2012职称英语考试阅读理解及翻译

一、职称英语阅读理解文章（理工类）译文(参加理工A、B、C级考试需要掌握文章) (3)

第一篇福特放弃电动汽车 (3)

Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles (3)

第二篇世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值 (4)

World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict (5)

第三篇公民科学家 (5)

Citizen Scientists (6)

第四篇汽车技术 (6)

Motoring Technology (7)

第五篇深夜喝咖啡 (7)

Late-night Drinking (8)

第六篇编制灯光 (8)

Weaving with Light (9)

第七篇用糖为手机发电 (9)

Sugar Power for Cell Phones (10)

第八篇引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔 (10)

Eiffel Is an Eyeful (11)

第九篇埃及饱受饥饿折磨 (11)

Egypt felled by famine (12)

第十篇年轻雌猩猩学习优于她们的弟兄 (12)

Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers (13)

第十一篇申请个人域名的网上费用 (14)

The Net Cost of Making a Name for Yourself (14)

第十二篇纳佛罗里达遭受冷气团袭击 (15)

Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass (15)

第十三篇隐形环 (15)

Invisibility Ring (16)

第十四篇日本用来监视醉酒司机的新型概念车 (17)

Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers (17)

第十五篇肋生双翅机器人学飞行 (18)

Winged Robot Learns to Fly (18)

第十六篇日本人的地心旅行 (19)

Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth (19)

第十七篇地球防晒霜 (20)

A Sunshade for the Planet (20)

第十八篇石油匮乏 (21)

Thirst for Oil (21)

第十九篇延长人类寿命 (22)

Prolonging Human Life (22)

第二十篇深海探索器 (23)

Explorer of the Extreme Deep (23)

第二十一篇植物，沼气的又一来源 (24)

Plant Gas (24)

第二十二篇雪花 (25)

第二十三篇风力发电？轻而易举 (26)

Powering a City? It?s a Breeze (27)

第二十四篇地下煤引发即将来临的灾难 (27)

Underground Coal Fires a Looming Catastrophe (28)

第二十五篇为了活着吃饭 (29)

Eat to Live (29)

第二十六篇男女飞行员引起飞行事故的差异 (30)

Male and Female Pilots Cause Accidents Differently (30)

第二十七篇分散注意力驾驶 (31)

Driven to Distraction (32)

第二十八篇睡眠促使记忆归档存储 (33)

Sleep Lets Brain File Memories (33)

第二十九篇古怪食物 (34)

Food Fright (34)

二、职称英语阅读理解文章译文(参加理工A、B级考试需要掌握文章) (35)

第三十篇数码王国 (35)

Digital Realm (36)

第三十一篇卡特里娜飓风 (36)

Hurricane Katrina (37)

第三十二篇读心机 (37)

Mind-reading Machine (38)

第三十三篇专家呼吁局部和区域控制放射性废物地点 (39)

Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive Waste (39)

第三十四篇病毒电池 (40)

Batteries Built by Viruses (40)

第三十五篇植物效能 (41)

Putting Plants to Work (41)

第三十六篇听觉仪器提供早期山崩预警 (42)

Listening Device Provides Landslide Early Warning (43)

第三十七篇不要在就餐时间以外饮酒有了新含义 (43)

“Don?t Drink Alone” Gets New Meaning (44)

第三十八篇野生大象寿命更长 (45)

Longer Lives for Wild Elephants (45)

第三十九篇克隆农场 (46)

Clone Farm (46)

第四十篇污染云团在太平洋两岸均被测量 (47)

Air Pollution Cloud Measured on Both Sides of Pacific (47)

三、职称英语阅读理解文章译文(参加理工A级考试需要掌握文章) (48)

第四十一篇全球变暖“缺油” (48)

Too Little for Global Warming (49)

第四十二篇可再生能源 (49)

Renewable Energy Sources (50)

第四十三篇天气预报的方法 (51)

第四十四篇捍卫进化论仍必要 (52)

Defending the Theory of Evolution Still Seems Needed (52)

第四十五篇咸度味感因人而异 (53)

Some People Do Not Taste Salt Like Others (54)

第四十六篇不可思议的超材料 (55)

Marvelous Metamaterials (55)

第四十七篇倾听鸟鸣 (56)

Listening to Birdsong (57)

第四十八篇“隐种”可能令人惊叹地普遍存在 (57)

"Hidden" Species May Be Surprisingly Common (58)

第四十九篇美国科学家确认火星上有水 (59)

U.S. Scientists Confirm Water on Mars (59)

第五十篇手机增加交通行人死亡 (60)

Cell Phones Increase Traffic, Pedestrian Fatalities (61)

一、职称英语阅读理解文章（理工类）译文(参加综合A、B、C级考

试需要掌握文章)

第一篇福特放弃电动汽车

分析人士评论，福特汽车公司放弃电动汽车的举动有力地证明了这种技术是行不通的。

通用汽车和日本本田公司早于1999 年就停止了电池动力汽车的生产，转而开发燃料电池和电池内燃混合机，这对消费者更吸引力。福特宣布它现在也要做同样的尝试。

3年前，福特推出名为Think City 的双排座汽车和Think 或Think Neighbor 系列高尔夫车。但由于需求不足，截至2002年仅生产了1 000 辆汽车，售出1 700辆高尔夫车。

“关键是我们认为电动车不能代表大众市场环保交通的未来”，福特欧洲区的Tim Holmes 于周五说，“我们感觉自己对电力车的两倍多。”日本丰田产的RA V4EV 系列电动车在美国的售价达42 000 美元，而同一系列的汽油动力车仅售17 000 美元。丰田和日产汽车公司是现在仅存的两在电动车制造商。

“应该说电池动力车已经获得了充分的机会。福特现已转向电池内燃混合机开发项目，我们应据此评价他们的发展。”Roger Higman, 英国Friends of the Earth组织的一位高级交通运动代表这样对《环保新闻》评论说。

日本本田和丰田公司推出的混合机汽车在过去几年取得了良好的销售业绩。混合动力车比汽油机车运行里程更长，电池又可自行充电。福特表示，他们认为这样的机车有助于达到美国新制订的车辆排放规定。

不过这些规定究竟允许怎样的排放现在还不十分清楚。六月份通用和戴姆勒克莱斯勒公司赢得一项法庭裁决，可推迟两年执行一项加州法令，该法令要求汽车生产商在2003 年前向该州提供10万辆零排放和其他低排放汽车。制造商希望修改此法令，允许他们生产现多低排放而不是零排放的汽车。

Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles

The Ford motor company?s abandonment of electric cars effectively signals the end of the road for the technology, analysts say.

General Motors and Honda ceased production of battery-powered cars in 1999, to focus on fuel cell and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer. Ford has now announced it will do the same.

Three years ago, the company introduced the Think City two-seater car and a golf cart called the THINK, or Think neighbor. It hoped to sell 5,000 cars each year and 10,000 carts. But a lack of demand means only about 1,000 of the cars have been produced, and less than 1,700 carts have been sold so far in 2002.

“The bottom line is we don?t believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market,”Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday. “We feel we have given electric our best shot.”

The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time General Motor?s EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range, of about 100 miles.

The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives. An electric Toyota RA V4 EV vehicle costs over $42,000 in the US, compared with just $17,000 for the petrol version. Toyota and Nissan are now the only major auto manufacturers to produce electric vehicles.

“There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its cha nce. Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program, and that is what we will be judging them on,” Roger Higman, a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth, told the Environment News Service.

Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well. Hybrid engines offer greater mileage than petrol-only engines, and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines on vehicle emissions in the US.

However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit. In June, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction, delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car-makers to offer 100,000 zero-emission and other low-emission vehicles in the state by 2003. Car manufactures hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more low-emission, rather than zero-emission, vehicles.

第二篇世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值

科威特科学家预测世界常规原油产量将在2014年达到峰值，这一发现可能会促进储存石油的努力。这一预测比其他预测提前了将近十年，已经发表在美国化学学会《能量与燃料》杂志上。

伊布赫姆·纳夏威和同事们指出，全球石油消耗的快速增长使人们对“石油峰值”预测的兴趣越来越浓。“石油峰值”指的是石油产量达到最大值后开始下降的时间点。科学家已经构建了几个模型来预测这一时间，有些模型认为这一时间在2020年或更晚。其中最著名的预测模型之一是赫伯特模型。赫伯特模型认为世界石油产量呈钟形曲线，与此相关的概念是“石油峰值”。这一术语指的是世界石油产量达到峰值的那一刻，之后将呈现无法逆转的下降趋势。

赫伯特模型精确地预测到美国石油产量于1970年达到峰值。这一模型从此受到欢迎，已经用于预测世界石油生产。

但是，最近研究表明，这一模型不足以解释某些国家更加复杂的石油生产周期。科学家称，这些生产周期受到技术变化、政策和其他因素的很大影响。

最近研究描述了赫伯特模型的新版本，提供了更加实际、更加准确的石油生产预测。科

学家使用新模型评估了47个主要产油国家的石油生产趋势，这47个国家是世界常规原油的主要提供者。科学家预计全球常规原油产量将于2014年达到峰值，比之前预计的要早很多年。科学家还指出，世界石油储量正在以 2.1%的速度逐年减少，他们认为新模型会帮助做出与能源相关的决定，帮助进行国家政策辩论。

World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. This prediction is almost a decade earlier than some other predictions. Their study is in ACS' Energy & Fuels1.

Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting "peak oil". "Peak oil" is the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models is called the Hubbert model2. It assumes that global oil production will follow a bell shaped curve3. A related concept is that4 of "Peak Oil." The term "Peak Oil" indicates the moment in which world wide production will peak, afterwards to start on irreversible decline.

The Hubbert model accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide.

However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for5 more complex oil production cycles of some countries. Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say.

The new study describes development of a new version of the Hubbert model that provides a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast. Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries, which supply most of the world's conventional crude oil6. They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world's oil reserves7 are being reduced at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy-related decisions and public policy debate, they-suggest.

第三篇公民科学家

理解大自然对气候变化有怎样的反应需要监视世界各个角落的关键生命周期事件——花开、叶子的出现、第一只青蛙叫出春天的到来。但是生态学家不可能去到世界的各个角落，所以他们向非科学家求助，这些非科学家有时也被称作公民科学家。

气象科学家不可能足迹遍及天下。因为在世界上有如此多的地方，没有足够的科学家来观察它们。所以他们请求你来帮助观察全世界气候变化的迹象。公民科学家运动鼓励普通人根据自己的兴趣来观察某一个特定的方面——鸟儿、树木、花开等等——并把他们的观察结果发送到一个巨大的数据库来供专业科学家研究。这有助于数量有限的科学家得到如果只靠他们自己根本收集不到的巨大数据。就像公民记者帮助报道传统新闻报道方式所忽略的小型社区的相关信息一样，公民科学家也对他们所居住的环境很熟悉。所需要的就是每天或每周留出几分钟来搜集数据并发送过来。

一群科学家和教育家在去年发起了一个叫做纽约国家物候学的组织。”物候学”就是科学家们所说的在自然中研究每个事件的时间。

其中一个小组的首要尝试就是依靠科学家和非科学家来收集关于每年植物开花和长叶子的数据。这一项目叫做花季追踪计划，它收集遍布美国的各种各样的植物生长周期的数据。参与这一项目的人们——这一计划对所有人开放——把他们的观察记录在花季追踪计划网站上。

“人们不需要是植物学家——他们仅仅需要环视四周看看周围有什么。”Jennifer Schwartz

说，她是这项计划的教育顾问。”通过收集数据，我们就能够估算出气候变化对植物和生物群落会有怎样的影响。”

Citizen Scientists

Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring key life cycle event—flowering, the appearance of leaves, the first frog calls of the spring—all around the world. But ecologists can?t be everywhere so they?re turning to non-scientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help.

Climate scientists are not present everywhere. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they?re asking for your help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement encourages ordinary people to observe a very specific research interest — birds, trees, flowers budding, etc. — and send their observations to a giant database to be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyper-local beat, citizen scientists are ready for the conditions where they live. All that?s needed to become one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it in.

A group of scientists and educators launched an organization last year called the National Phenology Network. “Phenology” is what scientists call the study of the timing of events in nature.

One of the group?s first efforts re lies on scientists and non-scientists alike to collect data about plant flowering and leafing every year. The program, called Project BudBurst, collects life cycle data on a variety of common plants from across the United States. People participating in the project—which is open to everyone—record their observations on the Project BudBurst website. “People don?t have to be plant experts -they just have to look around and see what?s in their neighborhood,” says Jennifer Schwartz, an education consultant with the project. “ As we collect this data, we?ll be able to make an estimate of how plants and communities of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes. ”

第四篇汽车技术

每年，全世界有120万起路面交通死亡事故，以及五千万起路面交通伤残事故。为降低车祸发生率，现在有很多研究将注意力放在行车安全和开发新型燃料上。而有些关于电动机车和生物燃料的研究旨在达到更快的速度。

高速驾驶一向是很危险的。一项在机动车安全前沿领域的研究是有关车内数字化辅助设施的。这些设施会确保司机们不会错过重要的路况指示牌或在开车时睡着。通过运用人工智能软件，这些辅助设施可监控行车过程并确保在关键时刻司机不会被手机或广播干扰注意力。许多车祸是由人为原因造成的而非机械故障。

一些行车安全方面的改进力图改善司机的视野。雷达可对雾中的障碍物定位，而其他的科技手段可透过阻碍你视线的高大车辆看到前方。

对安全带、刹车板控制和车胎的改进也使行车过程变得更／顷畅、安全。人们发现车的颜色与安全有关，令人不会感到惊讶的是，车的大小和形状也与安全有关。

从矿物燃料中提取的汽油的替代物，例如植物油，也是研究中的一个热门区域。取材于氢气的燃料电池燃烧时无污染，并已成为一项重要研究的攻克对象。

但不管燃料箱中盛为何物，你可不想在驾驶座上坐的是一个窃贼。对此，也有很多创新来打击汽车盗窃，其中一些运用了卫星跟踪和远程通讯。当发生车祸时，这些通讯系统也可起作用，自动地呼叫帮助。

交通事故可引发许多交通堵塞。但在一畅通却繁忙的路段上，汽车间也有很多的细微互动，从而导致可能的阻塞。此类阻塞可用数据统计工具来进行分析。被编程的机器人可使交通流动更顺畅，并有朝一日有望成为每个人的私家司机。但最新成果表明这种设想并非短期内可以实现。

Motoring Technology

1.2 million road deaths worldwide occur each year, plus a further 50 million injuries. To reduce car crash rate, much research now is focused on safety and new fuels －though some electric vehicle and biofuel research aims at going faster.

Travelling at speed has always been risky. One cutting edge area of research in motoring safety is the use of digital in-car assistants. They can ensure you don?t miss crucial road signs or fall asleep. The use of artificial intelligence software allows these assistants to monitor your driving and makes sure your phone or radio doesn?t distract you at a vital moment. Most crashes result from human and not mechanical faults.

Some safety developments aim to improve your vision. Radar can spot obstacles in fog, while other technology “sees through”high-sided vehicles blocking your view.

And improvements to seat belts, pedal controls and tyres are making driving smoother and safer. The colour of a car has been found to be linked with safety, as have, less surprisingly, size and shape.

And alternatives to fossil-fuel based petrol, such as plant oils, are a hot area of research. Fuel cells based on hydrogen burn cleanly, and are the subject of a serious research effort.

But whatever is in the fuel tank, you don?t want a thief in the driving seat and there have been many innovations, some using satellite tracking and remote communications, to fight against car theft. These communication systems can also come into play if you crash, automatically calling for help.

Accidents cause many traffic jams, but there are more subtle interplays between vehicles that can cause jams even on a clear but busy road. Such jams can be analysed using statistical tools. Robotic drivers could be programmed to make traffic flow smoothly and will perhaps one day be everyone?s personal chauffeur, but their latest efforts suggest that won?t be soon.

第五篇深夜喝咖啡

喜欢喝咖啡的人要小心了。晚上喝一杯快速提神的咖啡对你的睡眠造成严重破坏。并且咖啡因作为一种刺激物会打断褪黑激素的流动。褪黑激素是使人们进入睡眠的神经激素。

褪黑激素的浓度在睡前两小时开始上升。凌晨2点和4点之间达到最高植，然后再次下降。加利福尼亚斯坦福大学的斯坦福睡眠流行病学研究中心的Maurice Ohayon说：“控制我们睡眠是神经激素，它告诉我们的身体什么时候睡觉什么时候醒。”但是以色列的研究者发现含咖啡因咖啡能使人体中这种睡眠激素减半。

特拉维夫大学的塞帕医学中心的Lotan Shilo和一个小组发现六个志愿者在喝了一杯含

咖啡因的咖啡后平均每晚睡336分钟，而喝完脱咖啡后平均每晚睡415分钟，他们用半个小时才能睡着——比平常长一倍，而且翻来覆去的时间比平常多一倍。

在试验的第二阶段，研究者每三个小时叫醒志愿者一次，并要他们提供一个尿样。Shilo 测量了褪黑激素分解物的浓度。结果表明饮用含咖啡因咖啡的人体内的褪黑激素的浓度是饮

用脱咖啡因咖啡的人体内褪黑激素浓度的一半。在《睡眠知学》上发表的一篇论文中，研究者表示咖啡因阻碍促使褪黑激素产生的酶的形成。

Ohayon建议爱喝咖啡的人午饭后应该换喝脱咖咖啡，因为要排除体内的咖啡因要用好几个小时。

Late-night Drinking

Coffee lovers beware. Having a quick “pick-me-up” cup of coffee late in the day will play havoc with your sleep. As well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the brain hormone that sends people into a sleep.

