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
absolute range for ordinal and continuous observations
accessway
accidental cutting
acrocercus
adenosine triphosphate synthetase
AEDS (Atomic Energy Detection System)
ANTIMYCOBACTERIALS
anxiolytic
arterize
asynchronous communication control attachment
barred nebula
bell boy
bill board
Béja, Gouvernorat de
canaliculatus
center-of-gravity motion
chart of shipping routes
chianophile
Clematis napoensis
Comma Johanneum
concealment of birth
cut down the outlay
deemed interest
degree of separation
discontinuous observation
dissertative
doers
double shielded winding
draw a line in the sand
Dumus, Sebjet
erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp
erythrene
excited field voltmeter
external voltage
folding conveyer belt
friedrich inequality
Gemalto
go into tails
gray resolution of image
highest temperature
homebrewer
hydroxyethylalanine
hypautomorphic mineral
hyphenized
incorruptive
indicator device clutch wheel
internet station
inventory management simulator
jillaroo
leaches
likelihood detection
liquid chromatogram
low-statuss
lumbar nerves (or lumbar spinal nerve)
Madhwapur
measurement adjustment
megatherm
middle run
molothruss
NITC (not in this contract)
non-dialyzed ion
normal probability function
nose suspended motor
offbeats
on the clock
over-graze
pallas pit viper
paralyzingly
pentactin
picnic baskets
playworkers
polar triangle
populationally
positive recurrence
preorder for binary tree
pseudocleft
Rajpath
reflux line
remittance instruction
say hello
semi permeable membrane
shade-purse seine
simple warping
slam-banger
small sample time-series study
sodding lawn
sour dock
square mil
stannous fluoborate
stannyl chloride
stingroot
subpand
tamizdat
tension straightening machine
thermal shock resistance test
triiodo cresol
tube wave velocity
tuffaceous siltstone
unburdensomeness
undersea excavation
ventricular preponderance
yeast centromeric plasmid