Researchers from Texas A&M University have developed a new bioremediation technology (生物整治技术) using plant-based material and fungi (真菌) that could clean up per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called “forever chemicals” or PFAS, are found in soil, water, and even human and animal blood and may be harmful to humans and other species. They are found just about everywhere, from food wrappers to clothing. These chemicals may affect the immune system and may cause liver damage. Extremely high exposures to PFAS may also be linked to cancer.
“PFAS do not degrade (降解) easily in the environment and are poisonous even in a very low concentration,” said Susie Dai, associate professor from Texas A&M. “They must be removed and destroyed to prevent human exposure and negative impacts on the ecosystem. PFAS are so stable and they can occur in water in a very low concentration and you have to concentrate them and then destroy them.”
The only way to actually get rid of these “forever chemicals” is by burning them, which is a long and expensive process. But Texas A&M researchers have found a new way to use a plant-based material that adsorbs the pollutants. As explained by ScienceDirect, adsorption is “The use of solids for removing substances from either gas or liquid.” The adsorbent material is then consumed by microbial fungi. The team recently published their findings for the process framework, which they call RAPIMER, in Nature.
“The plant’s cell wall material serves as a framework to adsorb the PFAS,” Dai explained. “Then this material and the adsorbed chemical serve as food for a microbial fungus. Then it’s gone, and you don’t have the disposal problem.”
This sustainable PFAS clean-up system could be mass-produced for commercial use, leading to a better way to remove these chemical pollutants from the environment. It could also come in handy as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers creating PFAS thresholds (阈值) to its water quality standards.
1. What is mainly explained in paragraph 2?| A．PFAS’s existing forms. | B．PFAS’s doubtful origins. |
| C．PFAS’s potential dangers. | D．PFAS’s wide applications. |
| A．They are unstable. |
| B．They degrade easily in the environment. |
| C．They survive longer in water than in the air. |
| D．They are poisonous even in a low concentration. |
| A．The material gets eaten. | B．The material becomes solid. |
| C．The material falls into small pieces. | D．The material goes on to adsorb fungi. |
| A．Carefree. | B．Worried. | C．Positive. | D．Reserved. |
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【推荐1】On Sept 25, a team of doctors made medical history. In a two-hour procedure, led by Dr Robert Montgomery at New York University (NYU) Langone Health in the US, doctors successfully attached a kidney (肾) from a genetically-engineered (转基因的) pig to a human. The kidney functioned normally and wasn’t rejected (排斥) by the person’s immune system.
Montgomery said that the success was great. “It was a kidney that was immediately functioning,” Montgomery told CBS News.
The recipient (接受者) was a brain-dead patient with signs of kidney dysfunction (功能障碍) whose family agreed to the experiment before she was due to be taken off life support, researchers told Reuters.
For three days, the kidney was attached to the patient’s blood vessels (血管) by the upper leg and kept outside her body.
This kidney was never meant to serve as a permanently functioning organ for the patient. Instead, the point of the operation was to test whether the body would reject the organ. Researchers have been working toward the possibility of using animal organs, for example pigs’, for transplants for years. The problem lies in how to prevent the body from rejecting the organ.
This is where the idea of using an organ from a genetically-engineered pig came into play.
According to Popular Science, pig cells contain a sugar molecule (分子) that is foreign to the human body and causes organ rejection. Montgomery’s team thought that using a genetically-engineered pig that wouldn’t produce this sugar molecule would overcome the problem of organ rejection. This could give hope to many common people.
Montgomery said that the NYU kidney transplant (移植) experiment would bring hope for patients with kidney failure, possibly in the next year or two, CNN reported.
While there is still much to be done before entire pig organs are regularly used in people, the future itself is encouraging. Amy Friedman told The New York Times that she hopes that in the future, it will be possible to use other organs grown in pigs as well. “ It’s truly unbelievable to think of how many transplants we might be able to offer.”
1. What was the aim of the experiment?| A．To find out what causes kidney dysfunction. |
| B．To test if the animal organ would be rejected. |
| C．To study what causes the human body to reject an organ. |
| D．To see what kinds of animal organs could work in humans. |
| A．By enlarging the sugar molecule. |
| B．By adjusting the position of the kidney. |
| C．By using a genetically-engineered pig. |
| D．By adding a sugar molecule to the organ. |
| A．It developed a permanently functioning organ. |
| B．It provides a perfect solution to kidney failure. |
| C．It is the first time a brain-dead patient has been cured. |
| D．It marks a step toward using pig kidneys for transplants. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Worried. |
| C．Positive. | D．Uncertain. |
【推荐2】Predatory (捕食类的) insects benefit greatly from flowers and can even survive for long periods of time on nectar (花蜜) and pollen (花粉) alone, according to a new study. Farmers can promote a production of natural enemies to defeat pests (害虫) by planting flowers near crops in their fields.
