Question

THE idea came to Ralph Liedert while he was sweating in the Californian sunshine, having been standing with his daughter for over an hour in a queue for a ride at Disneyland. What, he thought, if his T-shirt had a cooling system he could turn on, at the tap of a smart phone app, when he needed it. Luckily, Mr Liedert does have the means to make the dream reality, for he works at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, as one of a team there studying the rapidly growing field of microfluidics (微流控技术).

Cooling vests already exist (used by racing drivers, motorcyclists and people who work in hot conditions). But the tubes through which the cooling water is being pumped, and the vests’ need to be connected to outside units that cool this water, make them huge and clumsy. Mr Liedert thought VTT’s microfluidics department could do things better.

As its name suggests, microfluidics is the art of building devices that handle tiny amounts of liquid. Inkjet-printer cartridges (喷墨打印机墨盒) are a familiar example. Less familiar, but also important, are “labs-on-a-chip” (芯片实验室). These are tiny analytical devices that transport fluids such as blood through channels half a millimetre or less in diameter (直径), in order to carry them into what holds analytical reagents (试剂). Sensors, then detect the resulting reactions and provide an instant analysis of a sample (样本). Designing labs-on-a-chip is the VTT microfluidics department’s day job. One of its chips, for example, can tell whether water is affected by the bacteria that cause Legionnaires’ disease.

The department’s biggest contribution to the field, though, is to have developed a way of printing microfluidic channels onto large rolls of thin, flexible plastic. It works by passing the plastic between two heated rollers, one of which contains raised outlines of the required channels. As the rollers squeeze the plastic they create a pattern of channels into one surface. A second plastic film is then melted over the top as a cover. This process might, thought Mr Liedert, be suitable for printing a microfluidic cloth that was thin enough and pleasant enough to wear as a cooling vest.

The group’s first model showed that such a material could indeed be made and used to circulate cooled water. They are also looking at ways the water being circulated through the microchannels might be cooled. They have identified two. One uses a small heat-exchanger, the details of which they are keeping secret at this stage. The other employs evaporation (蒸发). It thus works in the same way that heat from circulating blood is removed by the evaporation of sweat.

Whichever cooling system is applied, the electronics needed to power and control it would be shrunk into a small package contained on the back of the vest. This could be operated by hand or, as Mr Liedert originally envisaged in his Californian queue, by a wireless link to a smart phone. Moreover, what can cool down can also, if run in an opposite way, warm up. In Finland, where winter temperatures fall as far as -50°C, that might be the technology’s killer app.

1.Microfluidics has been used in ______.

A. racing cars               B. printing industry

C. testing material          D. clothing industry

2.We can learn from the passage that ______.

A. VTT is a company which mainly works on the research into microfluidics

B. the new cooling vest of VTT will be smaller and work more effectively

C. the technology of microfluidics may have a positive effect on medical science

D. heat-exchanger as well as the way of evaporation will be used to cool the wearer

3.______ plays the key role in making the new cooling vest.

A. The special cloth          B. The cooling system

C. The tiny liquid            D. The wireless link

4.The underlined word “envisaged” most likely means _____ .

A. imagined       B. discovered      C. viewed      D. planned

Answer

1.B

2.C

3.A

4.A

【解析】

试题分析：本文是一篇科技文。从一个父亲排队感觉酷热，引出凉爽背心的想法，又用理论来支撑这一想法的可实施性。

1.】B细节理解题。由第三段As its name suggests, microfluidics is the art of building devices that handle tiny amounts of liquid. Inkjet-printer cartridges are a familiar example可知，正如它的名字所暗示的那样，微流控技术是一种构成装备的艺术，它处理微量的液体，喷墨打印机盒就是一个熟悉的例子。由此可知B 正确。

2.C 细节理解题。从文中最后一句what can cool down can also, if run in an opposite way, warm up. In Finland, where winter temperatures fall as far as -50°C, that might be the technology’s killer app. 可知它能使温度降下来，如果用相反方法操作的话，它也会把温度升上去，在芬兰，温度下降到零下50度，这可能是这个技术的杀手应用程序。由此可知C 正确。

3.A 细节理解题。第四段最后一句 This process might, thought Mr Liedert, be suitable for printing a microfluidic cloth that was thin enough and pleasant enough to wear as a cooling vest.这个过程可能对于印刷出一种微流控技术的布料，足够薄，作为一个凉爽背心，穿起来足够舒适。由此可知A 正确。

4.This could be operated by hand or, as Mr Liedert originally envisaged in his Californian queue, by a wireless link to a smart phone.可知，这（背心）可以用手工制作，或者正如Mr Liedert 最初在加利福尼亚排队时想象的那样，用一个无线与智能手机连接。在排队时对背心的概念只是一种想象，可知A 正确。

【名师点睛】

科技文的阅读技巧：先看题，并且非常认真的理解每道题的意思，提取有用的信息，虽然一般并不容易只通过问题一下子就找出文章主题，但一定能找到跟主题有关的词和信息，并且至少知道文章是在讨论某个东西还是在叙述某件事，尤其是说明文，一般比较生涩，不容易理解，但是提前阅读题目会使你感觉有的放矢，知道自己想要什么。另外，培养速读能力以及阅读的兴趣，扩大词汇量，增强文化背景知识，尽可能涉猎交际功能强，实用性强的应用文，如科普读物，新闻报道，广告说明等。这对于了解各种文化的共性和差异，更新自己的观念，跟上时代的潮流，从而形成良好的文化意识则有所帮助。本文的概念背心想法，就比较新颖，但是又与我们的生活息息相关。

考点：考查科技文阅读理解