New environmentally friendly glass新型可降解环保玻璃

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主题语境：环境保护篇幅：322词 建议用时：6分钟

1 A lot of manufactured glass today madefrom sand and sodium carbonate（碳酸钠）canbe reused or melted down and recycled intonew items， but it isn't broken down in the envi?ronment and will sit in landfills for thousandsof years. A team of Chinese scientists aimed todeal with this environmental concern by developing an eco?conscious alternative.

2 In a study published in the journal Science Advances， a team at the Chinese Academyof Sciences' Institute of Process Engineering describes how they engineered biodegrad?able （可生物降解的） glass made from amino acids （氨基酸）. That glass would have asmaller impact on the environment and can be broken down in a few weeks or in severalmonths.

3 In a test， glass beads （玻璃珠） made from amino acids were placed under the skin ofmice， and the breakdown of the beads and the skin healing process were observed for 30days. A diagram of the study shows how the mices bodies broke down the beads. In thatmonth， the glass implant degraded beneath the skin， the wound site healed， and fur grewback.“ Throughout the experimental period， no mice exhibited any pain?related behaviorthat may have been caused by the glass implantation， and none of them experiencedobvious weight loss，” the researchers wrote in their paper.

4 Although amino acids do degrade over time in the environment， this biodegrad?able glass is not as durable as traditional glass， because amino acids can be brokendown quickly in heat. In order to overcome this hurdle， the researchers chemically modi?fied the amino acids using the heating?cooling procedure applied to glass manufacturing.This is when materials for the glass are heated to become soft and then rapidly cooled so asto make the glass tougher.

5“ It's important to point out that this biodegradable glass is currently in the lab stage，and far from large?scale commercialization，” emphasized Yan Xuehai， a professor involvedin the study， in a press release.

Reading

Check

1. What is an advantage of the new glass？

A. It can be recycled at a low cost.

B. It is produced without pollution.

C. It takes less time to be broken down.

D. It has a wide range of applications.

2. Why did researchers implant glass beads into mice？

A. To assess whether the glass is biologically harmless.

B. To investigate why amino acids are medically useful.

C. To explore how long it takes for the glass to degrade.

D. To observe if the glass can be melted down in mices stomachs.

3. What does the underlined word“ hurdle” in paragraph 4 refer to？

A. The instability of amino acids.

B. The difficulty of selecting materials for the glass.

C. Environmental problems caused by traditional glass.

D. The challenge of improving the heating?cooling procedure.

Language

Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Although amino acids do degrade over time in the environment， this biodegradableglass is not as durable as traditional glass， because amino acids can be broken downquickly in heat. 虽然氨基酸会随着时间的推移在环境中降解，但这种可生物降解的玻璃并不像传统玻璃那样耐用，因为氨基酸会在高温下迅速分解。

【点石成金】本句中，Although引导让步状语从句，主句是this biodegradable glassis not as durable as traditional glass，because引导原因状语从句。

Ⅱ. Fill in the blanks with the word and phrases in the box in proper forms.

break down aim to apply to point out current melt down

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