在论文写作中，ratio也是一个非常“实用”的单词，其汉语翻译是比，比率[the relation between two similar magnitudes with respect to the number of times the first contains the second, or a relationship between two numbers of the same kind (e.g., objects, persons, students, spoonfuls, units of whatever identical dimension), e.g. "the ratio of a to b, expressed as a:b or a/b."]， 比例（proportional relation, rate, e.g. "the ratio between acceptances and rejections."）等，例如，“The best-fit NFe values vary somewhat between the synthetic allophane samples, but do not vary systematically with the Al:Si ratio.”从下面的几则实例中我们可看到ratio的各种用法。

★Birthrates are low throughout East Asia. The ratio of people 15 to 64 to those 65 and older will plummet from about 7 to 1 to 3 to 1 in the next 15 years in Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, dragging down growth.

★Researchers have warned that large sex-ratio imbalances could lead to instability as more men remain unmarried, raising the risks of anti-social and violent behavior.

★The ratio of width to height of standard-definition television is 4:3.

★From volumetric swell tests, the ratio between vertical and volumetric swell strains was close to 0.5 (1/2).

★Thus, the present results suggest a model of allophane structure in which one fundamental structural type, containing a complete octahedral sheet, can accommodate a range of Al:Si ratios.

★The observation that the best fit models for the 2:1, 1:1, and 1:3 allophane samples were similar to one another suggests that considerably additional Si may be incorporated into the allophane structure without large changes in the fundamental structure of the particle.

★Harder (1976, 1978) also noted that the formation of Fe-rich clay minerals was promoted by synthesis at pH>7, and that nontronite formed in solutions with Fe:Si between 1:10 and 1:3.

★The widely used olivine + pyroxene → serpentine (ol + px → srp) reaction is quantitatively inconsistent with observed ratios of olivine to pyroxene and olivine to serpentine in CM carbonaceous chondrites.

★A fundamental challenge in defining the allophane structure is that allophane range in composition from high-Al types, with Al:Si close to 2, to high-Si types, with Al:Si near 0.5. An imogolite-like nanoball allophane structure modeled by Creton et al. (2008a) has an Al:Si ratio of 2:1, with Si atoms in individual orthosilicate units bonded to a rolled octahedral Al sheet. If higher-Si allophanes form similar nanoballls, the structure must be modified to accommodate considerably more Si.