Do you want a simple T-shirt that could cool you down by up to 5℃ on the hot summer days? Thanks to a recent discovery, the possibility is getting closer. While there are many alternatives that manage to keep the body warm, this amazing invention aims to offer real relief for those who are eager to feel comfortable and fresh in the outdoors on extremely hot days.
Its inventors, engineers Ma Yaoguang of Zhejiang University and Tao Guangming of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, took a completely creative approach. They designed a special textile (纺织物) that can absorb body heat and re-emit (重发出) its energy into space as mid-infrared radiation (MIR). This textile cools both the objects and their surroundings through a technique that is known as radiative cooling. Science reveals. This means that even when it looks like you are wearing a regular shirt, you are actually wearing a device that works like a mirror.
A research conducted at Stanford University in 2017 had already managed to cool the wearer by 3℃, but this previous study was limited. So researchers still need to test the new approach to determine how effectively the new fabric cools while the wearers are standing or walking. and not directly facing the sky. They also need to examine and measure how well it works when T-shirts are no in close contact with the skin.
Inventors Yaoguang and Guangming are now looking out for textile manufacturers (制造商) and clothing brands that are interested in using their fabric. They estimate that the new material will increase clothing manufacturing costs by just 10 percent. “We can make it with mass production, which means everybody can get a T-shirt and the cost is basically the same as their old stuff,” Yaoguang said.
So if you are an athlete or simply someone that has to deal with the extremely high temperatures, be patient because your days of feeling hot and bothered may be coming to an end!
1. What is the purpose of the new invention?| A．To warm up people’s body. | B．To cool people off in hot weather. |
| C．To detect the wearers’ temperature. | D．To protect clothes from becoming wet. |
| A．By turning sunlight into energy. | B．By sending out absorbed heat. |
| C．By keeping heat out completely. | D．By using light colors to reflect sunlight |
| A．The invention needs further testing. |
| B．The previous studies lack evidence. |
| C．The new fabric has a good cooling effect. |
| D．The new fabric applies to various situations. |
| A．Barking up the wrong tree. | B．Robbing Peter to pay Paul. |
| C．Kill two birds with one stone. | D．Putting the cart before the horse. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Imagine a team of humans and robots working together to process online orders. Real-life workers strategically positioned among their automated coworkers who are moving intelligently back and forth in a warehouse (仓库)space, picking items for shipping to the customer.
This could become a reality sooner or later thanks to researchers at the University of Missouri, who are working to speed up the online delivery process by developing a software model designed to make transport robots smarter.
“The robotic technology already exists,” said Sharan Srinivas, who specializes in data analytics and operations research. “Our goal is to best apply this technology through efficient planning. To do this, we’re asking questions like ‘given a list of items to pick, how do you optimize (优化)the route plan for the human pickers and robots?’ or ‘how many items should a robot pick in a given tour?’ Likewise, we have a similar set of questions for the human worker. The most challenging part is optimizing the collaboration plan between the human pickers and robots.”:
Currently, a lot of human effort and labor costs are involved with fulfilling online orders. To help optimize this process, robotic companies have already developed cooperative robots, also known as cobots or autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), to work in a warehouse or distribution center. AMRs are equipped with sensors and cameras to help them navigate(确定方向)around a controlled space like a warehouse.
Srinivas said, “The robot is intelligent, so if it’s instructed to go to a particular location, it can navigate the warehouse and not hit any workers or other obstacles along the way. AMRs are not designed to replace human workers, but instead can work cooperatively alongside them to help increase the efficiency of the order fulfillment process.”
“The one drawback is that these robots do not have good grasping abilities,” said Srinivas. “But humans are good at grasping items, so we are trying to balance the strength of both resources.”
