A-阅读及听力2011(A-WEEK16-WEEK20).doc

2011(A;B-WEEK16-WEEK20) 阅读及听力材料(20110411-20110515)请从你的邮箱中取出本阅读材料的MP3音频部分进行练习！阅读及听力2011(A-WEEK16-1,B-WEEK16-1)Brain-Computer Interfaces Could Mean More Freedom for the DisabledSince the nineteen seventies, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface, or BCI, technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.Recently, scientists demonstrated a small robotic vehicle directed by a persons thoughts. The demonstration took place at the Swiss embassy in Washington. Jose Millan and Michele Tavella developed the system. Mr. Tavella can even talk as he watches the vehicle and guides it with his thoughts.MICHELE TAVELLA: Thats very, very easy. Thats the simplest part we could say because moving one hand or the other is a very, very common task. There is no workload. Its very, very simple.Mr. Tavella is a researcher at the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland. In the laboratory, he can operate a wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand.Professor Millan is the team leader. He says systems like those being developed in Lausanne and other places may be available in less than ten years.JOSE MILLAN: The brain-machine interface is a system that allows disabled people, people suffering from physical disabilities to communicate with external world and also to control devices.Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles.The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover captures the signals from the scalp and redirects them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.Professor Millan says scientists keep improving the computer software that identifies brain signals and turns them into simple commands.JOSE MILLAN: The practical possibilities that brain-machine interfaces offer to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: Communication, and controlling physical devices and virtual devices. One example is this wheelchair.He says his team has set two goals.JOSE MILLAN: What we want is to bring this technology out of the lab and this has two components. First is testing with real patients, so as to demonstrate that this is a feasible technology they can benefit from. And the second aspect of that is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.”阅读及听力2011(A-WEEK16-2,B-WEEK17-1)Next Step After Carbon Knowing Your Nitrogen FootprintA carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide pollution that we produce as a result of our activities. Some people try to reduce their carbon footprint because they are concerned about climate change. Now, researchers have a way for people to measure how much nitrogen pollution they produce - their nitrogen footprint.All plants and animals need nitrogen. Nitrogen is a major element in the proteins in our bodies. The atmosphere is mostly nitrogen.In the early twentieth century, scientists learned how to take nitrogen out of the air and make it into a form that plants could use. University of Virginia professor Jim Galloway calls synthetic nitrogen fertilizer a wonderful invention because it increased food production. But he says many parts of the world use too much nitrogen fertilizer, and that harms the environment.JIM GALLOWAY: It contributes to smog, acid rain, loss of biodiversity, dead zones along the coast, global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion. The list is quite long.So Professor Galloway and other researchers have developed a nitrogen footprint calculator. This Web-based tool asks people about the foods they eat and questions like how much they fly and drive and how big a house they live in.Researchers say the average American produces forty-two kilograms of nitrogen pollution a year. Some of that comes from fossil fuels like oil and coal. But more than seventy percent involves food.University of Virginia researcher Allison Leach says Americans eat almost twice as much protein as the government recommends. She says eating only the recommended levels could reduce nitrogen footprints by almost half.Professor Galloway says animal protein plays a big part. He points to the example of cattle that are given feed grown with nitrogen fertilizer.JIM GALLOWAY: For large animals like beef, a very large fraction of the nitrogen that enters the cows mouth is excreted out the back end.Last year, a study supported by American beef producers found that their industrys environmental impact has decreased over the past thirty years. Jude Capper at Washington State University reported that by producing more beef from fewer animals, the industry cut its carbon footprint by eighteen percent.The nitrogen calculator is currently designed for people in the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. Another online calculator will be designed for India.阅读及听力2011(A-WEEK16-3)Why Hands-Free Faucets May Be a Risk to Some Hospital PatientsAutomatic faucets use an electronic sensor to start and stop the flow of water when people wash their hands. These faucets save a lot of water, which is one reason they are found in busy public bathrooms. Another reason is because of concerns about the spread of infection by people touching the handles on traditional faucets.Hospitals started using automatic faucets about ten years ago. But a new study at one hospital finds that these devices may not always be worth the savings in water use.Researcher took apart twenty automatic faucets at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. They found that half contained Legionella bacteria, compared to fifteen percent of manual faucets.Healthy people rarely get sick from the bacteria. So the study should not concern most users of automatic faucets in public bathrooms.But Legionella bacteria can cause a form of pneumonia in people with weakened immune systems. These include patients