Mya Le Thai is a scientist studying at the University of California, Irvine. She recently discovered a process that may result in batteries that last forever. Thai said she had been discouraged that the batteries for her wireless devices degrade. Over time, they fail to charge fully.
Thai did not like to have kept her wireless laptop connected to an electrical outlet. She decided to do something about that problem.
At first, she and her team thought about inventing a new battery. But as they experimented, Thai discovered something that might permit lithium-ion(锂离子) batteries to last forever. Lithium-ion batteries power most wireless devices. Over time, the batteries lose the ability to hold a charge. Most of these batteries have a life span of about 7,000 charging cycles before they die.
One of the reasons lithium-ion batteries degrade is their use of nanowires(纳米线) to carry electricity. Nanowires are extremely thin. A human hair is thousands of times thicker, for example. Nanowires are extremely efficient carriers of electricity, which makes them useful in batteries. But Thai said their thinness also makes them weak. “Nanowires break over time,” she said. “That's why they lose capacity(能力).”
But, Thai had a theory: The nanowires might last longer if covered with a material. She and the team tested her theory. The team tried many coverings for the wires. PMMA was one of them. The nanowires were coated with PMMA and cycled through charges 200,000 times. The PMMA coated nanowires showed no evidence of damage. The results suggest that batteries could last forever, without losing charging ability.
Thai hopes to continue her research to understand why this material works so well and to see if any other material could create better results.
“It's kind of cool,” she said, “I'm really glad people are showing interest in my work and not just in the work itself, but also in technology and energy.”
1.What caused Thai to do research on the batteries?
A.Weak power of the batteries. B.Her habit to use her computer.
C.Inconvenient use of batteries. D.Her preference for batteries.
2.What's the disadvantage of lithium-ion batteries?
A.They have a limited service life. B.They need charging very often.
C.They are not quite dependable. D.They are easy to break down.
3.Why did Thai try covering the nanowires with a certain material?
A.To convey more electricity. B.To make them a thicker cover.
C.To make them much safer to use. D.To protect them from being damaged.
4.What can probably be a suitable title for the text?
A.Batteries Would Work Without Recharging
B.Lithium-ion Batteries Might Come to an End
C.Batteries Lasting Forever Could Be Near Soon
D.Batteries Would Be Replaced By A New Power
The elephant was lying heavily on its side, fast asleep. A few dogs started barking at it. The elephant woke up in a terrible anger: it ran after the dogs into the village where they ran for safety.
That didn't stop the elephant. It destroyed a dozen houses and injured several people. The villagers were scared and angry. Then someone suggested calling Parbati, the elephant princess.
Parbati Barua's father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer. He taught Parbati to ride an elephant before she could even walk. He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant round-up—how to catch wild elephants. Parbati hasn't always lived in the jungle. After a happy childhood hunting with her father, she was sent to boarding school in the city. But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to her old life. “Life in the city is too dull. Catching elephants is an adventure and the excitement lasts for days after the chase,” she says.
But Parbati doesn't catch elephants just for fun. “My work,” she says, “is to rescue man from the elephants, and to keep the elephants safe from man.” And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years. Increasingly, the Indian elephant is angry: for many years, illegal hunters have attacked it and its home in the jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land. It is now fighting back. Whenever wild elephants enter a tea garden or a village, Parbati is called to guide the animals back to the jungle before they can kill.
The work of an elephant tamer also involves love and devotion. A good elephant tamer will spend hours a day singing love songs to a newly—caught elephant. “Eventually they grow to love their tamers and never forget them. They are also more loyal than humans.” she said, as she climbed up one of her elephants and sat on the giant, happy animal. An elephant princess indeed!
1.For Parbati, catching elephants is mainly to ______.
A.get long lasting excitement B.keep both man and elephants safe
C.send them back to the jungle D.make the angry elephants tame
2.Before Parbati studied in a boarding school, ______.
A.she spent her time hunting with her father
B.she learned how to sing love songs after class
C.she was taught how to hunt tigers in the woods
D.she had already been called an elephant princess
3.Why are Indian elephants beginning to fight back?
A.Because illegal hunters catch them and kill them
B.Because they are caught and sent for heavy work
C.Because they are attacked and their land gets limited
D.Because dogs usually bark at them and interrupt them
4.The elephant story in the beginning shows that in India ______.
A.dogs are often as powerful as elephants
B.people easily fall victims to elephants' attacks
C.elephant tamers are becoming fewer and fewer
D.the man-elephant relationship is getting much worse
Last Friday, a new couple decided that instead of hosting their friends and family for a traditional feast reception, they would feed the victims from an earthquake-stricken area. Michael and Linda stood behind large food trucks distributing meals to 4,000 homeless people for their wedding reception on the border town of Kilis.
The idea came from the bridegroom's father, Ted, who volunteers for a Turkish relief organization. For the past few years, the organization has distributed daily meals to thousands of people who've suffered from natural disasters. He approached a representative of the organization and suggested that the family cover part of the costs of feeding them for the day.