1. What does the underlined word “collaboration” in paragraph 3 mean?| A．Technology. | B．Similarity. | C．Exploration. | D．Cooperation. |
| A．To look cool. | B．To sense warnings. |
| C．To direct AMRs’ way. | D．To find human workers. |
| A．Jumping. | B．Climbing. | C．Walking. | D．Holding. |
| A．The Simple Use of Robots |
| B．Warehouse Workers and Robots |
| C．Making Transport Robots Smarter |
| D．Transport Robots Invented by Sharan |
【推荐2】Robot Surgeon (外科医生) Succeeds without Help from Human Doctors
Humans make mistakes. Even surgeons with years of experience are not infallible. But what if these doctors could pool their knowledge and experience together and create a surgical standard of care, to be carried out by machines?
That’s the idea behind surgical robots, which may soon perform most surgeries, from sewing up tiny wounds to performing heart procedures. Many of these operations are, in fact, already completed with the assistance of robots. But a recent test suggests that robots in the operating room may soon go a step further, performing on soft tissue completely on their own, from start to finish.
The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), successfully completed surgeries on pigs. “We’re the first group to develop autonomous robotic surgery with soft-tissue surgery, and when compared to standard operation, it’s better, ”says Peter Kim, professor of surgery. “The idea is not to replace surgeons; it will make the surgeons better and make the procedures safer.”
A recent Mayo Clinic study found that major surgical errors-including operating on the wrong site or side of the body, or even leaving tools or objects inside the patient-occur every one out of 22, 000procedures. That’s rare, but robots like STAR would aim to lower the number even further.
In the da Vinci surgical system, surgeons place their arms inside instruments and use their hands to control the movement of robotic tools on the operating table from afar. The robot’s every major move is controlled by surgeons, and thus its results may vary based on the surgeon’s training or experience.
STAR, on the other hand, is entirely autonomous. It’s not only able to work on its own and perform surgeries with a more flexible “hand”, but it’s able to react to the unexpected incidents. Cutting into hard tissue like bones is one thing, but operating on moving soft tissue is far more complex. STAR reacts to a changing environment, similar to how self-driving cars are programmed to not only drive on the highway, but also react to another driver making a mistake and getting in your way.
1. The underlined word “infallible” in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.| A．always right | B．really creative |
| C．rather responsible | D．quite smart |
| A．has been widely used in the operating room |
| B．can perform the operation on its own |
| C．can make surgeries much faster |
| D．will take the place of surgeons |
| A．robots are trained from afar |
| B．surgery results depend on surgeons |
| C．robots always make mistakes |
| D．surgeons have trouble controlling robots |
| A．how bad getting in another driver's way might be |
| B．how difficult self﹣driving on the highway is |
| C．how smart an autonomous robot can be |
| D．how dangerous operating on people is. |
【推荐3】Water shortage is one of the world’s biggest challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) thinks one in three people globally do not have easy access to clean water. Desalinating (给……脱盐) ocean water could help. But currently-available desalination units typically require high-pressure pumps (泵) to push water through filters (过滤器), which makes it difficult to reduce their size without influencing the energy-efficiency of the device. Meanwhile, they are too expensive to set up widely.
Now, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a convenient desalination machine. Unlike traditional desalination units that need replaceable filters, the MIT machine uses electricity to remove the salt and other small things from the ocean water. More importantly, the suitcase-sized device needs less power to run than a cell phone charger. It can also be powered by a small solar panel that costs less than $50. The lack of filters and the low electricity requirements make the machine extremely cheap to set up. “Even a kindergarten student can carry and use the desalination unit,” said one researcher. “Ease of use was one of the main motivations for creating the device.”
After running lab experiments using water with different salinity and turbidity (cloudiness) levels, they field-tested the device at Boston’s Carson Beach. The researchers set the box near the shore and put the feed tube into the water. In about half an hour, the device had filled a plastic drinking cup with clear, drinkable water.
The researchers believe their invention can deliver drinking water meeting WHO quality standards with a push of a button. Meanwhile, a smartphone app allows the user to control the unit wirelessly and receive real-time data on power consumption and water salinity. It also sends out information when the water is drinkable.
The MIT team is now exploring ways to bring their portable machine to market. They believe it will benefit residents of small islands or those running away from natural disasters. It could also be very useful for sailors on cargo ships and small groups of soldiers on long-term military missions.