Melatonin levels normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., before falling again. “It?s the neurohormone that controls our sleep and tells our body when to sleep and when to wake, ” says Maurice Ohayon of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in California. But researchers in Israel have found that caffeinated coffee halves the body?s levels of this sleep hormone.

Lotan Shilo and a team at the Sapir Medical Center in Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decaf. On average, subjects slept 336 minutes per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with 415 minutes after decaf. They also took half an hour to drop off4—twice as long as usual—and jigged around in bed twice as much.

In the second phase of the experiment, the researchers woke the volunteers every three hours and asked them to give a urine sample. Shilo measured concentrations of a breakdown product of melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers. In a paper accepted for publication in Sleep Medicinc, the researchers suggest that caffeine blocks production of the enzyme that drives melatonin production.

Because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, Ohayon recommends that coffee lovers switch to decaf after lunch.

第六篇编制灯光

在墨西哥中西部的马德雷山脉，维克人过着与祖先类似的生活——他们不是用电，因为在他们居住的偏远山区架设电线成本太大。维克人以制作精美的工艺品为生，他们到几百英里以外的城市去销售工艺品。因为家里和路上都没有电，他们只能白天工作，天一黑就不得不停下手中的活计。

如今，一个由科学家、设计师和建筑师组成的团队正在利用新技术为维克人在太阳下山之后提供光亮。科学家的技术将小小的电晶体编入纺织品内，纺织品可以做成衣服、袋子和其他物品。

这些纺织品白天收集太阳能，晚上可以发出明亮的白光。发明者将这些纺织品命名为“移动光源”。项目负责人希拉·肯尼迪称，移动光源有可能改变全世界用不上电的人们的生活。

肯尼迪说，“这一发明的动力是我们可以改变美国日常所见的技术，用来服务那些不富裕的人们。”

移动光源技术的核心是高亮度发光二极管，已经在电子钟、电视和路灯中得以应用。

发光二极管与电灯泡完全不同，玻璃灯泡大多是白炽灯，内部用电将金属丝加热到2,200摄氏度以上。这种温度下，灯泡发出我们能看到的光。

但是，白炽灯散发的能量90%都是热量，而热量是不可见的。因为浪费了很多能量，白炽灯消耗能量的速度很快。另外，白炽灯也很容易损坏。

而发光二极管如同由按照晶体结构排列的分子组成的小块石头，电流通过发光二极管

时，晶体结构就会发光。而白炽灯不同，发光二极管可以发出各种颜色的光。发光二极管内部的分子类型和排列方式决定了光的颜色。

Weaving with Light

In the Sierra Madre mountain range of west central Mexico1, the native Huichol people2 live much the way their ancestors did—without electricity. That's because it's too expensive to string power lines3 to the remote mountain areas where they live. To help support themselves, the Huichol create beautiful artwork. They sell their art in cities hundreds of miles away from their villages. And without electricity—at home or on the road, they can only work during daylight hours. When it gets dark, they must stop whatever they're doing.

Now, a team of scientists, designers, and architects is using4 new technologies to provide the Huichol with light after the sun sets. The scientists' technique involves weaving tiny electronic crystals into fabrics that can be made into clothes, bags, or other items.

By collecting the sun's energy during the day, these lightweight fabrics provide bright white light at night. Their inventors have named the fabrics "Portable Lights." Portable Lights have the potential to transform the lives of people without electricity .around the world, says project leader Sheila Kennedy.

"Our invention," Kennedy says, "came from seeing how we could transform technology we saw every day in the United States and move it into new markets for people who didn't have a lot of money."

At the core of5 Portable Light technology are devices called high-brightness light-emitting diodes, or HB LEDs6. These tiny lights appear in digital clocks, televisions, and streetlights.

LEDs are completely different from the light bulbs. Most of those glass bulbs belong to a type called incandescent lights. Inside, electricity heats a metal coil to about 2, 200 degrees Celsius. At that temperature, bulbs give off light we can see.

Ninety percent of energy produced by incandescent lights, however, is heat — and invisible. With all that wasted energy, bulbs burn out quickly. They are also easily broken.

LEDs, on the other hand, are like tiny pieces of rock made up of molecules that are arranged in a crystal structure. When an electric current passes through an LED, the crystal structure produces light. Unlike incandescent bulbs, they can produce light of various colors. Within an LED, the type of molecules and their particular arrangement determines what color is produced.

第七篇用糖为手机发电

一种新型燃料细胞通过利用活体细胞中很常见的酶能从糖中生产少量的电。如果这项技术能够成功应用于大批量生产，人们可以与自己的手机分享甜饮料(因为糖可以发电供给手机)。

燃料细胞中的化学反应能产生电流。这个过程通常依赖于贵金属，比如铂。在活体细胞中，酶发挥类似的作用，通过分解糖得到电子进而产生能量。

圣路易斯大学的Shelley D．Minteer说，以前研究人员在燃料细胞中使用酶时，很难维持酶的活性。生物细胞能不停地产生新鲜的酶，但燃料细胞中没有能替换很快降解的酶的机制。

Minteer与同样来自圣路易斯大学的TamaraKlotzbach现在研制了一种聚合物，它能包裹酶并将其保存在用显微镜才能看见的袋子里。Minteer解释说：“我们改造袋子使其能为酶提供理想的微环境。”这种聚合物能使酶保持几个月而不是几天的活性。

在新型燃料细胞中，装有酶的微小的聚合物袋子镶嵌在一张裹在一个电极上的薄膜里。含糖液体中的葡萄糖进入袋子时，酶将其氧化，释放出电子和质子。电子穿过薄膜进入一根导线并通过这根导线到达其他电子。导线中的电子与大气中的氧发生反应产生水。电子在导线中流动形成电流，电流能产生电能。

伊利诺斯大学Urbana-Champaign校区的化学工程师Paul Kenis指出，目前这种新型燃料细胞产生不了多少电能，但它们确实产生了电，这一事实令人激动。Kenis说：“单是使

它可以产生电能，就是一项大的成果。”

消耗糖的燃料细胞有可能成为高效的发电工具。糖容易得到，而且消耗糖的新型燃料细胞可生物降解，因此这项技术不会损害环境。目前，科学家们正试图利用别的能从糖中产生更多电的酶。

他们预计，在不到三年的时间里这种新技术便可在大众化的产品中使用。

Sugar Power for Cell Phones

Using enzymes commonly found in living cells, a new type of fuel Cell produces small amounts of electricity from sugar. If the technology is able to succeed in mass production, you may some day share your sweet drinks with your cell phone.

In fuel cells, chemical reactions generate electrical currents. The process usually relies on precious metals, such as platinum. In living cells, enzymes perform a similar job, breaking down sugars to obtain electrons and produce energy.

When researchers previously used enzymes in fuel ceils, they had trouble keeping them active, says Shelley D. Minteer of St Louis Universlty1. Whereas biological cells continually produce fresh enzymes, there's no mechanism in fuel cells to replace enzymes as they quickly degrade.

Minteer and Tamara Klotzbach, also of St Louis University, have now developed polymers that wrap around an enzyme and preserve it in a microscopic pocket. "We tailor these pockets to provide the ideal microenvironment" for the enzyme, Minteer says. The polymers keep the enzyme active for months instead of days.

In the new fuel cell, tiny polymer bags of enzyme are embedded in a membrane that coats one of the electrodes. When glucose from a sugary liquid gets into a pocket, the enzyme oxidizes it, releasing electrons and protons. The electrons cross the membrane and enter a wire through which they travel to the other electrode, where they react with oxygen in the atmosphere to produce water. The flow of electrons through the wire constitutes an electrical current that can generate power.

So far, the new fuel cells don't produce much power, but the fact that they work at all is exciting, says Paul Kenis, a chemical engineer at the University of Illinois2 at Urbana-Champaign3. "Just getting it to work," Kenis says, "is a major accomplishment. "

Sugar-eating fuel cells could be an efficient way to make electricity. Sugar is easy to find. And the new fuel cells that run on it are biodegradable, so the technology wouldn't hurt the environment. The scientists are now trying to use different enzymes that will get more power from sugar. They predict that popular products may he using the new technology in as little as 3 years.

