阅读第三十四篇：病毒电池

　　Batteries Built by Viruses

　　What do chicken pox, the common cold, the flu, and AIDS have in common? They're all disease caused by viruses, tiny microorganisms that can pass from person to person. It's no wonder1 that when most people think about viruses, finding ways to steer clear of2 viruses is what's on people's minds。

　　Not everyone runs from the tiny disease carriers, though3. In Cambridge, Massachusetts4, scientists have discovered that some viruses can be helpful in an unusual way. They are putting viruses to work, teaching them to build some of the world's smallest rechargeable batteries。

　　Viruses and batteries may seem like an unusual pair, but they're not so strange for engineer Angela Belcher, who first came up with5 the idea. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, she and her collaborators bring together different areas of science in new ways. In the case of the virus-built batteries, the scientists combine what they know about biology', technology and production techniques。

　　Belcher's team includes Paula Hammond, who helps put together the tiny batteries, and Yet- Ming Chiang, an expert on how to store energy in the form of a battery. "We're working on things we traditionally don't associate with nature," says Hammond。

　　Many batteries are already pretty small. You can hold A, C and D batteries6 in your hand. The coin-like batteries that power watches are often smaller than a penny. However, every year, new electronic devices like personal music players or cell phones get smaller than the year before. As these devices shrink, ordinary batteries won't be small enough to fit inside。

　　The ideal battery will store a lot of energy in a small package. Right now, Belcher's model battery, a metallic disk completely built by viruses, looks like a regular watch battery. But inside, its components are very small — so tiny you can only see them with a powerful microscope。

　　How small are these battery parts? To get some idea of the size, pluck one hair from your head. Place your hair on a piece of white paper and try to see how wide your hair is — pretty thin, right? Although the width of each person's hair is a bit different, you could probably fit about 10 of these virus-built battery parts, side to side, across one hair. These microbatteries may change the way we look at viruses'。

　　练习：

　　1. According to the first paragraph, people try to

　　A. kill microorganisms related to chicken pox, the flu, etc。

　　B. keep themselves away from viruses because they are invisible。

　　C. stay away from viruses because they are causes of various diseases。

　　D. cure themselves of virus-related diseases by taking medicines。

　　2. What is Belcher's team doing at present?

　　A. It is finding ways to get rid of viruses。

　　B. It is mass-producing microbatteries。

　　C. It is making batteries with viruses。

　　D. It is analyzing virus genes。

　　3. What expression below is opposite in meaning to the word "shrink" appearing in paragraph 5?

　　A. Broaden。

　　B. Spread。

　　C. Extend。

　　D. Expand。

　　4. Which of the following is true of Belcher's battery mentioned in paragraph 6?

　　A. It is made of metal。

　　B. It is a kind of watch battery。

　　C. It can only be seen with a microscope。

　　D. It is a metallic disk with viruses inside it。

　　5. How tiny is one battery part?

　　A. Its width is one tenth of a hair。

　　B. It equals the width of a hair。

　　C. It is as thin as a piece of paper。

　　D. Its width is too tiny to measure。

　　译文：

　　水痘、普通感冒、流感和艾滋病有哪些相似之处呢？这些都是由病毒引起的疾病。病毒是能够在人与人之间传染的微生物。难怪大部分人一提到病毒，首先想到的是如何躲避病毒。

　　然而， 并不是每个人都躲避这些病毒携带者。在马萨诸塞州剑桥市，科学家发现有些病毒能起到非同寻常的作用。他们使病毒开始工作，使病毒构成世界上最小的充电电池。

　　病毒和电池的搭档似乎并不常见，但这对于工程师安吉拉·贝尔彻来说却并不陌生。安吉拉·贝尔彻最早产生了这一想法。在位于剑桥市的麻省理工学院，她和合作者一起用新方式融合了不同的科学领域。在由病毒构成的电池里，科学家融合了他们在生物、技术和生产工艺方面的知识。

　　贝尔彻的团队包括帮助组装微型电池的宝拉·哈蒙德和以电池形式存储能量的专家蒋业明。哈蒙德说，“我们现在从事的行业是传统中不会想到的。”

　　许多电池已经很小了。A型、C型和D型电池都可以握在手里。硬币形状的手表电池通常比分币还小。然而，个人音乐播放器和手机等新型电子设备变得越来越小。这些设备变小了，普通电池就无法安装进去了。

　　理想的电池应当体积小、储能多。 ，贝尔彻的电池模型是完全由病毒构成的金属圆盘，看起来就像普通手表电池。但里面的部件却非常小——小到用高倍望远镜才能看到。

　　这些电池部件到底有多小呢？从头上拔一根头发，把它放到白纸上，看看头发的宽度——是不是很细呢？尽管每个人的头发宽度不同，每个头发上可以并列排放大约10个病毒电池部件。这些为电池能会改变我们对病毒的看法。

上一页 1 2 3 4 5 6 下一页

    更多信息请访问：新浪英语考试频道 英语考试论坛

　　特别说明：由于各方面情况的不断调整与变化，新浪网所提供的所有考试信息仅供参考，敬请考生以权威部门公布的正式信息为准。