實驗室里的合成淀粉

西藏 央 宗

中國科學家通過不懈的努力研制出了人工合成淀粉，并首次在實驗室實現了二氧化碳到淀粉的合成，使淀粉生產從傳統農業種植模式向工業車間生產模式轉變成為可能。

______題材____合成淀粉體裁_________說明文___________文章詞數_________363__________難度_________★★★_________建議用時___7分鐘_____

Chinese scientists have created starch, a type of complex carbohydrate found in plants,using carbon dioxide,hydrogen and electricity,according to a new study.

Experts said that if such a technique can be promoted to the level of industrialization,it may revolutionize how this key nutrient and industrial ingredient is made, since it does not require farming and processing large quantities of starchy crops such as sweet potato and maize,thus saving more water,fertilizer,and land.

It may also be used to recycle carbon dioxide into a consumable product. This will help reduce carbon emissions and fight against climate change, especially if the electricity used is from renewable sources like solar and wind.

In space exploration, it may provide a sustainable food source for astronauts as they travel long distances in space and try to settle on other planets where growing food is unfeasible. Future space travelers may simply turn the carbon dioxide they breathe out into the food they eat.Starch and other complex carbs make up 60 to 80 percent of the human diet.This breakthrough demonstrates that synthesizing（合成）complex compounds like starch is achievable in a lab,so there are many industries that can benefit from this technology.

Starches are widely used in sugar production, food and beverage processing, printing,drug-making, textiles, and dozens of other industries. This prompted the manufacturing of corn starch and its derivatives（派生產品）into an 80 billion yuan industry in China.

Researchers have been focusing on a single project: how to make starch like plants,but do it much faster. Creating carbohydrate via more effective means is so important for sustainability on Earth and future space exploration. Starch is made of a much more complex chain of glucose molecules. Their method involves first changing carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas into methanol,which is a molecule that contains a single carbon atom.Scientists then piece these single-carbon molecules like a puzzle into bigger and more complex molecules via enzymatic（酶的）processes.

With the help of supercomputing, Chinese scientists have streamlined the natural starch making process from about 60 into 11 steps, with the final product being starch and the lab-made starch being chemically identical to starch in nature.

Reading Check

1.What effect will Chinese scientists'breakthrough bring?

A.It will enable the astronauts to live in space.

B.It will save large quantities of labor in farming.

C.It will be of great help to deal with climate change.

D.It will greatly promote the development of industry.

2.Which word is close to the meaning of the underlined word“unfeasible”in paragraph 4?

A.Imaginative. B.Impossible.

C.Necessary. D.Suspicious.

3.In which aspect does the lab-made starch differ from natural starch?

A.Its usage in life. B.Its nutrition value.

C.Its chemical structure. D.Its producing time.

4.What does the text mainly tell us?

A.Food can be created in the laboratory.

B.We needn't worry about lacking starch.

C.Chinese scientists create starch in the lab.

D.Carbon dioxide can be used to make starch.

Language Study

Difficult sentence in the text

Experts said that if such a technique can be promoted to the level of industrialization,it may revolutionize how this key nutrient and industrial ingredient is made, since it does not require farming and processing large quantities of starchy crops such as sweet potato and maize, thus saving more water, fertilizer, and land. 專家表示，如果這樣的技術可以提升工業化水平，它可能改變這種重要營養物質和工業成分的制造方式，因為它不需要種植和加工大量的淀粉作物，如紅薯和玉米，從而節約更多的水、肥料和土地。

【點石成金】本句為復合句。that 引導的為賓語從句，在賓語從句中，if such a technique can be promoted to the level of industrialization 為if 引導的條件狀語從句；since it does not require farming and processing large quantities of starchy crops such as sweet potato and maize 為since 引導的原因狀語從句；thus saving more water, fertilizer,and land為“thus+V-ing”構成的結果狀語。