“Pollen and nectar are things that beneficial insects can survive on when pests aren't around. By planting a wide variety of flowers both early and late in the season, one can ensure a good effect that ensures the survival of predators throughout the growing season,” says Lene Sigsgaard, professor of the plant and environmental sciences department at the University of Copenhagen. This is good news for the green transition, as effective pest control can help reduce the use of agricultural pesticides. Besides, the presence of more flowers improves pollination and biodiversity, as they attract more insects and pollinators into fields.”
In order for predatory Insects to approach flower nectar, easily approachable open flowers need to be planted, as predatory insects aren't equipped with the long feeding tubes that bees have, the researchers say. Food from flowers boosts energy for predators. Specifically, the researchers found that across all predatory insects, females survive 2.2 times longer getting access to flowers, and males 1.7 times longer, compared to insects that only have access to water.
“It pays to design tomorrow’s agriculture so as to plant wild flowering plants alongside fields. For the greatest impact, we are looking at how to design flowering fields that benefit both predatory insects and pollinators. This will reduce the need for other forms of pest control while supporting biodiversity.” Lene says. The researchers recommend native, continuous flowers to create habitats for predatory insects, places where they can winter as well. It is also important to have a wide variety of species that produce flowers during different seasons and benefit different insects.
1. Why did the researchers suggest planting flowers next to crops?| A．To help crops grow faster. | B．To make flowers grow stronger. |
| C．To make full use of natural resources. | D．To ensure the supply of predatory insects. |
| A．They mainly feed on nectar. | B．They have difficulty getting energy. |
| C．They can live longer feeding on flowers. | D．They can get access to any flowers easily. |
| A．Designing flowering fields properly has significant influence. |
| B．Maintaining biodiversity is important to agriculture. |
| C．It is beneficial to create various habitats for insects. |
| D．It is necessary to have good pest control. |
| A．A way to improve biodiversity. |
| B．A way to grow flowers fast and well. |
| C．A way to protect crops against pests in fields. |
| D．A way to increase agricultural production quickly. |
【推荐3】Visitors to HENN-NA, a restaurant outside Nagasaki, Japan, are greeted by an odd sight: their food being prepared by a row of humanoid robots that look like the Terminator. H. I. S., the company that runs the restaurant, as well as a nearby hotel where robots check guests into their rooms and help with their luggage, turned to automation partly out of necessity. Japan’s population is shrinking, and its economy is booming; the unemployment rate is only 2.8 percent. “Using robots makes a lot of sense in a country like Japan,” said CEO Hideo Sawada.
Sawada predicts that 70 percent of the jobs at Japan’s hotels will be automated in the next five years. “It takes about a year to two to get your money back,” he said. “But since you can work them 24 hours a day, and they don’t need vacation, eventually it’s more cost-efficient to use the robot.”
This may seem like a vision of the future best suited—perhaps only suited—to Japan. But according to Michael Chui, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, many tasks in the food-service and accommodation industry are exactly the kind that are easily automated. Chui’s latest research estimates that 54 percent of the tasks workers perform in American restaurants and hotels could be automated using currently available technologies.
The robots, in fact, are already here. Chowbotics, a company in Redwood City, California, manufactures Sally, a boxy robot that prepares salads ordered on a touch screen. Botlr, a robot butler, now brings guests extra towels and toiletries in dozens of hotels around the country.
This seems to be worrying. America’s economy isn’t developing nearly as smoothly as Japan’s, and one of the few bright spots in recent years has been employment in restaurants and hotels, which have added more jobs than almost any other industry. That growth, in fact, has helped dull the blow that automation has delivered to other industries. The food-service and accommodation industry now employs 13. 7 million American. Since 2013, it has accounted for more jobs than manufacturing.
These new positions once seemed safe from robots because they required a human touch in a way that manufacturing or mining jobs did not. When ordering a coffee or checking into a hotel, human beings want to interact with other human beings—or so we thought. The companies bringing robots into the service industry are betting that we’ll be happy to trade our relationship with robotic waiters or clerks for greater efficiency. They’re also confident that adding robots won’t necessarily mean cutting human jobs.