第八篇引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔

世界各地的人们都来到大约300米高，接近埃菲尔铁塔顶端的地方涂鸦。日本人、巴西人、美国人在这块冰冷的铁上涂上自己的名字、喜好和政治观点，使这最具有法兰西色彩的纪念碑成为动感世界的象征。

从塔上可以看到巴黎市的远景，但奇怪的是观光者们宁愿花时间留下到此一游的痕迹，也不去观赏风景。但这些涂鸦者也引起了一个问题：为什么在建成114年后，埃菲尔铁塔仍然这么受欢迎？尽管它在几十年前就已经不是世界上最高的建筑物了。

这个问题的答案就像那构成90层的铁塔的工程一样复杂。一部分的理由是，毫无疑问，铁塔是永不过时的。周期性的维护使得它永远不会被腐蚀掉。埃菲尔铁塔定期油漆，覆盖那

些涂鸦，但是它仍将继续存在下去。

“埃菲尔是巴黎的象征，而巴黎又代表了法国。所以，埃菲尔十分具有象征性。”Hugues Richard说道。这位31岁的法国人保持着在19分零4秒的时间内骑行车经过747级台阶登上铁塔上铁塔二层的纪录。“这是铁娘子，能让人产生灵感。”他说。

但是它能使人们产生怎样的灵感呢？毕竟，铁塔并没有任何目的。1930年纽约的Chrysler 大厦取代它成为世界上最高的建筑。但是电视和广播信号仍然从塔顶发送出来，而Gustave Eiffel,这个狂热的建造者利用它的高度进行气象学、空气动力学和无线电传输的研究。他在12月台票27日逝世，终年91岁。

本质上来说，铁塔伫立在那儿本身就是一个灵感——它就像一张空白的画布，任游客遐想。对于那些善于从技术角度考虑问题的人来说，它是一个工程上的胜利；而对于恋人们来说，它则象征着浪漫。

“这座塔将在我们所有的人离去后长久存在。”埃菲尔铁塔管理公司的说Isabelle Esnous。

Eiffel Is an Eyeful

Some 300 meters up, near the Eiffel Tower?s wind-whipped summit the world comes to scribble. Japanese, Brazilians. Americans—they graffiti their names, loves and politics on the cold iron—transforming the most French of monuments into symbol of a world on the move.

With Pairs laid out in miniature below, it seems strange that visitors would rather waste time marking their presence than admiring the view. But the graffiti also raises a question: Why, nearly 114 years after it was completed, and decades after it ceased to be the world?s tallest structure, is la Tour Eiffel still so popular?

The reasons are as complex as the iron work that graces a structure some 90 stories high. But part of the answer is, no doubt, its agelessness, regularly maintained, it should never rust away. Graffiti is regularly painted over, but the tower lives on.

“Eiffel represents Paris and Paris is France. It is very symbolic,” says Hugues Richard, a 31-year-old Frenchman who holds the record for cycling up to the tower?s second floor—747 steps in 19 minutes and 4 seconds, without touching the floor with his feet. “It?s iron lady, it inspires us,” he says.

But to what? After all, the tower doesn?t have a purpose. It ceased to be the world?s tallest in 1930 when the Chrysler Building went up in New York. Yes, television and radio signals are beamed from the top, and Gustave Eiffel, a frenetic builder who died on December 27, aged 91, used its height for conducting research into weather, aerodynamics and radio communication.

But in essence the tower inspires simply by being there---a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will. To the technically minded, it?s an engineering triumph. For lovers, it?s romantic.

“The tower will outlast all of us, and by a long way,” says Isabelle Esnous, whose company manages Eiffel Tower.

第九篇埃及饱受饥饿折磨

即使古埃及伟大的金字塔建筑者面对那场在公元前2180年促使他们的文明毁灭的饥荒也无能为力，从尼罗河沉淀的泥沙中收集来的证据表明，南面数千公里处的气候的变化是最终的罪魁祸首—同样的或更坏的饥荒在今天仍有可能再次出现。

古代的埃及人依赖于尼罗河每年的洪水来灌溉他们的庄稼。但是，气候的任何变化会促使非洲季风往南吹，直至到埃塞俄比亚外。这些变化可能减弱那些洪水。

埃塞俄比亚高原中降雨量的减少可能意味着用以保持水土的植被的减少。当雨真正下来后，它又可能将大量的土壤冲刷至青尼罗河和埃及，沿途也带上了来自白尼罗河的沉淀物。

青尼罗河里的泥土带有一种不同于白尼罗河泥土的同位素。因此，里德大学的迈克·克罗姆通过分析尼罗河一带沉积泥土同位素的差异计算出来来自不同支流各自沉积物的比例。

克罗姆推理说，在干旱的季节里，青尼罗河里的泥沙相对来说较高。他发现，4200年前-4500年前其中的这样一个时期的干旱后立即跟着发生了古埃及及国王的毁灭。

水势的减弱对埃及人来说具有灾难性的。纽约Lamont Doherty 地球天文台的比尔·雷恩说：“影响食物供应的气候变化不必太大就可以对社会产生‘涟漪式’影响.”

来自华盛顿Smithsonian学会的地质考古学家丹尼尔·斯坦利说：“类似的事件如果发生在今天可能会带来更大的破坏。人类做的任何可以引起气候带转移的事在今天会对尼罗河一带的体系带来更坏的影响，因为那儿的人口数目已经有了非常惊人的、迅速的增长。”

Egypt felled by famine

Even ancient Egypt?s mighty pyramid builders were powerless in the face of the famine that helped bring down their civilian around 2180BC. Now evidence gleaned from mud deposited by the River Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blame -- and the same or worse could happen today.

The ancient Egyptians depended on the Niles annual floods to irrigate their crops. But any change in climate that pushed the African monsoons southwards out of Ethiopia would have diminished these floods.

Dwindling rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to establish the soil. When rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into Egypt, along with sediment from the White Nile.

The Blue Nile mud has a different isotope signature from that of the White Nile. So by analyzing isotope differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta, Michael Krom of leeds University worked out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river.

Krom reasons that during periods of drought, the amount of the Blue Nile mud in the river would be relatively high. He found that one of these periods, from 4,500 to 4,200 years ago, immediately predates the fall of the Egypt?s Old Kingdom.

The weakened waters would have been catastrophic for the Egyptians. Changes that affect food supply don?t have to be very large to have a ripple effect in societies, says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in New York.

“Similar events today could be even more devastating,” says team member Daniel Stanley, a geoarchaeologist from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. Anything humans do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system because the populations have increased dramatically.

第十篇年轻雌猩猩学习优于她们的弟兄

一项新的研究显示，与年轻雄性相比，年轻雌黑猩猩是更快更好的学习者，这与人类的两性学习差异相仿。

在小雄猩猩玩乐嬉闹时候，雌猩猩却在悉心向母亲学习。结果她们比“男孩们”提早两年学会捕获美味小吃——白蚁。

美国芝加哥林肯公司动物园的Elizabeth Lonsdorf 和她在圣保罗市明尼苏达大学的同事们用了4年时间观察坦桑尼亚Gombe 自然公园的年轻黑猩猩学习它们的“文化行为”。

学习行为的性别差异是“一贯和惊人显著的”，观察小组报告说。研究人员指出，类似的差别也存在于人类儿童写作等技巧的学习过程。他们在《自然》杂志中写道，“基于性别的学习差异因而可以上溯到人类和黑猩猩最近的共同始祖。”

黑猩猩用植物制造灵巧的工具，将它们插入蚁丘把白蚁驱赶出来，再津津有味地享用粘在工具上的白蚁。研究人员用摄像机记录下这种捕食行为，发现每位猩猩母亲在诸如怎样使用不同长度的工具等方面都有她们自己的诀窍。

分析研究六只已知年龄的幼猩猩显示，雌猩猩在平均31个月大时就能成功捕获白蚁，而雄猩猩则需要到58个月时才能学会。雌性每次都能熟练地收获更多的白蚁，并能采用与母亲相似的技巧，而雄性却做不到。

“男孩们”不向母亲学习，却花费大量时间在蚁丘周围嬉戏。研究人员认为玩耍、摇荡等活动或许对公幼兽后来的诸如捕猎、争夺领导权等典型的雄性活动大有裨益。

Lonsdorf 补充说，黑猩猩食物中动物蛋白的主要来源有两个——白蚁和疣猴。“成熟雄性常在树间抓捕疣猴，而雌性则总是因为怀孕或身上吊着小猩猩而难以捕猎，”她说，“成年雌性比雄性花更多的时间捕食白蚁。”因此娴熟地捕获白蚁意味着雌性比雄性吃得更好，“并且可以同时看护后代。雌雄两性似乎都是在十分年幼的时候就开始了与成年后性别角色有关的活动。”

Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers

Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys.