with diseases like cancer and HIV/AIDS, and those who have recently had an organ transplant.After their first tests, the researchers cleaned the water system with chlorine dioxide. But they found that twenty-nine percent of the automatic faucets were still contaminated with bacteria. That compared to seven percent of the manual faucets.The researchers have some theories. Dr. Emily Sydnor was the lead author of the study. She says the automatic faucets contain more parts, so there are more areas where bacteria could grow. Also, the reduced water pressure in low-flow faucets might not remove as much bacteria from surfaces.EMILY SYDNOR: We think that, one, the pieces and the parts inside are sort of providing places and surface area for bacteria to get trapped and probably promoting something called bio-film formation, which is essentially just a colony of bacteria that can sort of coexist in a little slime and a little, almost a little colony of it that its hard to get rid of. And that, combined with the low water flow, is probably promoting the growth.Six other studies have also found higher amounts of bacteria in automatic faucets. The latest study was presented Saturday at a meeting of the Society for Health Care Epidemiology in Dallas, Texas.The study has not yet been published. But the results have persuaded Johns Hopkins Hospital to replace its automatic faucets with manual ones.The Chicago Faucet Company supplies the hospital with automatic and manual faucets. Patrick Kimener, the senior vice president of sales, said he had not seen the full study.PATRICK KIMENER: Our company has been around for a hundred and ten years. Weve been a long-term supplier for an awful lot of health care facilities in the U.S. and were more than interested to find out what those findings would be.阅读及听力2011(A-WEEK17)Elizabeth Taylor, 1932-2011 She Was Considered One of the Most Beautiful Women of Her TimeToday we tell about the film star Elizabeth Taylor. She made over sixty films during her long career in Hollywood. She was famous for her striking beauty, violet eyes and shining black hair. Taylor was equally known for her complex private life and eight marriages. Beginning in the nineteen eighties, she also raised millions of dollars to support AIDS research.CLEOPATRA: “Without you, Antony, this is not a world I want to live in, much less conquer. Because for me, there would be no love anywhere. Do you want me to die with you? I will. Or do you want me to live with you? Whatever you choose.”BARBARA KLEIN: That was Elizabeth Taylor playing the queen of Egypt in the nineteen sixty-three movie “Cleopatra.” She earned over one million dollars for her work in this movie. At the time, this was the most money ever paid to an actor for a single film. It was also one of the most costly movies ever made. “Cleopatra” was a larger-than-life movie for a larger-than-life actress.STEVE EMBER: Elizabeth Rosemund Taylor was born in nineteen thirty-two to American parents living in London. Her father Francis was an art dealer. Her mother Sara had worked as a stage actress before her marriage. The Taylors left England in nineteen thirty-nine and moved to southern California. Elizabeths beauty soon caught the attention of movie studio officials.She made her first movie, “Theres One Born Every Minute,” at the age of ten. This was followed a year later by “Lassie Come Home.” But it was the nineteen forty-four film, “National Velvet” that made her a star.Twelve-year-old Elizabeth Taylor starred as Velvet Brown, a girl living in a village in England. She saves a horse and trains him for an important race, which she wins.BARBARA KLEIN: During the nineteen forties Elizabeth Taylor played many roles in movies about families. Not all child actors in Hollywood were successful later playing adult roles. But Taylor easily went from playing children to playing teenagers and adults. In nineteen fifty, she played the bride in the popular film “Father of the Bride.”That was also the year of her first marriage, to the wealthy businessman Conrad “Nicky” Hilton. But their marriage ended in divorce the next year. Speaking after her first divorce, Taylor reportedly said that she had been able to fit in the clothing of a sexy woman since she was fourteen years old. She said her troubles started because she had a womans body and a childs emotions.STEVE EMBER: Elizabeth Taylor would quickly become as famous for her private life as she was for her acting career. The media often wrote about her many marriages and love affairs. In nineteen fifty-two she married the British actor Michael Wilding, with whom she had two sons.Five years later they divorced, and she married the film producer Mike Todd. The couple had one daughter, Liza. Mike Todd died in nineteen fifty-eight in a plane crash. One of his close friends was the singer Eddie Fisher. He was married to a good friend of Elizabeth Taylor, the popular actress Debbie Reynolds. Eddie Fisher left his wife in order to marry Elizabeth Taylor. Many people were shocked and angered by this behavior.BARBARA KLEIN: Elizabeth Taylor once said that during the first part of her career, she did not make a huge effort as an actress. She said this changed in nineteen fifty-one with the movie “A Place in the Sun.” It tells a tragic story about a young man and his relationship with two women. Here is a famous scene with her co-star, Montgomery Clift.GEORGE: “I am the happiest person in the world.”ANGELA: “The second happiest.”GEORGE: “Oh, Angela, if I could only tell you how much I love you, if I could only tell you all.”ANGELA: “Tell Mama, tell Mama all.”STEVE EMBER: Critics praised Elizabeth Taylor for the depth she brought to this movie. She expressed both innocence and intense sensuality. She began to receive wide praise for her fine and expressive