1. According to the writer, why was it partly out of necessity that H. I. S. turned to automation?| A．It’s hard to find employees in Japan. |
| B．The Japanese are used to using robots. |
| C．Robotic technology is advanced in Japan. |
| D．Japan’s economy develops less fast than expected. |
| A．It is no easy job to automate tasks in the hotel industry. |
| B．Restaurant workers can be easily replaced by robots. |
| C．Technologies need upgrading to pave the way for robotic waiters. |
| D．Robots now perform 54% of the tasks in American restaurants and hotels. |
| A．The manufacturing industry is waiting to be automated. |
| B．America’s economy is developing at an unexpected rate. |
| C．Automation has already had a negative effect on the service industry. |
| D．These two industries contribute much to America’s employment rate. |
| A．the human touch may not matter that much |
| B．profit is more important than customer satisfaction |
| C．manufacturing or mining jobs require human interaction |
| D．robots will rob humans of their jobs at the cost of efficiency |
【推荐1】The unforgettable characters are often the ones that we can identify with.
Chibi Maruko-chan(樱桃小丸子），the main character from the Japanese anime series of the same name, is one of them. Maruko-chan is a primary school girl who often makes mistakes and puts herself in difficult situations. Yet, for those who were born in the 1980s and 1990s,Chibi Maruko-chan helped them to feel better about themselves as a kid.
But as these young people grew up,Maruko-chan, did not. Last month, however, Momoko Sakura, the creator of the popular cartoon series, passed away at the age of 53.
“I feel so sad about her death, which came too early," wrote Soichi Aida, editor-in-chief of Ribbon magazine,which first published Chibi Maruko-chan in 1986. “But the bright smiles of Maruko-chan and her friends will keep shining in the minds of readers."
Unlike many popular characters, Maruko-chan isn't pretty, nor does she have any kind of special ability. In fact, she's lazy and hates to do chores. But this is what makes her so popular among so many people, young and old. "Maruko is not perfect and owns all the qualities of a 9-year-old girl -she's naughty, funny, and occasionally depressed. She is afraid of exams and leaves her homework until the last day of the holiday,"reported Chinese website Huxiu.com.
Later,as Maruko-chan gradually learns the ways of the world, she comes across a lot of problems, but her intelligence helps her out.The carefree girl is known for her funny yet wise sayings,such as,"Leave happiness to the last in a bittersweet life,"and ＂Self-reliance is the secret to consistent happiness."
Maruko-chan's facial expressions are also what stay in viewers' minds. Whenever she feels awkward, lines suddenly appear on her face, or sometimes an unexpected gust of wind will blow above her head.These expressions show her real feelings when she's in an uncomfortable environment, which most young people can relate to.
Though Maruko-chan has always been a grade-three student, her idea of being true to herself teaches us a lot.Her creator may be gone, but Maruko-chan's spirit and attitude will live on for many more years.
1. What is Chibi Maruko-chan known for?| A．Her good looks and laziness. |
| B．Her intelligence and occasional depression. |
| C．Her special abilities and consistent happiness. |
| D．Her facial expressions and interesting sayings. |
| A．She is a big fan of Japanese cartoons. |
| B．She speaks highly of Momoko Sakura.· |
| C．She is the creator of the Ribbon magazine. |
| D．She thinks Chibi Maruko-chan is out of date. |
| A．Because she is perfect in every way. |
| B．Because she contributes to our emojis. |
| C．Because she mirrors what little girls really are. |
| D．Because she has some special abilities to make people laugh. |
| A．Chibi Maruko-chan teaches us a lot about life. |
| B．Chibi Maruko-chan dies at the end of the cartoon series. |
| C．Chibi Maruko-chan is the most famous anime series in Japan. |
| D．Chibi Maruko-chan is far better known in China than in Japan. |
【推荐2】When you are stuck on a problem, sometimes it is best to stop thinking about it consciously. Research has shown that taking a break or a nap can help the brain create pathways to a solution. Now a new study expands on the effect of this so-called incubation by using sound cues to focus the sleeping mind on a targeted problem.
When humans sleep, parts of the brain replay certain memories, strengthening and transforming them. About a decade ago researchers developed a technique, called targeted memory reactivation(TMR), aimed at further reinforcing selected memories: when a sound becomes associated with a memory and is later played during sleep, that memory gets reactivated In a recently published study, scientists tested whether revisiting the memory of a puzzle during sleep might also improve problem-solving.