While young male chimps pass their time playing. Young female chimps carefully study their mothers. As a result, they learn how to fish for tasty termite snacks over two years before the boys.

Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul spent four years watching how young chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania learned “cultural behavior”.

The sex differences in learning behavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent”, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning differences may therefore date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.” they write in the journal Nature.

Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds, extract them and then munch the termites clinging onto the tool. The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths.

Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, where the boy chimps were aged 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not.

Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking around the termite mound. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers.

Lonsdorf adds that there just two main sources of animal protein for chimps — the termites or colobus monkeys. “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult,” she says .“Adult females spend more time fishing for termites than males.”So becoming proficient at termite

fishing could mean adult females eat better, “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seen to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles{10} at a very young age.”

第十一篇申请个人域名的网上费用

一些公司正准备付一万美元在Internet上登录一个域名，尽管并不能保证它们会得到想要的域名。

最近，美国政府和总部在弗吉尼亚的网络解答公司签订了以.com,.org,.edu和.net结尾的域名的登录任务的合同。合同今年期满，美国政府想实施一项不同的方案。

但在去年，Internet的头面人物组成的特别委员会宣布了它自己的计划。该计划包括建立七种新的域名，每个域名表示使用这一名字的企业或组织的种类。这个委员会吸收了全世界88家公司成为有.firm,.shop,.wed,.arts,.rec,.info扩nom等域名的注册处。美国政府必须同决心书这项计划，但可能仍然推行它最初的计划。尽管这样，88位注册处已经申请了好几个月了。它们预期在这个月开始向从特别委员会中产生的Internet登录委员会登录域名。

为了防止有冲突的域名被登录，委员会将按顺序从每个注册处中取出一个名字，然后回到它们的行列中取第二个名字，如此类推。由于那些公司都尽力购买一个接近行列前头的位置，这导致了一个繁荣的交易。新加坡的全球域名公司索要一万美元以确保对一个域名的申请是第一个被输送到中心数据库。别的注册利对申请排在前排的域名公司索要不可偿还的保证金。帮助建立和监督这项计划的政策监督委员会主席戴维·梅迈厄说，所有的注册处必须遵守当地的消费者保护法和竞争法。但他认为委员会“不应是这方面有强制执行权的单位。”

The Net Cost of Making a Name for Yourself

Companies are paying up to $10, 000 to register a domain name on the Internet even though there is no guarantee that they will get the name they want.

The task of registering domains ending in .com, .org, .edu and .net is at present contracted out by the US government to the Virginia-based company Network Solutions. The contract runs out this year, and the government wants to bring in a different scheme.

But last year, an ad hoc committee of the Internet?s great and good revealed its own plan. This involved setting up seven new domains, each indicating the kind of business or organisation using that name. The committee recruited 88 companies around the world to act as registrars for its .firm, .shop, .web, .arts, .rec, .info and .nom domains. The US government has still to give the system its blessing, and may yet push ahead with its original scheme. Despite this, the 88 registrars have been taking applications for several months. They are due to start registering names this month with the Internet Council of Registrars, which grew out of the ad hoc committee.

To prevent conflicting names from being registered, the council will take one name from each registrar in turn before going back for the second name in their queues, and so on. This has led to a flourishing trade, with companies trying to buy a place near the head of the queue. Global Names of Singapore is charging $10, 000 to make sure a request for a name is the first one it sends off to the central database. Other registrars are charging nonrefundable deposits for places at the top of the queue. David Maher, chairman of the Policy Oversight Committee that is helping to set up and oversee the system, says that all registrars are subject to local laws regarding consumer protection and competition. But he says that the committee “will not act as an enforcement body in this are A.”

第十二篇纳佛罗里达遭受冷气团袭击

2003年1月，美国东部2/3的地区处于强冷空气团的控制下，强冷空气团给佛罗里达的柑橘树造成了危胁，同时也使北部的港口被冰冻结。冷空气团让北卡罗来纳州沿岸地区的居民不知所措，不停地铲着尺把深的积雪。

当南方部分地区的气温降到个位数时，冰雪带来的寒意加深了，从南方的大部分地区直到南佛罗里达的腹地地区，气温前所未有地骤降至冰点以下。气温在佛罗里达骤降，西棕榈海岸的气温创纪录地降至2度。

“我们不能相信有那么冷”，这周刚从英国来到奥兰多的马丁·金说，“我们买了运动裤、T恤，但我还不得不出去买件大衣。”

气温的骤降对佛罗里达每年价值91亿美元的柑橘产量造成了危胁，大部分的柑橘还未采摘，果农们正赶着在柑橘被冻坏之前尽可能地多采些。

“时间对柑橘成熟是非常重要的，”果农汤姆·罗根斯说，他预计冷空气会对柑橘和葡萄造成损害。

佛罗里达州州长杰夫·布什签署了一份紧急命令，这个命令取消了对卡车上货物的重量限制，这样，果农们就能使尽可能多的柑橘上市。

佛罗里达州柑橘信托基金会的发言人Casey Pace女士说，果农们用洒水器向果树喷水，这使果树表面形成了一层冰，冰有助于气温维持在冰点附近。如果气温降到-2℃以下超过4个小时，柑橘就会被冻坏。厚度从薄薄一层到30厘米的雪覆盖了卡罗来纳、田纳西和弗吉尼亚的部分地区。

Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass

In January, 2003, the eastern two-thirds of the United States was at the mercy of a bitterly cold air mass that has endangered Florida?s citrus trees, choked northern harbors with ice and left bewildered residents of North Carolina?s Outer Banks digging out of up to a foot of snow.

The ice chill deepened as temperatures fell to the single digits in most of the South, with an unfamiliar dip below the freezing mark as far south as parts of interior South Florida. Temperatures in Florida plunged, with West Palm Beach dropping to a record low of 2 degrees.

“We couldn?t believe how cold it was,” said Martin King, who arrived this week in Orlando from England. “we brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat. ”

The temperature plunge posed a threat to Florida?s US$9.1 billion-a-year citrus crop, more of which is still on the trees. Growers were hurrying to harvest as much of the fruit as possible before it was damaged by cold.

“Time is of the essence in getting fruit to the plant,” said Tom Rogers, a citrus grower who expected to see damage to oranges and grapefruit at that time.

In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush signed an emergency order to eliminate the weight limit on trucks so citrus growers could get as much fruit to market as possible.

Casey Pace, a spokeswoman for Florida Citrus Mutual, said growers had sprayed trees with sprinklers, which created a layer of ice and helped maintain a temperature near freezing. Citrus trees are considered in danger of damage if the temperature drops below minus 2 degrees Celsius for four hours or more. Snow ranging from a dusting to up to 30 centimeters blanketed the Carolinas, Tennessee and parts of Virginia.

第十三篇隐形环

到目前为止，科学家还不能造出哈利；波特使用过的隐身斗篷。但是他们率先研制出了

一种与其类似的装置，这种装置能使自身和置于其中的物体不受微波的探测。

当一个人“看”某物体时，他的眼睛就会感知到从那个物体反射过来的光波。眼睛和大脑一同工作，编辑这些光感并重建其原貌。所以，如果要让一个物体隐形，科学家们就必须阻止光波反射。并且他们得确保此物体没有阴影。否则，反射光的缺失会使物体显现。

鉴于人眼对光波的感知性，要想隐形某物体很难做到，但对微波就可以做到。如同可见光，微波是一种辐射能。他们是电磁波谱的一部分，其中也包括无线电波、红外线光、紫外线、x射线和伽马射线。微波的波长比无线电波短，但比可见光长。

科学家研制出的这种新型隐身装置和杯垫一般大小，形状像个环。由于它是特殊材料制成，因此具有非同寻常的功能。当微波射向它时，仅有极少的光会反射回去，这些光会从一端穿过这个环，并在此过程中沿着弯曲的路线前进，直到抵达另一端。最后光波回到原来的路线。

对于在环的另一端放置的探测器来说，光波看上去就像从来没有改变过路径一样，即好像没有遇到障碍物。这样一来，这个环就如同没有存在过。

研究者又将一个铜线圈放进环里，依然得到同样的结果。不过，这个环和里面的东西还是会留下一点影子。环形隐身器只能作用于微波，而不能作用于可见光及电磁波。因此，哈里，波特的隐形斗篷目前还没有竞争对手。

Invisibility Ring

Scientists can't yet make an invisibility cloak1 like the one that Harry Potter2 uses. But, for the first time, they've constructed a simple cloaking device that makes itself and something placed inside it invisible to microwaves.

