小木板
——醫院好眠助手

山西 白瑞芝

在醫院待過的人都知道醫院各種各樣的噪音會影響睡眠，為此，Metasonixx公司研發了一種由超材料制成的木板。 該木板可以放在病床周圍，它會在吸收光和空氣的過程中，抵消它周圍相同數量的噪音，繼而為病人帶來一夜好眠。

題材體裁科技發明說明文338★★★文章詞數難度建議用時6分鐘

Anyone who has spent time in a hospital will know that it is rarely a quiet place, with beeping machines, ringing phones, alarms, televisions and conversations all disrupting patients'peace. Now, however, scientists may have found the solution with an extremely lightweight panel that cancels out almost all surrounding noise and can be placed round a patient's bed.

The panel is made of a “metamaterial” that can let in air and light while blocking out the same amount of sound as putting up a two-inch thick block of plywood that weighs four to six times as much. The panels are being tested in the intensive care wards （病房） of two hospitals.It was created by Metasonixx, a start-up founded in 2019 by Dr Gianluca Memoli from Sussex University and Professor Bruce Drinkwater from Bristol University.

“I've been conscious of the situation or noise in hospitals for a while, but it was when we were clapping for the NHS at 8 pm every week that I thought I could actually try to give them less noise,” Memoli said.

The panel, which is 170 cm tall and 70 cm wide, is made from regular plastic but is given properties that it does not normally have through the way Metasonixx cuts geometric （幾何的）structures within it—a process known as metamaterials. The design allows sound waves to take two different routes through the panel. One section is engineered to slow one sound wave so that it is perfectly out of step with the sound wave passing through the other section. When the two meet at the other side of the panel, they cancel each other out.

This is similar to what noise-cancelling headphones achieve, but while they require microphones to detect the incoming sound wave,and a speaker to generate the counter-wave,Metasonixx's panel has no moving parts and does

Reading Check

1. What's the main purpose of the panel?

A. To do a test in the hospital.

B. To help the patients sleep well.

C. To solve people's sleeping problems.

D. To decrease the noise in the hospital.

2. When did Memoli decide to develop the panel?

A. When he stayed in hospital.

B. When he addressed a lecture.

C. When he attended a weekly activity.

D. When he found the noise in the hospital.

3. What's the similarity between the panel and noise-cancelling headphones?

A. The designers.

B. The materials.

C. The shape and size.

D. The working principle.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A. The panel can't be applied to other devices.

B. The panel can be easier to cancel out almost all surrounding noise.

C. The panel can reduce more noise than other technology.

D. The panel can't be used without a microphone and a speaker.not need any power to produce the effect. As the panels can also let light and air through if needed, they could also be placed over noisy fans,Memoli said.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

The panel, which is 170 cm tall and 70 cm wide, is made from regular plastic but is given properties that it does not normally have through the way Metasonixx cuts geometric structures within it—a process known as metamaterials. 這塊木板，高170厘米，寬70厘米，由普通塑料制成，但Metasonixx公司切割其內部幾何結構的方式賦予了它通常不具備的特質——這一過程被稱為超材料。

【點石成金】句中，which is 170 cm tall and 70 cm wide為非限制性定語從句，修飾先行詞The panel；that it does not normally have為定語從句修飾先行詞properties；Metasonixx cuts geoetric structures within it為省略關系詞that的定語從句，修飾先行詞the way；known as metamaterials為過去分詞短語作定語，修飾名詞a process。

Ⅱ. Theme-centered chunks

cancel out 抵消

let in 允許進入

block out 擋住；遮住（光線或聲音）

intensive care wards 重癥監護室

be conscious of 意識到

clap for 為……鼓掌

be made from 由……組成

be known as 以……知名；被認為是；被稱為

be similar to 與……相似