About 60 participants visited the laboratory before and after a night of sleep. In an evening session, they attempted spatial, verbal and conceptual puzzles, with a distinct music clip repeating in the background for each, until they had worked on six puzzles they could not solve. Overnight they wore special electronic uniforms to detect slow-wave sleep, which may be important for memory consolidation, and a device played the sounds assigned to three of the six unsolved puzzles. The next day, back at the lab, the participants attempted the six puzzles again. The subjects solved 32 percent of the sound-prompted puzzles versus 21 percent of the untargeted puzzles, a boost of more than 50 percent
''The researchers very bravely went for quite complex tasks that involved a lot of complex processing, and remarkably they found these really strong effects in all of their tasks, '' says Penny Lewis, a psychologist at Cardiff University, who was not involved in the research. ''These are supercool results. Now we need to go out and try to understand them by firstly copying them and secondly trying to work out the component processes that are actually being influenced.''
Beyond providing new evidence that humans restructure memories while sleeping, the research may have practical implications. ''In a futuristic world, maybe TMR could help us use sleep to work on our problems'', says lead author Kristin Sanders, who was a graduate student at Northwestern University during the study Sleep-monitoring technology is increasingly accessible, and even without gadgets, future solvers can focus on important problems before bed.
Still, sleep is not magic. People need to do their homework and load their heads with the puzzle pieces involved. ''I'm not going to solve cancer with this technique, '' Sanders says, ''because I don't know anything about cancer research. ''
1. Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word ''incubation'' in Para 1?| A．The pathway to a solution. |
| B．The period of taking a break. |
| C．Being stuck on a problem. |
| D．Targeted memory reactivation. |
| A．scientists wanted to prove that sound cues helped solve problems |
| B．the device played the sounds to all the unsolved puzzles |
| C．the participants went to the laboratory twice during the experiment |
| D．the participants tried to solve different types of puzzles |
| A．Penny intends to adopt two steps to understand the strong effects of the tasks. |
| B．Penny, who was very pleased about the result, was a lead scientist in the research concerned. |
| C．Sanders hopes he will solve cancer with TMR although he knows nothing about the disease. |
| D．Sanders predicts TMR could help solve the problem by exposing solvers to distinct sounds. |
【推荐3】Mobile phones have become a must-have in our modern society. They have become a central technology in a variety of aspects, not just regular conversations.
The reason behind the growth of mobile phones is that they have changed the way communication has been perceived by humans. The mobile devices permit rapid communication in all forms and they have truly made the world a smaller place. It is possible to use a mobile device to send locations, pictures, and videos now. Most crucially, they have become flexible in usage, with something for everyone.
The modern society has accepted mobile phones in a big way but it has come at a cost. Today, there’s great dependence on mobile devices even for basic actions like knowing the time. The addiction to mobile phones has become such a huge problem that people tend to be glued to their devices even when communication is not taking place. This is because mobile phones have become the hub (中心) for receiving entertainment at any time of the day.
A few years ago, “The World Unplugged” study was carried out to analyze the risk of mobile devices in our day-to-day lives. An experiment was conducted to see how long an individual can go without mobile devices. Participants were asked to stay away from their mobile phones for 24 hours and they ended up developing plenty of psychological symptoms, while some even displayed physical problems.
The mobile devices have indeed made our lives much more convenient, but they have also brought about plenty of health issues. In some cases, the mobile devices may have improved the quality of life, but we cannot deny the fact that they have become the medium through which anxiety, depression, nervousness, and loneliness spread around us. It is of great importance to use them with caution to avoid developing too much of an attachment to them.
1. Why do mobile phones become a central technology in our daily lives?| A．They allow diverse forms of communication. |
| B．They make the planet we live on smaller in size. |
| C．They make regular conversations faster and easier. |
| D．They have changed how humans perceive themselves. |
| A．The cost of mobile phones. |
| B．The problem with mobile phone usage. |
| C．The entertaining aspect of mobile phones. |
| D．The wide acceptance toward mobile phones. |
| A．Mobile device usage has few risks. |
| B．Our daily lives depend on mobile devices. |
| C．Mobile devices will cause physical problems. |
| D．The participants were addicted to mobile devices. |
| A．We should limit our mobile phone usage. |
| B．We should stay away from mobile phones. |
| C．Mobile phones can help with health issues. |
| D．Mobile phones are the source of negative emotions. |