1. What do we know about the current desalination units?| A．They cannot work efficiently. |
| B．They are usually large in size. |
| C．They were developed by MIT researchers. |
| D．They cannot stand high-pressure conditions. |
| A．The working process of the new desalination device. |
| B．The major components of the new desalination device. |
| C．The original aim of the new desalination device. |
| D．The advantages of the new desalination device. |
| A．That it is user-friendly and effective. |
| B．That it can provide lots of real-time data. |
| C．That it can be supported by several smartphone apps. |
| D．That it has successfully passed many lab experiments. |
| A．Its influence on different people. |
| B．Its future development plan. |
| C．Its time to enter the market. |
| D．Its intended uses. |
【推荐1】Global warming does more than just kill plant species — it also changes the way plants grow. Researchers at Martin Luther University Halle — Wittenberg(MLU) joined forces with the Leibniz Institute for Plant Biochemistry(IPB) to discover the molecular (分子) process of plant growth. In Current Biology, a scientific journal, they presented their findings on high-temperature plant growth. This could lead to developing plants that can survive global warming.
Plants react to even small temperature changes, but they are unable to move to new locations. “When temperatures rise, plants grow taller ... to cool themselves off. Their stems become taller, and their leaves become narrower and grow farther apart. Yet, this makes the plant more unstable overall,” explains Professor Marcel Quint, an agricultural scientist at MLU. Unstable plants bend faster in the rain and produce less food that’s also less nutritious.(营养的)
There’s still lots to learn about plant reactions to temperatures. “We are just starting to understand how plants feel the changes in temperature ...,” Quint says. Earlier studies have shown that the protein (蛋白质) PIF4 directly controls plant growth and is also dependent on temperature. When it’s cold, PIF4 is less active, meaning the plant doesn’t grow. At higher temperatures, PIF4 activates growth-promoting genes, and the plant grows taller. This is new information, says Quint.
To understand it, they studied the growth of thale cress seedlings (拟南芥幼苗). Normally, its seedlings form short stems（茎）at 20℃. These stems become much longer at 28℃. They discovered a hormone (荷尔蒙) that activates the PIF4 at high temperatures, thus producing the protein.
The findings may help to develop plants that remain stable even at high temperatures and produce many crops.
1. Why did the researchers at MLU and IPB perform their research?| A．To study the bad effects of global warming. |
| B．To find out how plants help reduce global warming. |
| C．To pay attention to how global warming influences plant growth. |
| D．To understand the ways that plants cause global warming. |
| A．Low temperatures have little effect on plants. |
| B．Plants prefer dry weather to rainy weather. |
| C．Plants are very sensitive to change in soil. |
| D．High temperatures reduce crop production. |
| A．It mainly lies in thale cress seedlings. |
| B．It works differently at different temperatures. |
| C．It is a kind of gene that controls plant growth. |
| D．It is a plant hormone that works at high temperatures. |
| A．Farmers | B．Teachers. | C．Researchers. | D．Environmentalists. |
【推荐2】Just like his parents and grandparents before him, Alaska teenager Carl Smith lives off the land, whether it’s catching salmon (鮭鱼) for dinner or collecting wood to keep warm in winter.
But the climate emergency is threatening the way Carl and his Yupik Eskimo family members have lived for generations, prompting (促使) the teenager to step into a role he never imagined he’d have: that of climate activist.
“I wanted to get the word out,” Carl, 18, tells People for the Earth Day special. “Nobody really knows what’s happening out here in rural Alaska.”
For Carl, home is Akiak, a small village of about 400 people who rely on the Kuskokwim River for salmon in the summer, and geese and moose (驼鹿) hunting in the spring and fall to keep their stomachs fed.
But as global temperatures rise, Alaska’s winters are getting shorter, and the permafrost (永冻土层) near Akiak is melting, causing large waves in the river that have been eroding (侵蚀) the shoreline as they crash; Carl estimates they’ve so far lost about 100 feet of land.
