VOA慢速英语 2008 1208a

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

One of the best ways to protect yourself and other people from getting sick is to wash your hands with soap. To make soap, you need three main things: oil, water and lye.

The oil can come from animal fat or plant sources like avocado, coconut¹ or sunflower. Lye can be found at markets and other stores that sell cleaning products. Lye -- spelled l-y-e -- is also called sodium² hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.

Be very careful. Lye can cause serious burns. It can also blind a person if it gets into the eyes. Do not breathe lye and do not let small children near it. And do not store lye in containers made of aluminum³. The lye will eat through the metal.
　

Soap can be made from many different kinds of fats and additives4

But the owner of a soap making business in California says on her blog that there is no lye present in the finished soap. Diane Longacre says the lye and oil molecules⁵ combine and chemically change into soap and glycerin. Her blog is at frontierangelsoap.blogspot.com.

Some people make soap with potash lye. You boil ashes in water until only dry black salts remain. Once the salts melt, a gray-white substance is left. This is potash.

One simple way to make soft soap requires nine kilograms of potash. You also need twelve kilos of any kind of oil and twenty-six liters⁶ of water. Mix the potash well with the water. Add it to the oil in a wooden bucket.

For the next three days, mix the materials well with a wooden stick or spoon. Do this several times a day for about three minutes at a time. Then let the soap sit in the wooden bucket for about a month. After that, it will be ready to use.

In Mali, women's groups make and sell soap produced with jatropha seeds. In Rwanda, a group of people living with H.I.V./AIDS began making soap from local materials like palm oil and avocados. They developed a business with a loan⁷ from the aid organization Africare.

Healthier members of the group meet four times a week to mix the soap and cut it into pieces. An American organization called InterAction⁸ says the soap makers⁹ produce one thousand pieces each day. The soap is sold to the local health center, to a prison and to people in the community.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Karen Leggett. More information about the soap making process can be found at practicalaction.org. Click on Practical Answers and enter "soap" as a search term. We will post helpful links at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter.

1 coconut   

n.椰子

参考例句：

• The husk of this coconut is particularly strong.椰子的外壳很明显非常坚固。
• The falling coconut gave him a terrific bang on the head.那只掉下的椰子砰地击中他的脑袋。

2 sodium   

n.（化）钠

参考例句：

• Out over the town the sodium lights were lit.在外面，全城的钠光灯都亮了。
• Common salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.食盐是钠和氯的复合物。

3 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

4 additives   

n.添加剂( additive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• chemical additives in petrol 汽油中的化学添加剂
• It'says on the packet that these crisps contain no additives. 包装上说这些炸薯片不含添加剂。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

6 liters   

n.升( liter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In the metric system, measurements are made in metres and liters. 在公制中，用米和升作计量单位。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This can holds five liters of water. 这个容器可装五升水。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 loan   

n.贷款；借出的东西；借；vt.借出；贷予

参考例句：

• I asked the bank to help me with a loan.我请银行给我一笔贷款。
• Has the bank okayed your request for a loan?银行批准你的贷款要求了吗？

8 interaction   

n.交流；相互作用，相互影响，合作

参考例句：

• The interaction of the two groups produced many good ideas.两个组的相互交流产生了许多好主意。
• Price is determined through the interaction of demand and supply.价格在供需的相互作用中形成。

9 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》