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
accelerated circulation by pump
advertising message
Alexandria paper
amounting
angle straggling
anhydride of santonic acid
anolyte
apras
automatic rifles
be starved
best moisture content
bottom-up approach to investing
break off an action
Bulgarian monetary unit
can openers
Carex egena
caucasus mts.
centrifugal microscope
CLEO stellarator
coated ginger
coheritability
comparative test block
covering comain
crossover flange
cut bait or fish
Cymbopogon citratus Stapf.
design of forecasting tests
dreckley
eurema brigitta hainana
expressible
Feigenbaum scaling
filigraned
flying arch method
followdays
four wheel car
Gaussian source
geithner
geopressured
glissade dessus
hail insurance
hall mibility
handygripes
harmonious synthesis
Heding (Ex13)
historical science
home-builder
idyllwild
interest-driven
interneuronal
kunfort
Kunoy
leptocera (leptocera) parafluva
low drag wing
lower pressure
lower-orders
macphail
man-vehicle-roadway relation
manure pump
marron glace
measurement of discontinuity
Mefsoukh, Oglat
microsoftware
molecular biology of tumor viruses
natural-grass
necroticized
neutral return path
normal human sera
on off switch
operative procedure
optimum portfolio
ore reserve outside balance sheet
other operating revenue-other
outer lacquered can
poursuing
preputial diverticulum
price on spot
processor terminal
protectively
psychology of knowing
rattles through
reflexive lattices
return of purchases
secondary pressure of reducing valve
shiny lyonia
single taxer
sits in
source of local materials
spaced disk
swamp cypresses
talkings to
tapered mould
Thiocysttis
time/date
tomato solid pack
transfume
Tyromyces
vena portaes
Visclair
waterbudget method
Zapotalito
zinc sulfocyanate