Carl’s concerns received national attention in 2019, when he and 15 other teenagers filed a landmark complaint with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, charging five countries with violating their rights as children by not doing enough to end the climate crisis and the threat it poses to their futures.
The complaint was spearheaded by attorney Michael Hausfeld, who says Carl stood out because climate change is directly affecting his life. “He’s experiencing it firsthand. He is watching his life slowly diminish (缩小) and disappear, M Hausfeld tells People. “Carl could become an icon for the concept of intergenerational equity (公正), which is an obligation of states to secure a living planet for the next generations.”
Carl traveled to New York for the Human Rights Day Summit, where he met fellow activists like Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Villasenor, who are also part of the complaint.
“When I heard the stories from people around the world, I felt like I was with them,” he says. “We’re experiencing different things, but in a way, it’s all the same. I just felt connected to them in some way.”
“I’m going to keep telling everyone that climate’s coming, climate’s changing, and it’s happening everywhere in the world,” he says. “If we don’t do anything about it, we won’t have a home to live in. I just hope everyone listens.”
1. What does the underlined phrase “get the word out” in paragraph 3 probably mean?| A．Let people know about something. |
| B．Conduct research on something. |
| C．Stop something from happening. |
| D．Go out for an adventure. |
| A．Five countries ignored the climate crisis. |
| B．The Eskimos lived on what nature gave them. |
| C．The Eskimos’ overuse of natural resources caused damages. |
| D．Some countries were charged with violating international obligations. |
| A．The population is decreasing. |
| B．Some species are going extinct. |
| C．More and more land is being lost. |
| D．Forests are being destroyed. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Critical. | C．Supportive. | D．Worried. |
| A．To call attention to the climate crisis. |
| B．To protect children from violence. |
| C．To voice support for Eskimo children. |
| D．To raise money for his hometown. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Generous. | C．Modest. | D．Responsible. |
【推荐3】Concerns about microplastics are not new. They’ve been growing for more than a decade. Over the past two years, however, many creative solutions have emerged to address the problem on a local level. Still, experts say there’s a need for a huge effort if we want to curb (控制) the global issue.
The term microplastics was coined in 2004 by marine ecologist Richard Thompson after he discovered tiny bits of plastic littering British beaches. Since then, scientists have found microplastics nearly everywhere. Even inside us. According to a 2021 study in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, the physical presence of plastic inside the body poses a potential problem. Plastic’s chemical additives might also affect different species’ tissues and organs. However, there is disagreement as to how much microplastics harm species, including humans.
For a global view of this vast issue, Duke University scientists created a public database to track plastic removal innovations. For instance, the Hoola One is a vacuum that internally separates microplastics from organic materials. In Amsterdam, scientists have introduced the Bubble Barrier in canals, a device that creates a wall of bubbles to send submerged plastic to the surface. Hong Kong Polytechnic University researchers presented a unique idea — a bacteria biofilm that could attract and trap microplastics before they flow into rivers and oceans.
But “if you have a technology that would capture microplastics before they enter our waterways, that would be ideal,” says Zoie Diana, who added 40 new inventions this year. That’s where Alain Marty, chief scientist at the biochemistry start-up Carbios, comes into the picture. In a 2020 Nature article, Marty and colleagues describe how they engineered an enzyme (酶) to break down plastic efficiently. “Industries could employ that in their manufacturing processes so that nearly all of their material could be reused to create products. Marty’s discovery is a breakthrough in the right direction, though preventing microplastics by reducing our plastic use also matters,” says Diana. “We really want to turn off the tap.”
1. What can we learn about microplastics?| A．They didn’t exist until 2004. |
| B．They can be easily tracked down. |
| C．They remain a matter of worldwide concern. |
| D．They do more harm to other species than humans. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By referring to another study. | D．By presenting research findings. |
| A．The enzyme can solve industries' productivity problems. |
| B．Taps should be prohibited for fear of the spread of microplastics. |
| C．A decline in plastic use is no less important than Marty's discovery. |
| D．Microplastics-capturing technology can rid waterways of microplastics. |
