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 t0 steer clear of² viruses is what"s on people"s minds．

    Not everyone runs from the tiny disease carders, 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 l o of these virus—built battery parts，side to side，across one hair．These microbatteries may change the way we look at viruses⁷．

 

词汇：

chicken pox水痘

microorganism n．微生物

metallic adj．金属的

collaborator n．合作者，协作者

pluck v．拔，摘，采

 

注释：

1．no wonder：不足为奇的，难怪

2．steer clear of：避开，绕开

3．though：意思为“然而，可是”。在句中使用时通常放在句末。

4．Cambridge，Massachusetts：马萨诸塞州的剑桥市。本文第三段提到的the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge即指坐落于剑桥市的麻省理工学院。麻省理工学院于1861年由著名自然科学家威廉·巴罗吉杰斯创立。这是美国的一所私立研究型大学，培养高级科技人才和管理人才，是以理工科为主的、世界一流的综合性大学。

5．came up with：提出

6．A，C and D batteries：A、C、D均为电池型号。

7．These microbatteries may change the way we look at viruses：这些微型电池可能会改变我们看待病毒的方式。作者想表达的意思是：人们一直认为病毒有害无益，现在病毒可用来制作电池，人们对病毒的看法可能会因此而发生变化。

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．

Charlie Bucket was a small boy in a very poor family. (61) once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie ever get to (62) a bit of chocolate. The whole family saved (63) their money for that special (64) , and when the great day arrived, Charlie was always presented (65) one small chocolate bar to eat all (66) himself.
And each time he received it (67) those marvelous birthday mornings, he would place it (68) in a small wooden box that he owned, and (69) it as thought it were a bar of (70) gold; and for the next few days, he would (71) himself only to look at it, (72) never to touch it. Then at last, (73) he could stand it no longer, he would strip a (74) bit of the paper wrapping(包装材料) at one corner to (75) a tiny bit of chocolate, and (76) he would take at tiny amount of it-just (77) to allow the lovely sweet taste to spread out slowly over his (78) . The next day, he would take another tiny amount, and so on. And in this (79) Charlie would make his sixpenny bar of birthday chocolate (80) him for more than a month.

76（）

A:large B:limited C:tiny D:minor

Charlie Bucket was a small boy in a very poor family. (61) once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie ever get to (62) a bit of chocolate. The whole family saved (63) their money for that special (64) , and when the great day arrived, Charlie was always presented (65) one small chocolate bar to eat all (66) himself.
And each time he received it (67) those marvelous birthday mornings, he would place it (68) in a small wooden box that he owned, and (69) it as thought it were a bar of (70) gold; and for the next few days, he would (71) himself only to look at it, (72) never to touch it. Then at last, (73) he could stand it no longer, he would strip a (74) bit of the paper wrapping(包装材料) at one corner to (75) a tiny bit of chocolate, and (76) he would take at tiny amount of it-just (77) to allow the lovely sweet taste to spread out slowly over his (78) . The next day, he would take another tiny amount, and so on. And in this (79) Charlie would make his sixpenny bar of birthday chocolate (80) him for more than a month.

74（）

A:large B:limited C:tiny D:minor

In 2000, with little but a bar and a church left to make it a destination,, tiny St. James, Nebraska, was taken off state highway maps. Then the church closed, and the small farm village in the state’s northeast comer looked set to just disappear. Thanks to five devoted women, it didn’t.
In May 2001, after meeting with staff from the Center for Rural Affairs, the friends -- Louise Guy, Vicky Koch, Jeanette Pinkelan, Mary Rose Pinkelman and Violet Pinkelman -- opened a weekend market for vendors (小商贩) to sell handcrafts and local food.
"We felt like, what can we do to bring the community together" says Mary Rose Pinkelman. "We decided to make a place to sell local goods." They set up shop in the church school, which, though closed for nearly 40 years, had been well maintained. The first weekend, 16 vendors took over an old classroom. The result was an instant hit. Today, the market draws up to 70 vendors -- who sell such items as homemade jellies, baked goods, hand-woven rugs, and farm-grown produce -- and what Pinkelman calls an unexpected number of visitors. In the process, the market has made St. James a destination again, putting it back on the state road map.

St. James in this passage is （）

A:a small village B:a little farm C:a tiny city D:a little town

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 wonder that when most people think about viruses, finding ways to steer clear of viruses is what’s on people’s minds.
Not everyone runs from the tiny disease carders, though. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, 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 with 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 batteries 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 lots of these virus-built battery parts, side to side, across one hair. These micro-batteries may change the way we look at viruses.

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.

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 wonder that when most people think about viruses, finding ways to steer clear of viruses is what’s on people’s minds.
Not everyone runs from the tiny disease carders, though. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, 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 with 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 batteries 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 lots of these virus-built battery parts, side to side, across one hair. These micro-batteries may change the way we look at viruses.
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 measur

Why does cream go bad faster than butter Some researchers think they have the answer, and it comes down to the structure of the food, not its chemical composition--a finding that could help rid some processed foods of chemical preservatives.
Cream and butter contain pretty much the same substances, so why cream should sour much faster has been a mystery. Both are emulsions--tiny globules(小球体)of one liquid evenly distributed throughout another. The difference lies in what’s in the globules and what’s in the surrounding liquid, says Brocklehurst, who led the investigation.
In cream, fatty globules drift about in a sea of water. In butter, globules of a watery solution are locked away in a sea of fat. The bacteria which make the food go bad prefer to live in the watery regions of the mixture. "This means that in cream, the bacteria are free to grow throughout the mixture," he says.
When the situation is reversed, the bacteria are locked away in compartments(隔仓室)buried deep in the sea of fat. Trapped in this way, individual colonies cannot spread and rapidly run out nutrients(养料). They also slowly poison themselves with their waste products. "In butter, you get a self--limiting system which stops the bacteria growing," says Broeklehurst.
The researchers are already working with food companies keen to see if their products can be made resistant to bacterial attack through alterations to the food’s structure. Brocklehurst believes it will be possible to make the emulsions used in salad cream, for instance, more like that in butter. The key will be to do this while keeping the salad cream liquid and not turning in into a solid lump.
The word "colonies" (Par

A:A．4) refers to ______. tiny globules watery regions bacteria communities little compartments

{{B}}第三篇{{/B}}

The word "colonies" (Para. 4) refers to ______.

A:tiny globules B:watery regions C:bacteria communities D:little compartments

{{B}}第三篇{{/B}}

The word" colonies" refers to ______。

A:tiny globules B:watery regions C:bacteria communities D:little compartments