The ingredients1 of the golf ball have gone through several changes over the history of the game.The first balls were made out of wood. That made them pretty easy to make， but they couldn't really travel too far--maybe 100 yards2.But then a group of Scottish golf scientists figured that if feathers can help birds to fly， maybe they can help the golf ball take off.So they started making balls out of boiled chicken and goose feathers and wrapping them up in leather.A ball could now be hit nearly 200 yards.The only problem was that they took a long time to make.

They soon found that sap(液，汁) from rubber trees in Malaysia could be easily molded3 into golf balls. The final scientific change to the golf ball was adding all those little dimples(淺凹，小坑). Players noticed that a ball would travel further after it had been scuffed (使磨損) up and bashed (猛擊) around for a while.So they decided to make a bunch of indents (凹口，缺口) in the ball to start with.Since then the golf ball has basically stayed the same.Now you're probably wondering how many dimples are on golf ball.Well， the number varies anywhere from 330 to 500 dimples. That's a lot of dimples!

在高爾夫球運(yùn)動的發(fā)展歷史中，高爾夫球的制作材料經(jīng)歷過數(shù)次變革。最初的高爾夫球是用木頭做的。這種高爾夫球制作起來非常簡便，不過它們不能被打出很遠(yuǎn)，可能也就100碼。不過后來有一些研究高爾夫球的蘇格蘭科學(xué)家想：既然羽毛能幫助鳥兒飛翔，也許它們也可以使高爾夫球“飛”起來。因此他們開始用皮革將煮沸過的雞和鵝的羽毛包起來做成高爾夫球。這種高爾夫球可以被打出將近200碼。惟一的問題就是，做這種高爾夫球太費(fèi)時間。

科學(xué)家們很快又發(fā)現(xiàn)，用生長在馬來西亞的橡膠樹的汁液也很容易制成高爾夫球。高爾夫球的最后一次科技變革是在球表面加上許多小凹坑。球手們注意到一個高爾夫球在經(jīng)過一段時間的磨損和撞擊之后可以被打得更遠(yuǎn)，因此他們決定一開始就使高爾夫球上有許多凹坑。從那時起，高爾夫球基本上就一直保持著這個樣子。你可能想知道，高爾夫球表面到底有多少凹坑?總數(shù)大約是330-500個之間。確實(shí)夠多的了!

注釋：

1. ingredient n. 組成部分，成分，原料

2． yard n． 碼 （1碼=3英尺，合0.9144米）

3． mold vt． 把…塑造成