’等表达。起初，我担心读者以为我们毫无收获。后来才明白，这些词恰好保护了真正的发现：我们看出了一种规律，也明确了还需要什么证据。
‘也许’不是逃避思考。谨慎使用时，它标出已知与待检验之间的界线。这条界线帮助我们下次提出更好的问题。
Key words and expressions
Key terms have Chinese explanations. Hover over dotted words in the English passage for word help and pronunciation when available.
- cloudy
- 浑浊的；暴雨后溪水变混。
- upstream
- 上游；施工所在的方向。
- timing
- 时间关系；主人公把先后当作原因。
- collected
- 采集；师生获取水样。
- samples
- 样本；在三天取的水。
- contributed
- 产生影响；施工仍有可能参与。
- observations
- 观察记录；不足以分离原因。
- suggest
- 提示；不等于证明。
- evidence
- 证据；还需进一步收集。
- boundary
- 界线；区分已知与待测。
Background notes (Chinese)
时间相近不等于因果关系已证实。降雨和施工都可能影响浑浊度，有限的采样无法分离两者；报告用限定词准确表达证据边界。