When a person "sees" an object, his or her eye senses many different waves of visible light as they bounce off the object. The eye and brain then work together to organize these sensations and reconstruct the object's original shape. So, to make an object invisible, scientists have to keep waves from bouncing off it. And they have to make sure the object casts no shadow. Otherwise, the absence of reflected light on one side would give the object away.

Invisibility isn't possible yet with waves of light that the human eye can see. But it is now possible with microwaves. Like visible light, microwaves are a form of radiant energy. They are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes radio waves, infrared light, ultraviolet rays, X rays, and gamma rays. The wavelengths of microwaves are shorter than those of radio waves but longer than those of visible light.

The scientists' new "invisibility device" is the size of a drink coaster and shaped like a ring. The ring is made of a special material with unusual ability. When microwaves strike the ring, very few bounce off it. Instead, they pass through the ring, which bends the waves all the way around until they reach the opposite side. The waves then return to their original paths.

To a detector set up to receive microwaves on the other side of the ring, it looks as if the waves never changed their paths —as if there were no object in the way! So, the ring is effectively invisible.

When the researchers put a small Copper loop inside the ring, it, too, is nearly invisible. However, the cloaking device and anything inside it do cast a pale shadow. And the device works only for microwaves, not for visible light or any kind of electromagnetic radiation. So, Harry Potter's invisibility cloak doesn't have any real competition yet.

第十四篇日本用来监视醉酒司机的新型概念车

日本日产公司日前开发了一种新型概念车，这种车含有呼气酒精检测器和其他一些装置，用来防止那些醉酒和过于疲劳的司机上路驾驶。

车上的传感器能检测出车中的酒气，并通过监测司机身上的汗味探知酒精度。车中的电脑系统能报警，甚至还能在司机超速行驶时锁住引擎。这个气味传感器被牢牢固定在驾驶员和乘客的座位上。另一个探测器装在车的换档把手上，用来测试司机的掌心的汗液。

其他的汽车制造商们也开发了类似的探测系统。比如，瑞典的沃尔沃在汽车的安全带上安装了很多呼气酒精检测器，司机在开车前必须向里吹气。

这种新型概念车还在仪表盘上装有照相机，通过监测驾驶员的双眼探知其清醒程度。如果发现司机需要停车休息，便用英语或日语发出警告。

汽车监测技术仍在发展，总裁Kazuhiro Doi指出：综合多种探测技术将对整体技术水平的提高更为有利。例如，若是换档装置探测器被乘客代用，面部识别技术仍能受用。日产公司并没有明确将此项技术推向市场的时间，只是试图借助此项技术在2015年把死亡率降到1995年的一半。

如若探知司机昏昏欲睡，安全带会自动收紧，外部照相机也会检查汽车是否偏离路线。尽管如此，Doi承认有一些技术，如气味传感器仍有待改进。因为对很多人来说，往往只喝—口都会被检测出来。为避免这类事件的发生，必须研究激活系统的最低限度。

在英国，一些组织正在运用类似的先进技术来研究司机的行为和路标设置的有效性。

Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers

A concept ear developed by Japanese company Nissan1has a breathalyzer-like detection system and other instruments that could help keep drunk or over-tired drivers off the road.

The car's sensors check odors inside the car and monitor a driver's sweat for traces of alcohol. An in-car computer system can issue an alert or even lock up the ignition system if the driver seems over-the-limit. The air odor sensors are fixed firmly and deeply in the driver and passenger seats, while a detector in the gear-shift knob measures perspiration from the driver's palm.

Other carmakers have developed similar detection systems. For example, Sweden's Volvo2 has developed a breathalyzer attached to a Car's seat belt that drivers must blow into before the engine will start.

Nissan's new concept vehicle also includes a dashboard-mounted camera that tracks a drivers alertness by monitoring their eyes. It will sound an alarm and issue a spoken warning in Japanese or English if it judges that the driver needs to pull over and rest3.

The car technology is still in development, but general manager Kazuhiro Doi says the combination of different detection systems should improve the overall effectiveness of the technology. "For example, if the gear-shift sensor was bypassed by a passenger using it instead of the driver, the facial recognition system would Still be used," Doi says. Nissan has no specific timetable for marketing the system, but aims to Use technology to cut the number of fatalities involving its vehicles to half 1995 levels by 2015.

The ear's seat belt can also tighten if drowsiness is detected, while an "external camera checks that the car is keeping to its lane properly. However, Doi admits that some of the technology, such as the alcohol odor sensor, should be improved. "If you drink one beer, it's going to register, so we need to study what's the appropriate level for the system to activate," he says.

In the UK4 , some research groups are using similar advanced techniques to understand driver behavior and the effectiveness of different road. designs.

第十五篇肋生双翅机器人学飞行

自然界中的飞行学习经历了几百万年的反复实践和磨练，而安装机翼的机器人仅在数小时内就成功实现突破，用的是同进化原理。

瑞典Gothenburg Chalmers科技大学的Krister Wolff 和Peter Nordin 研制出带翼的机器人，着手测试它能否在不预设振翅数据程序的条件下自行学会飞行。

首先，机器人只是飘忽不定地振动盘桓，不过它的运动逐渐获得了上升高度，起初，它想走走捷径，试图仅用翅尖保持直立。然而三小时后，它放弃了这种方法，转用更有效的振翅技术，90度角旋转两翼，并在它们恢复到水平位置将其拉起。

“事实告诉我们，飞行装置有可能实现这种进化。”Peter Bentley 说。他现正在伦敦大学研究进化计算技术。虽然机器人可以摸索出上升飞行的最佳方式，却不会起飞。“进化升级所做的只有这么多，”Bentley说，“这东西不可能自行起飞，因为发动机不能产生足够动力。”

机器人的两翼由轻木制成，长约一米，覆有一层轻塑胶。它的小马达使机翼可以前后上下运动，并能在这两个方向上任意旋转。

研究小组将机器人附着在两根竖直标杆上，它便能上下滑动。实验刚开始的时候，机器人悬挂在一根弹性带上。一旦它升高，运动探测器就能测量它任何运动的高度。

每过20秒，计算机程序就给机器人输入任意设定的指令，以检测其振翅能力。每个指令或是让机器人停止运动或是在各种方向上转动机翼。

通过来自运动探测器的反馈，程序测算出哪几组指令能最有效地产生高度。最成功的几组进行配对，而其“后代”指令则通过在成功组合间随意交换指令产生。在产生下一代组合之前，这些第二代指令被发往机器人并进行评估，然后这一过程反复进行。

Winged Robot Learns to Fly

Learning how to fly took nature millions of years of trial and error—but a winged robot has cracked it in only a few hours, using the same evolutionary principles.

Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin of Chalmers University of Technology (CUT) in Gothenburg, Sweden, built a winged robot and set about testing whether it could learn to fly by itself, without any pre-programmed data on what flapping is or how to do it.

To begin with, the robot just twitched and jerked erratically. But, gradually, it made movements that gained height. At first , it cheated — simply standing on its wing tips was one early short cut. After three hours, however, the robot abandoned such methods in favor of a more effective flapping technique, where it rotated its wings through 90 degrees and raised them before twisting them back to the horizontal and pushing down.

“This tells us that this kind of evolution is capable of coming up with flying motion,” says Peter Bentley, who works on evolutionary computing at University College London. But while the robot had worked out how best to produce lift, it was not about to take off. “There?s only so much that evolution can do, Bentley says. This thing is never going to fly because the motors will never have the strength to do it,” he says.

The robot had metre-long wings made from balsa wood and covered with a light plastic film. Small motors on the robot let it move its wings forwards or backwards, up or down or twist them in either direction.

The team attached the robot to two vertical rods, so it could slide up and down. At the start of a test, the robot was suspended by an elastic band. A movement detector measured how much lift, if any, the robot produced for any given movement.

A computer program fed the robot random instructions, at the rate of 20 per second, to test its flapping abilities. Each instruction told the robot either to do nothing or to move the wings slightly in the various directions.

Feedback from the movement detector let the program work out which sets of instructions were best at producing lift. The most successful ones were paired up and “offspring”sets of instructions were generated by swapping instructions randomly between successful pairs. These next-generation instructions were then sent to the robot and evaluated before breeding a new generation, and the process was repeated.

