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
-rubicin
A-side
acceleration polygon
aders
Apios tuberosa
Arcachon, Bassin d'
Askol'd, Banka
ayness
baby's room
balm cricket
basic sediment and water
capsulizes
car approaching gong
Caverject
celestial poles
cell aging
central thimble
Cesis
charge coupled device sun sensor
coil radiator
colourizations
corpus spongiosum penis
crassulent
CRHV
detail paper
dextran-150
diplomat
doormats
Drâa el Mizan
Embelia rudis
eneamines
episode analysis
excrementitious
exhaustion of groundwater resources
existing road
fetal-origins
fin skeleton
fixed savings deposits
fluorescent body
fok
foon
Fort Hall
frondless
gabbiness
gabbroite
Handelia trichophylla
haybird
hengelsby
high-productivity
hockey coaches
in-cars
induction of labor with bougie
informative marking
input/output transfer
interleafs
kilion
lahey
marine phytocytology
methanofuran
metric fine thread
ministerly
Nantulo
Niger
one-chip product
order close-out options
out-of-process debugging
peripheral arteriosclerosis
permissive release
plumb bob
propped up
purchase of services
put a stitches in
rate of flow meter
remeditate
rhabdophis swinhonis
rihga
Roubaisian
saccharization
sample preparation by recoil
segmented condensation method
septic necrosis
simplyconnected
sintered bearing bronze
sodium chloroplatinite
sooked
struck capacity
supervacaneal
sweeping molder's horse
Talmudist
tangent pump
tetragnatha maxillosa
to some tune
total turns of steering wheel
tumbled over
unable to do anything with
verruca acuminatas
window scattering
Wirrulla
word-matchings
year-end variance
yeve
Zanaki