The microphone is a discovery as well as an invention, and the true explanation of its action is as yet merely an hypothesis. It is supposed that the vibrations put the carbons in a tremor and cause them to approach more or less nearly, thus closing or opening the breach between them, which is, as it were, the floodgate of the current.英文原著 · 《Heroes of the Telegraph》
He could think of Keats on his way from a felony! He could hanker for his fireside like another! Floodgates were loosed within me, and the plain English of our adventure rushed over me as cold as ice. Raffles was a burglar. I had helped him to commit one burglary, therefore I was a burglar, too. Yet I could stand and warm myself by his fire, and watch him empty his pockets, as though we had done nothing wonderful or wicked!英文原著 · 《The Amateur Cracksman》
Strong and free, strong and free, The floodgates are open, away to the sea, Free and strong, free and strong, Cleansing my streams as I hurry along, To the golden sands, and the leaping bar, And the taintless tide that awaits me afar. As I lose myself in the infinite main, Like a soul that has sinned and is pardoned again. Undefiled, for the undefiled; Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child. So Tom went down; and all the while he never saw the Irishwoman going down behind him.英文原著 · 《The Water-Babies》
The floodgate's burst. They're not to be restrained. [Enter Melchthal and Baumgarten.] MELCH. Stands the fortress still, when Sarnen lies In ashes, and the Rossberg's in our hands? FURST. You, Melchthal, here? D'ye bring us liberty? Are all the Cantons from our tyrants freed?英文原著 · 《Wilhelm Tell》