Then he told his son, who was surprised by the suggestion, but soon won over. When he told that to the bride, she was really shocked but finally accepted because in southeastern Turkey there is a real culture of sharing with people in need. They love to share their food, their table and everything they have. And afterwards she was quite amazed about it. So, they arrived at the distribution center on Thursday to spend the day serving food and taking photographs with their grateful recipients (接受者).
That evening, the newly married couple were still pleased with their decision to quit a personal celebration for one with a greater good. “It's like sharing a dinner with your friends and family who have this kind of thing on a daily basis or sharing something with people who don't even have the most basic things,” Michael said. “Hopefully, this will also give the start for other wedding dinners to be held here with our brothers and sisters in need.”
1.How did the couple celebrate their wedding?
A.They treated their guests to a big dinner. B.They paid all for feeding victims of the day.
C.They took photos of the grateful victims. D.They spent the day with the victims in Kilis.
2.Why did so many people crowd in Kilis?
A.To help distribute free daily meals. B.To escape the damaging earthquake.
C.To attend Michael and Linda's wedding. D.To rescue the victims from the earthquake.
3.What does the underlined word “approached” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A.consulted with B.moved towards
C.came across D.took in
4.We can learn from the text that ________.
A.Ted was a representative of the organization
B.Linda adapted the suggestion when she heard it
C.Kilis is a place which lies in southeastern Turkey
D.Linda doubted if any new couples would follow him
A university in southwest China's Chongqing City set up a reading room as part of a campaign that stops students from taking their mobile phones with them in case the device prevents them from concentrating on their studies.
Reportedly a student named Hu Xiaopeng participating in the campaign studied 530 minutes without using his mobile phone. Unlike Hu, another one picked up his mobile phone in less than 20 minutes. “Having seen many students use their mobile phones in the library, a habit that shortens their study time and negatively impacts their learning, we decided to open this reading room,” said Zhang Shuran, the person responsible for the project at the university.
Zhang added that students can keep their phones in appointed bags with numbers on them. The bags are placed on a desk near the door of the reading room. “Staff members at the reading room will check the phones when there's a call,” said Zhang, adding that they will inform students when their parents or teachers call them, but will not tell students if an unknown person is calling or when there is a text message. Based on the time students hand in their phones when they come to the reading room and the time they get them back when they leave the room, Hu Xiaopeng from College of Animal Science and Technology of the university set a record of the longest time. Hu spent 530 minutes studying without using his phone. Though feeling somewhat surprised, Hu said, “It's bad to keep a mobile phone with you when you are reading or studying.”
The campaign has attracted nearly 200 students since it was launched a week ago. Some Internet users praised the campaign. One user named Liu Jingchang said, “It's good. I don't bring my phone when going to the library in case I get distracted(分心).”
1.What is the purpose of opening the reading room here?
A.To encourage students to read more books.
B.To help students concentrate on their studies.
C.To prevent the mobile phones from being stolen.
D.To stop students using mobile phones in the library.
2.What can we infer from Paragraph 3?
A.The bags are on the desk near the students.
B.Hu Xiaopeng thinks the campaign is a bad idea.
C.The student will be informed if a stranger calls him.
D.The longest time that the phone is not used is recorded.
3.What is the attitude of the students toward the reading room?
A.Supportive. B.Cautious.
C.Doubtful. D.Anxious.
阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。
CLEAN UP YOUR BUTTS AND BAGS
All sorts of items become litter, but two of the most common and most dangerous are cigarette butts and plastic bags. Litter is a big problem for our environment, but it is a problem that individuals can easily do something about. Not littering at all or cleaning up litter, such as cigarette butts and plastic bags, greatly improves the quality of our environment.
Although cigarette butts are small, they are bad for the environment. Over 1,600 billion cigarettes are smoked each year in China and large quantities of the butts are thrown away. Worldwide, about 4.5 trillion butts are littered every year. Apart from the fact that butts spoil the beauty of the environment, they contain some very toxic chemicals. These find their way into the water supply where they decrease the quality of the water and endanger plants and animals that live there. Because there are so many butts and because they can take up to 5 years to break down, the toxic chemicals add up to a large amount. So, if people have to smoke, they should not throw away the butts but put them in the rubbish bin instead.
Plastic bags are another common form of litter that is a danger to the environment. There are several reasons for this. They are made from oil and gas, which are non-renewable resources, if they are not recycled, these resources are lost to us. In China, 2 billion plastic bags are used every day. An enormous number of these become litter. This is a huge problem because they last from 20 to 1,000 years in the environment. They float easily in air and water and travel long distances. They find their way to rivers, parks, beaches and oceans. Plastic bags kill up to one million seabirds, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish each year worldwide. When the animal dies and breaks down, the plastic bag can become free again to kill another animal. It is up to people not to let plastic bags become litter. It would be better if they used fewer and recycled them.
Cleaning up your cigarette butts and plastic bags would improve the environment. The earth would be a better place because it would be less polluted. And we would know that we were doing something to look after our planet. However, I believe the best solution would be not to smoke or use plastic bags at all.
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