We use pencils to write and erasers to erase what we've written. But no one knows who invented the pencil or when it was invented. The Swiss Conrad Gesner described a pencil in a book in 1565. Mr Gesner said it was a piece of wood or bamboo with lead inside it. Pencils weren't popular, and people continued to write with pens. They used bird feathers as pens.
我们用铅笔写字，用橡皮擦掉写下的字。但没人知道铅笔是谁发明的，是何时被发明的。1565 年，瑞士人康拉德·杰斯纳在一本书中描述了铅笔。杰斯纳先生说，铅笔是里面装着铅的一段木头或竹子。铅笔当时并不流行，人们继续用钢笔书写。他们把鸟羽作为钢笔使用。
Then, in 1795, some pioneers founded the pencil industry when they started making pencils from graphite chips, and pencils became very popular. One pencil can make a line as long as 55 kilometres.
后来，在 1795 年，一些先驱者开始用石墨片制作铅笔，从而创立了铅笔行业，铅笔开始大受欢迎。一支铅笔可以画出一条 55 千米长的线。
People then used pens with metal points. They had to dip the point into ink after every few letters. Next, someone invented a fountain pen that could hold ink inside. A fountain pen can write several pages before you have to fill it again. Nowadays, there are purple or silver inks that allow you to write in fancy colours.
后来人们使用带金属笔尖的笔。他们每写几个字母就得用笔尖蘸一下墨水。之后，有人发明了能在内部储存墨水的自来水笔。一支自来水笔可以写好几页纸，然后才需要再填充墨水。如今，有紫色或银色的墨水，可以让你用绚丽的颜色书写。
Two brothers, Ladislao and Georg Biro, invented the ballpoint pen. Pilots liked the pens. They couldn't write with fountain pens in planes because the ink leaked out. Some of today's ballpoint pens have a spring inside, so that you can hide the point when you are not writing. Companies use colourful packs, maybe printed with cute animals like rabbits or giraffes, to attract customers. Whatever they look like, we see them everywhere on sale and use them every day.
拉迪斯劳和乔治·毕罗两兄弟发明了圆珠笔。飞行员们喜欢这种笔。他们不能在飞机上使用自来水笔，因为墨水会漏出来。现在的一些圆珠笔内部有弹簧，以便不写字时可以将笔尖收起来。商家会使用丰富多彩的包装，上面可能印有可爱的动物图案，如兔子或长颈鹿，以吸引顾客。无论它们长什么样，我们都能看到它们在各处售卖，而且我们每天都在使用着它们。