VOA常速英语2016--新型滤水技术或能带来价格合理清洁饮用水

新型滤水技术或能带来价格合理清洁饮用水

Developing the perfect water filter is Baoxia Mi's goal. Growing up in China, she learned the value of clean drinking water early on. Now at the University of California, Berkeley, the environmental engineer is developing a new type of membrane¹ that could be more efficient than today's water filtration technology and consume less energy in the process.

发明一个完美的滤水装置是米宝霞博士一直以来的梦想。自小在中国长大的她很早就知晓清洁饮用水的重要性。而现在在加州大学伯克利分校，这位环境工程师正在研发一种比当今的滤水技术更加高效节能的新型滤膜。

It's made up of layers of graphene, 100,000 times thinner than a strand² of human hair.

它是由多层石墨烯构成，甚至比人类的一缕发丝还要薄10万倍。

“We made it from graphite, which is a material that we use in pencils for example, so it's cheap and relatively³ abundant. So we can use that, and the process that we use to make from the graphite to the graphene oxide⁴ is actually quite scalable.”

“我们以石墨为原料，这种材料平常用于制作铅笔，因此价格低廉而且资源丰富。这样我们就可以使用这种材料，而我们将石墨制成石墨烯氧化物的过程是可以进行延展的。”

That means the membranes⁵ could be adapted to filter water from a faucet⁶, as well as for large systems used to treat wastewater. The membranes are much like a maze⁷ for water molecules⁸. The water passes through a series of layers separated by spaces specifically designed to remove different types of contaminants.

这代表着这种滤膜膜既可以用来过滤水龙头的流水，也可以应用于大型废水处理系统。在这种滤膜中，水分子就像进了迷宫一样。水会流经一层层专门设计用于过滤去除不同污染物的单独空间。

“In order to kind of get a different…remove different targeted molecules, the most direct way of thinking about it is to control the spacing that we have between the layers.”

“为了得到不同的…因此需要过滤掉不同的目标分子，而最直接的方法就是控制每个过滤层间的空间。”

 

The researchers are working on further improvements, they hope their work will contribute to finding solutions to water purification worldwide to make clean water affordable⁹ and available for people everywhere.

研究人员正致力于进一步的改善工作，他们希望这项研究可以解决全球面临的水净化问题，为人们提供负担得起的清洁饮用水。

1 membrane   

n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸

参考例句：

• A vibrating membrane in the ear helps to convey sounds to the brain.耳膜的振动帮助声音传送到大脑。
• A plastic membrane serves as selective diffusion barrier.一层塑料薄膜起着选择性渗透屏障的作用。

2 strand   

vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地）

参考例句：

• She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears.她把一缕散发夹到了耳后。
• The climbers had been stranded by a storm.登山者被暴风雨困住了。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 oxide   

n.氧化物

参考例句：

• Oxide is usually seen in our daily life.在我们的日常生活中氧化物很常见。
• How can you get rid of this oxide coating?你们该怎样除去这些氧化皮？

5 membranes   

n.（动物或植物体内的）薄膜( membrane的名词复数 )；隔膜；（可起防水、防风等作用的）膜状物

参考例句：

• The waste material is placed in cells with permeable membranes. 废液置于有渗透膜的槽中。 来自辞典例句
• The sarcoplasmic reticulum is a system of intracellular membranes. 肌浆网属于细胞内膜系统。 来自辞典例句

6 faucet   

n.水龙头

参考例句：

• The faucet has developed a drip.那个水龙头已经开始滴水了。
• She turned off the faucet and dried her hands.她关掉水龙头，把手擦干。

7 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

8 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。

9 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。