acting. And, she began to receive richer, more interesting roles.One of these was in the movie “Giant” with Rock Hudson and James Dean. It tells the story of a wealthy cattle rancher in Texas and his family.JETT: “I guess youre about the best looking gal weve seen around here in a long time, I think. Prettiest I think Ive seen down here.”LESLIE: “Why thank you, Jett. Thats a very nice compliment. And Im going to tell my husband Ive met with your approval.”BARBARA KLEIN: The movie was a big success. James Dean did not live to see the movie completed. He died in a car accident in nineteen fifty-five before the movie was released the next year. Elizabeth Taylor received Academy Award nominations for several films she made starting in the late nineteen fifties. The first was for the nineteen fifty-seven movie “Raintree County.”The next year she starred in a film version of the Tennessee Williams play, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” She plays a beautiful wife who is having marriage troubles. Her alcoholic husband is played by Paul Newman. Many critics consider this one of her best movies.MAGGIE: “Oh Brick! How long does this have to go on, this punishment? Havent I served my term? Cant I apply for a pardon?”BRICK: “Lately, that finishing school voice of yours sounds like you was running upstairs to tell someone the house is on fire.”MAGGIE: “Is it any wonder? You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.”BRICK: “Then jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it. Now cats jump off roofs and they land uninjured. Do it. Jump.”MAGGIE: “Jump where! Into what?”STEVE EMBER: Taylors third Academy Award nomination was for another movie based on a Tennessee Williams play called “Suddenly Last Summer.”In nineteen sixty, it was her turn to win. She received her first Academy Award for her work in “Butterfield 8”. Her second Academy Award for acting came six years later for her role in “Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” She starred in this movie opposite her husband at the time, the Welsh actor Richard Burton.MARTHA: “In fact, he was sort of a flop. A great big, fat flop.”GEORGE: “Stop it, Martha.”MARTHA: “I hope that was an empty bottle, George. You cant afford to waste good liquor. Not on your salary. Not on an associate professors salary.”BARBARA KLEIN: The movie was based on a play by Edward Albee. For this role, Elizabeth Taylor gained a great deal of weight in order to look the part of the aging wife of a college professor. “Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” received great praise. But it was Taylors first movie with Burton that had made history.“Cleopatra” received a great deal of attention for bringing together Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Both stars were married to other people at the time. But they began a widely publicized love affair while filming the movie. Burton and Taylor would eventually marry and divorce each other twice. They made many movies together and led a life of extreme fame and wealth.STEVE EMBER: Taylor later said she remained madly in love with Burton for his entire life. She said she would have married him a third time had he not died unexpectedly in nineteen eighty-four.Elizabeth Taylors last two marriages also ended in divorce. She was married to Senator John Warner of Virginia and, later, to a builder named Larry Fortensky.BARBARA KLEIN: Throughout her life, Elizabeth Taylor faced many health problems. She nearly died twice of pneumonia. She had back, hip, heart and weight problems. In the nineteen eighties, she battled drug and alcohol abuse. She entered a medical center for treatment and was very open with the public about her struggles.She spent much of her time working on her charity and business projects. She gave her name to several hugely successful perfumes.STEVE EMBER: In nineteen eighty-five, she helped create amFAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research. She did this during a period when many people believed those infected with the disease were immoral and few recognized its danger. Reports say she helped raise over a hundred million dollars for AIDS research and patients. In nineteen ninety-one she started the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. The organization helps people around the world who are living with AIDS.BARBARA KLEIN: Elizabeth Taylor died of heart failure in two thousand eleven at the age of seventy-nine. AIDS researcher Mathilde Krim told USA Today that the actress was always known for her beauty, success and jewelry. But she said Elizabeth Taylor was also a woman of extreme intelligence, independence, courage and a deep concern for others.阅读及听力2011(A-WEEK18-1，B-WEEK18-1)For Japan Farmers, Radiation Fears Mean Economic PainJapans nuclear crisis may mean greater demand for imported food and less competition from Japanese products on world markets. But it also means that Japanese farmers and others who make and sell food have to worry about their future.Yasumichi Tanaka sells fish at one of Japans busiest fish markets. But now there are fewer fish to sell.YASUMICHI TANAKA: Fish supplies from the radiation-contaminated regions have been totally halted.The radiation is from the Fukushima nuclear power station that was damaged by the March eleventh earthquake and tsunami. The extent of the problems are still not clear.Last Friday, China joined a number of other countries that have banned imports of food from the affected areas. Chinese media said the banned items include milk products, fruit, vegetables and seafood.Singapore also has a ban in place. Restaurant manager Connie Hon says some people are worried about eating Japanese food.CONNIE HON: Consumer confidence is yes, somewhat shaken I would say amongst some of the Singapore populace, but that cant b