VOA标准英语2010年-If You're Into Science, NIST Shouldn't

Next year will mark the 110th anniversary of a U.S. government agency that is unknown to most Americans. Yet its work affects their everyday lives in countless¹ ways. Generations knew the agency as the National Bureau of Standards. When it was founded in 1901, electricity was just making its way into widespread commercial use, and the nation used a variety of standards to measure length, weight, and mass. There were something like 30 different ways to measure quantities of liquid, for instance.
The agency is now known as NIST - the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The Washington Post newspaper calls its headquarters complex in Maryland, on what was once a top-secret missile site, Uncle Sam's funhouse.
NISTThis is a corner of the document that some call America's birth certificate, which NIST helped to hermetically seal. It's a 1507 map, now at the Library of Congress, that showed the word America for the first time. There, NIST technicians and scientists come up with new ways to measure things, set standards for products, and test new technology in all sorts of industries. NIST maintains the earth's atomic clock, which is thought to be so accurate, it would take more than 20 million years for it to gain or lose a single second. NIST standardized² smoke detector³ readings, X-ray machines, cholesterol⁴ calculations, and gasoline pump calibrations. For the National Archives, NIST scientists enclosed America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution in an aluminum⁵ block sealed with tempered glass. NISTNIST helped evaluate various sensors⁶ that will likely become part of US soldiers' combat uniforms. They include tiny cameras and sensitive audio microphones. One giant room on the NIST campus is filled with exotic milling, machining, and other industrial equipment. Here, specialists make instruments for NIST researchers, who in turn test everything from bullets to football helmets.
They invent things, too. NIST scientists developed a device that turns computer documents and electronic messages into Braille for the sight-impaired.
These days, NIST is especially hard at work on nanotechnology. The agency that standardized fire hoses and once re-measured and corrected the exact length of a meter has a brand-new complex that is testing and measuring matter as small as an atom.

1 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

2 standardized   

adj.标准化的

参考例句：

• We use standardized tests to measure scholastic achievement. 我们用标准化考试来衡量学生的学业成绩。
• The parts of an automobile are standardized. 汽车零件是标准化了的。

3 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

4 cholesterol   

n.（U）胆固醇

参考例句：

• There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
• They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。

5 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。

6 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句