时间:2019-01-11 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2007年(二)月


英语课
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Every day, millions of people around the world drink water from wells that are polluted with high levels of arsenic 1. Arsenic is an element that can be released into groundwater by soil and rocks. Over a long period of time, water from poisoned wells may lead to deadly cancers.


Abul Hussam

Chemist Abul Hussam has developed a home treatment system for drinking water in his native Bangladesh. Almost all arsenic is removed as water passes through two containers. They hold river sand, pieces of iron and wood charcoal 2.

Sono filter system is manufactured in his hometown of Kushtia, where he also did much of his research. He tells us that his first task was to develop instruments to measure the exact amounts of arsenic in the water.

Early tests on two wells at the home where he lived as a child found arsenic levels three to four times higher than normal. As a chemist, he felt that if he could not solve what he calls the home problem, then his education would not be very useful.

His ten-year effort to find the right mix of active materials for the Sono filter system has just earned him a one million dollar prize. Abul Hussam is the top winner of the two thousand seven Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability. The prize is administered 3 by the National Academy of Engineering in the United States.

Abul Hussam is a chemistry professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He says he will give five percent of the money to the university. And he plans to use twenty-five percent of the award to develop smaller filters. Currently 4 the system weighs almost sixty kilograms.

But Professor Hussam says he will use the remaining money to increase production of the filters in Kushtia. One hundred workers currently produce about two hundred filters a week.

About thirty thousand homes in Bangladesh are using the system. It costs families thirty-five dollars. But Professor Hussam says the filters are extremely cost effective compared to the price of bottled water.

He says each system is guaranteed to clean about one million liters of drinking water over five years. In theory, though, he says they should last around thirty-five years.

He is now seeking international patent rights for the active materials in the system -- and he hopes to increase their power. Abul Hussam says he also hopes that someday the Sono arsenic removal system will be available around the world.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss 5. I'm Steve Ember.


n.砒霜,砷;adj.砷的
  • His wife poisoned him with arsenic.他的妻子用砒霜把他毒死了。
  • Arsenic is a poison.砒霜是毒药。
n.炭,木炭,生物炭
  • We need to get some more charcoal for the barbecue.我们烧烤需要更多的碳。
  • Charcoal is used to filter water.木炭是用来过滤水的。
管理( administer的过去式和过去分词 ); 治理(国家); 给予; 执行
  • An oath was administered to the newly elected President. 新当选的总统执行了宣誓手续。
  • In summary, all government departments are administered rather differently. 概括地说,各政府部门的管理方式是很不相同的。
adv.通常地,普遍地,当前
  • Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
  • Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。
n.苔,藓,地衣
  • Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
  • He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
学英语单词
Acaralate
air uptake
alcala de la selva
aluminium-rich
appoint people on their merit
at a great lick
aware public
bioturbation
bow cable sheave
Buloh Besar, Sungai
butterheads
cans of worms
chagul
clearing heat and detoxication
confess and avoid
contrabanders
cool head
creative support
D.Sc.L.
Edenside
electro-gas welding machine
engendered reliance
faradic shock
fineness forfeits and penalty receipt
forceful collision
gagwriter
gather a crowd
generation skipping transfer
genus Calliphora
genus Platycerium
heading control
hinged catamaran type drilling rig
hingeless arch
installation of a cost system
Ixeridium gracile
Kaministiquia River
kinnikinick
knot equivalence
kraft process, kraft pulping
landfill site
leather nailing machine
leewardly
Linea glutealis posterior
lock-up garage
low water quadrature
Loyne, Loch
maidenhairtree
maken
merchandise manager
midsw
Minsheng Ship Company
mobile-charging machine
mpongo
Multispec
mutationally
myoplegia
N,N-diethylacetamide
named object
naphthylurea
net noncash
network card
New Lighter
nonequilibrium electrochemistry
osip
Pacif
parankerite
Parmeth
plaster of Paris
power supply redundancy
rear echelon
receiving office
regeneration zone
resurveying
retained in subsidiaries
rhodonites
ring diode
risk index
ROM - read-only memory
roundoff constant
rudder actuator
salix lasiolepiss
scaling of equations
set one's bag for
shadow a suspect
Sinolenus
siphuncular
spickler
splatter
steel retort
steely-blue
subcollections
superstors
traffic guardrail
tricholoma irinums
under-down
unelectrifying
vertical take - off
volatile matter content test
voltage standard
wast
wear trace
Wood-depot