能识别问题食物的袖珍装置

河北 胡金莹

据估计，全世界有十分之一的人患有与消化系统相关的疾病。然而，发现哪些食物会引起不良反应是一个漫长而艰苦的过程，而且代价昂贵。为了解决这一问题，爱尔兰工程师安格斯·肖特和彼得·哈特发明了只有5 平方厘米大小的便携式设备来测量一个人呼出的气体中的氢含量，以帮助使用者监测消化系统疾病。

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1It is estimated that one in ten people worldwide are suffering from diseases that are related to digestive conditions. There is no cure, although it can be managed with lifestyle and dietary changes.However,discovering which foods cause a bad reaction for individuals can be a long and painstaking process and it's expensive as well.

2That's why Irish engineers Aonghus Shortt and Peter Harte founded Food-Marble, a startup that has invented portable devices, measuring just5square centimeters.It can be used to test the hydrogen levels in a person's breath,which is a key signal for digestive disorders.

3FoodMarble's app has a database of nearly 1,000 foods,which are typically hard to digest. FoodMarble's AIRE device, which was launched in 2018, allows users to test for hydrogen after meals,giving them real-time feedback on what food is bad for their body.Readings are transmitted via Bluetooth to the FoodMarble app,where users can record what they eat,and over a course of weeks spot the ingredients that cause symptoms.

4Hydrogen breath tests have long been a method for diagnosing digestive conditions,but the technology has not been widely accessible because it requires multiple trips to the hospital for testing. By miniaturizing it, the technology can be accessible to ordinary people. So far, FoodMarble has sold 25,000 of its breath sensor devices, which have outperformed other hydrogen breath test methods.

5Doing breath tests in a clinical setting can be challenging and needs more manpower,requiring a medical assistant to take a breath sample every 15 minutes over a number of hours.The attraction of the FoodMarble device is that it's not just a one-time analysis of the breath. A person could use it multiple times to gather multiple data points on which to make better judgment calls and assessments about food sensitivities.

6Dr Tara Troy,a gastroenterologist(胃肠病学家),warns that hydrogen breath tests are not a foolproof method for diagnosing digestive problems and can sometimes produce false negatives and positives.“It is important to complement them with other tests that can determine if a patient is suffering from more serious conditions. Anyhow, they are hugely valuable in offering some sort of objective criteria for patients with digestive conditions,”said Troy.

Reading Check

Choose the best answers according to the text

Language Study

Ⅰ.Analyze the difficult sentence in the text

That's why Irish engineers Aonghus Shortt and Peter Harte founded FoodMarble, a startup that has invented portable devices, measuring just 5 square centimeters. 这就是爱尔兰工程师安格斯·肖特和彼得·哈特创立FoodMarble 的原因。FoodMarble 是一家初创公司，发明了只有5平方厘米大小的便携式设备。

【点石成金】本句中，why引导表语从句，measuring just 5 square centimeters 为非谓语动词作定语。

Ⅱ.Memorize some text-centered chunks

be related to 与……有关

give sb real-time feedback 给某人实时的反馈

over a course of weeks 在几个星期的时间里

be accessible to 可使用的

so far 到目前为止

a number of 很多；大量

suffer from 遭受