第十六篇日本人的地心旅行

就像进行一次地心旅行，日本科学家进行了世界上的首次尝试，在炙热的火山核心钻孔，从而揭开了火山致命喷发的秘密。

日本Unzen山繁茂的山坡上，伫立着一个高达50米，犹如石油钻探平台的钻塔。下周，它将钻透火山壳，试图采集下面沸腾的火山岩浆的样本。

研究工作小组的负责人，来自东京大学地震研究中心的Setsuya Nakata表示，这次任务的目的是要研究液化岩石如何导致威胁性气体的积聚。

“气体积聚很重要，因为它控制着火山喷发的爆炸性。”他说，“研究的结果还可以用于防灾研究。”

Unzen山是一座高达1,485米的圆顶山，它位于南部的Kyushu岛，是一个极佳的模型，1991年，它喷发出的热岩浆覆盖了附近的小城，造成了43人死亡，将近2,300人无家可归，到1995年它恢复平静时，又有11,000人从这五地区疏散。

研究结果对于像日本这样拥有20座被气象局监控的危险山峰的国家来说，尤为重要，日本最著名的火山也许就是被冰雪覆盖的富士山。它上一次喷发是在1707年，火山灰喷洒到东京。

钻探工作将很快从Unzen山的西北坡上850米的高度开始。到八月底，科学家希望在约为海平面高度的地方引出一个岩浆口，到2004年夏末，提取长度为200米的样本。

由于岩浆有将近700度的高温，在那个高度进行钻探是不可能的。所以，泥浆将被抽进钻孔机，用来冷却岩浆，以保证钻头的顺利工作。

Nakata说，不存在引发火山新一轮爆发的危险性。

Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth

In what reassembles a journey to the center of the Earth, Japanese scientists have launched the world?s first attempt to bore a hold into the red-hot core of a volcano and unlock the secrets of deadly eruption.

A50-meter-high oil-rig-like derrick perched on the scrubby slopes of Japan?s Mount Unzen will begin drilling through the volcano?s crust next week in a bid to sample the magma bubbling below2.

The aim is to study how the liquefied rock causes menacing gas buildup, said team leader Setsuya Nakata, of the University of Tokyo?s Earthquake Research Institute.

“Gassing is important because it controls the explosivity of eruptions,” Nakata said. “The results can be expanded to anti-disaster research.”

Mount Unzen, a wind-swept 1,486-meter dome on the southern island of Kyushu, is a perfect model. It erupted in 1991, showering avalanches of hot rocks over a nearby town, killing 43 people and leaving nearly 2,300 homeless. Another 11,000 people were evacuated from the area

until 1995, when the volcano had stabilized.

The results are particularly important to a nation like Japan, where the meteorological agency monitors 20 dangerous peaks. Perhaps Japan?s most famous volcano is snowcapped Mount Fuji, which last erupted in 1707 and sprinkled Tokyo with ash.

The drilling on Mount Unzen will begin very soon from an altitude of 850 meters on its northwest slope. Scientists hope to tap a magma vent around sea level by August and extract a 200-meter-long core sample by summer 20043.

Boring into the glowing magma at that level would normally be impossible, because of its fiery 700 degree Celsius heat. Thus, a slurry of water will be pumped into the drill shaft to cool the magma and allow the drill head to cut through.

Nakata said there is no danger of triggering another eruption4.

第十七篇地球防晒霜

就算怀着最美好的愿望，仅仅减少二氧化碳的排放量还是不能制止全球变暖。很明显，即便采取最强硬的措施来控制排放，气候的变化无常仍能导致极速变暖和海平面上升。另一方面，受到政府和特殊利益群体的阻挠，气候学家往往不能将措施很快实施彻底。’幸好，如果被逼上绝路，科学家们还有最后几招。在大多数情况下，他们拒绝讨论这些施，害怕人们会因此沾沾门喜而使这个问题不能被彻底解决。至少目前是这样。越来越多的研究者相信一项大型的地质丁程建设可用来抵御全球变暖。斯坦福大学的一位气象学家Stephen Schneider最早提出气候变暖这项议题的学者之一。他说：“我把它比作美沙酮。如果你那里有一个海洛因瘾者，那么正确的治疗方法就是住院，接受长时间的康复治疗。拒绝正常住院治疗，那服用美沙酮是一种缓解海洛因毒瘾的有效方法。”

总体思路是给地球也涂上防晒霜。一个天文学家突发奇想，想借此冷却地球：发射亿万轻如羽毛的碟片进入太空形成巨大“云层”以阻碍太阳光。这个想法备受争议，但最近的研究表明，有—些方法可以控制到达地球表面的阳光以抵消温室效应产生的气候变暖。全球气候模型表明，阻断百之一点八的太阳能刚好可以抵消大气中双倍的温室气体所引起的气候变暖现象。这个想法影响深远，因为即使采取最严格的控制气体排放措施，到本世纪末，二氧化碳量仍会翻倍。并且这种情况将再持续至少一个世纪。

A Sunshade for the Planet

Even with the best will1 in the world, reducing our carbon emissions is not going to prevent global warming; It has become clear that even if we take the most strong measures to control emissions, the uncertainties in our climate models still leave open the possibility of extreme warming and rises in sea level. At the same rime, resistance by governments and special interest groups makes it quite possible that the actions suggested by climate scientists might not be implemented soon enough.

Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worst2, scientists still have a few tricks up their sleeves3. For the most part they have strongly resisted discussing these options for fear of inviting a sense of complacency that might thwart efforts to tackle the root of the problem. Until now, that is. A growing number of researchers are taking a fresh look at large-scale "geocngineering" projects that might be used to counteract global warming. "I use the analogy of methadone1 ," says Stephen Schneider, a climate researcher at Stanford University in California who was among the first to draw attention to global. warming. "If you have a heroin addict, the correct treatment is hospitalization, and a long rehab. But if they absolutely refuse, methadone is better than heroin. "

职称英语阅读理解(终审稿)

职称英语阅读理解 文稿归稿存档编号：[KKUY-KKIO69-OTM243-OLUI129-G00I-FDQS58-MG129]

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第四十一篇 Too Little for Global Warming Oil and gas will run out1 too fast for doomsday global warming scenarios2 to materialize, according to a controversial new analysis presented this week at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. The authors warn that all the fuel will be burnt before there is enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to realize predictions of melting ice caps and searing temperatures. Defending their predictions, scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change3 say they considered a range of estimates of oil and gas reserves, and point out that coal-burning could easily make up4 the shortfall. But all agree that burning coal would be even worse for the planet. The IPCC’s predictions of global meltdown pushed forward5 the 1997 Kyoto Protocol6, an agreement obliging signatory nations to cut CO2 emissions. The IPCC considered a range of future scenarios, from unlimited burning of fossil-fuels to a fast transition towards greener energy sources. But geologists Anders Sivertsson, Kjell Aleklett and Colin Campbell of Uppsala University say there is not enough oil and gas left even the most conservative of the 40 IPCC scenarios to come to pass7. Although estimates of oil and gas reserves vary widely, the researchers are part of a growing group of experts who believe that oil supplies will peak as soon as 2010, and gas soon after. Their analysis suggests that oil and gas reserves combined amount to the equivalent of about 3,500 billion barrels of oil considerably less than the 5,000 billion barrels estimated in the most optimistic model envisaged by the IPCC. Even the average forecast of about 8,000 billion barrels is more than twice the Swedish estimate of the world’s remaining reserves. Nebojsa akicenovic, an energy economist at the University of Vienna, Austria who headed the 80-strong IPCC team that produced the forecasts, says the panel’s work still stands8. He says they factored in9 a much broader and internationally accepted range of oil and gas estimates than the “conservative”Swedes. Even if oil and gas run out. “there’s a huge amount of coal underground that could be exploited.” He says that burning coal could make the IPCC scenarios come true, but points out that such a switch would be disastrous. Coal is dirtier than oil and gas and produces more CO2for each unit of energy, as well as releasing large amounts of particulates. He says the latest

2012年职称英语等级考试模拟试题及答案解析理工类A级模拟试题(二)

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职称英语考试综合B试题真题完整版

职称英语考试综合B试题真题完整版 文档编制序号：[KK8UY-LL9IO69-TTO6M3-MTOL89-FTT688]

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4. We are worried about this (fluid) situation full with uncertainty. A. stable B. suitable C. adaptable D. changeable 5. The (revelation) of his past led to his resignation. A. imagination B. confirmation C. disclosure D. recall 6. Jensen is a dangerous man, and can be very (brutal). A. careless B. strong C. cruel D. hard 7. The coastal has area has very (mild) winter, but the central plains remain extremely cold. A. warm B. severe C. hard D.dry

