It took decades to tease out the truth of Debereiner's conjecture, and thus to construct the periodic table-in which the alkali metals form the first column.

科学家们证实Debereiner猜想的正确性用了数十年的时间，也因此建立了元素周期表——碱金属组成了第一族。

If mercury can get to the pure aluminum, like through a scratch on the plane, it immediately starts to react and seep into the metal, forming an amalgam.

如果汞可以接触到纯铝的话，就像通过飞机上的划痕一样，它会立即开始反应并渗入金属中，形成汞合金。

Next, you have the alkaline earth metals - reactive metals, but not as reactive as the alkali metals, forming cations with two positive charges instead of just one.

接下来，你有碱土金属 - 活泼金属， 但不像碱金属那样活泼，形成带有两个正电荷而不是一个正电荷的阳离子。