职称英语阅读理解50答案

Stress Level Tied to Education Level 1.Stress level is closely related to. social status. 2.The1,031adults were interviewed. on a daily basis for 8 days. 3.Which group reported the biggest number of stressful days? People with college degrees. 4.The less advantaged people are, the greater. the impact of stress on their health is. 5.Less-educated people report fewer days of stress possibly because. Stress is too common a factor in their life. Medical Journals 1.The main readers of medical journals are. health professionals. 2.Which of the following statements is NOT true? Most medical journals publish only online. 3.How many major types of articls are mentioned in the passage? Five. 4.An article dealing with results from different studies on the same topic is called. A research article. 5.Letters to the editor enable readers of a medical journal to express comments on. Articles published in that journal. Need for Emphasis on Treatment 1.Which is true of many AIDS sufferers in developing countries? They are not receiving any treatment. 2.The WHO publishes its World Health Report. Once a year. 3.According to Lee, our response to the AIDS disease is. A matter of great significance. 4.AIDS treatment programs may also result in. more effective prevention. 5.How many people have died of AIDS so far? More than 20 million. Heat and Health 1.More than 600 people died from heat in Chicago. In 1995. 2.What can piople learn from the Mean Heat Index? The average temperature of an extrem ely hot day. 3.A heat wave is a period of time during which. The weather is much hotter than usual. 4.Muscle pain in hot weather means that. Y our body needs more water. 5.For people who are not in good health,heat can. Be deadly. Losing W eight 1.The study showed that most of the girls. Had a healthy body weight. 2.What percentage of the girls considered themselves overweight? Nearly 30 percent. 3.The survey participants were girls. Who were 10 to 1 4. 4.What kind of institution does the lead researcher work with? A hospital. 5.Unhealthy attitudes about weight,body image and food may. Lead to an eating disorder. Pushbike Peril 1.According to the passage, some engineers are trying to improve the handlebars because. they are not noble enough. 2.In paragraph 2, the author mentions a study of serious abdominal iniuries. To tell us why Kristy Arbogast began the projict. 3.Paragraph 3 mainly discusses. how serious injuries occur. 4.The passage implies that. It is not easy to persuade manufacturers to adopt the new design. 5.In which of the following ways the handgrip work? It reduces the dangerous forces in bicycle accidents. Aate-night Erinking 1.The author mentions “pick-me-up”to indicate that. coffee is a stimulant. 2.Which of the following tells us how caffeine affects sleep? Caffeine halves the body’s levels of sleep hormone. 3.What does paragraph 3 mainly discuss? Different effects of caffeinated coffee and decaf on sleep. 4.What does the experiment mentioned in paragraph 4 prove? Caffeine drinkers produce less sleep hormone. 5.The author of this passage probably agrees that. we should not drink coffee after supper. Attitudes to AIDS Now 1.What do activists worry about? People may stop worrying about AIDS. 2.According to the passage, people’s attitude toward the cure of AIDS is. realistic. 3.The Gallup Poll shows that the number of people. Who think AIDS is the country’s top health killer has fallen. 4.According to the Kaiser Poll, which of the following is NOT correct? More and more people die of AIDS now.

2014年职称英语真题及答案综合类C级(阅读理解)

Taking Pictures of the World Meet Annie Griffiths Belt,a National Geographic photographer.Belt has worked for National Geographic since 1978,and has taken pictures on almost every continent in the world.In fact,Antarctica is the only continent Belt hasn't seen yet. Belt's photographs are well known for their beauty and high quality.They also reflect very different cultures and regions of the world.Belt has photographed the ancient city of Petra, Jordan,as well as the green landscapes of the Lake District in England.Recently,her pictures appeared in a book about undeveloped natural places in North America. Everywhere that Belt goes,she takes pictures of people. Belt has found ways to connect with people of all ages and nationalities even when she does not speak their language." The greatest privilege of my job is being allowed into people's lives,"she has said."The camera is like a passport,and I am often overwhelmed by how quickly people welcome me!"

国家电网职称英语题库2012版_阅读理解带答案

阅读理解 Passage 1 Have you ever seen a moon…… 1. To what do we compare….D. A11 of these 2. The main purpose…..A. inform 3.The author knew….. A. mysterious 4.The moon looks bigger if…B. it is near the horizon 5.The autumn moon….D. helps farmers see as they harvest their crops Passage 2 Strange thing happens to time……. 1. The best title….. B. How Time Changes Around the World 2. The difference in…..C one hour 3. From this selection…...C. is divided into five time zones 4.The international date……C. the point where a new day begins 5. If you cross……A. ahead one hour in each new time zone Passage 3 Holidays in the United States……1. The govemment of the United……C. 3-day 2. Workers in the United……D. Tuesday to Friday 3.Which statement is NOT…..D. All the workers have a half-month vacation 4. The reason why……A. no one can be found to take his place 5. Which of the following…….D. Something About the holidays and Vacation in the U.S Passage 4 Sarah Winchester was a very……… 1. What did Sarah keep……C. Making it bigger 2. The story says…. A. 7 floors 3. Who did the work….C. Carpenters and plumbers and other workers 4. How long did…..B. For38 years 5. Sarah?s house was…..C. when she died Passage 5 The diner is only…… 1.What?s the main….A. The attraction of diners to different people 2. The purpose of….C. give a summary of the whole passage 3. Why do truck……C. It’s a haven against loneliness 4. Diners attract….B. many different kinds of people 5. Diners are…..D. fascinating Passage 6 In the past two years…….. 1.The word ……embrace”……A. make use of 2.It can be concluded……D. bicycle sales will continue to rise 3.The bicycle is……A. enjoying a strong revival 4.The reader can….C. concerned with the quality of their lives 5.In the sentence……A. a rapid increase in sale Passage 7 Doctors have known for……. 1.Doctors have long….C. one may lose his hearing when he hears a terribly loud noise 2.This passage suggests…..B. will be damaged even if he has heard a loud noise for only little more than one second 3.According to this….C. makes hearing damage from loud noise worse https://www.wendangku.net/doc/0a5593649.html,lions of Americans…..D. take too much aspirin 5.The purpose of…..D. whether aspirin would increase the temporary hearing damage from loud noises Passage 8 Just two months ago…… 1. Ana realizes that……B. she must do well on the exam 2. Ana has been…..A. seven years 3. Ana experiences difficulty…..C. the professor’s lectures 4. Ana tells the…..B. her family 5. The best main…..C. Ana comes through with flying colors Passage 9 Any mistake made in…… 1. A postage stamp?s….C. a mistake is made in the printing 2. In 1847 most…..A. not yet using postage stamps 3. In 1847, the mistake…..C. wording 4. $16800 is the…..B. the Twopenny Blue 5. The valuable stamps….D. British printers Passage 10 In the English educational…….. 1. The purpose of …D. describe three tests that the English educational system is based on 2. The exam for the….A. fifleen 3. We may conclude…..A. the exam that is taken at age eighteen is narrower than the other two exams 4.The passage suggests….B. schooling is very closely controlled in England 5. As used in the…..A. to take the risk Passage 11 For centuries, in the countries 1. What can we know….B. It is hard to tame them. 2.Thailand was once…B. white elephant was a national symbol until the 1920s 3.Why is the Thai….A. Because the elephants are no longer useful to their owners. 4.Which of the…..D. Today the elephant population is estimated at 5150. 5. The passage is…..C. a research report Passage 12 The communications explosion…… 1. By saying that….C. display the influence of communications on life 2. The author most….B. amazing 3. Which of the…..C. The low-orbit satellites would replace towers and poles functionally. 4.According to the….A. talk and see each other no matter where we are 5.The phrase “each one”….B. each car Passage 13 Many private institutions…… 1. According to the…. D. their characteristics 2. The author used…..A. get into difficulties 3. We can reasonably….B. private schools 4. Which of the….D. Private schools are more profitable than public schools 5. Which of the…..C. National awareness and support. Passage 14 Japan is getting tough about….. 1. According to the….C. the consumers 2. Which of the following….B. It retains its original strength through reprocessing. 3. According to the…..B. a kind of plastics with different integration in each layer 4. In the passage….C. 21-inch TV with magnesium case isn’t very popular so far 5. The author writes….A. inform Passage 15 A friend of mine…… 1. The author thought….C. 1ike his friend, he also thought life was unfair 2. Surrendering to the…..D. make as know it’s our duty to perfect things 3. The second paragraph….A. it’s nice to accept the injustice of life 4. In the last paragraph…..B. 1ife isn’t and won’t be fair 5. From the passage…..A. positive

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