按下按鈕，海水即用

山東 王中明

水資源不是取之不盡、用之不竭的，飲用水則是水資源利用的“重中之重”。因此，人類一直致力于尋找各種方法制造飲用水。

主題語境：科技 篇幅：320詞 建議用時：6分鐘

Massachusettes Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a portable desalination (脫鹽) device that can remove particles and salts to generate drinking water.Driven by a small and portable solar panel, the suitcase-sized device requires less power to operate than a cellphone charger.It automatically generates drinking water with the push of one button.

The device relies on a technique called Ion Concentration Polarization (ICP), which was discovered by Han's group more than 10 years ago. Rather than filtering (過濾) water,the ICP process applies an electrical field to membranes (膜狀物) placed above and below a channel of water. The process removes both dissolved and suspended solids, allowing clean water to pass through the channel. Since it only requires a low-pressure pump, ICP uses less energy than other techniques. But ICP does not always remove all the salts floating in the middle of the channel.

Unlike other portable desalination devices, this one makes use of electrical power to remove particles from drinking water and gets rid of replacement filters, reducing much maintenance (維護) expense. This could enable it to be employed in remote and severely resource-limited areas. It could also be used to aid refugees fleeing natural disasters or by soldiers carrying out long-term military operations.

After running lab experiments, they field-tested the device at Boston's Carson Beach.Although it was quite exciting and surprising, the resulting water went beyond World Health Organization's quality guidelines, and the device generates drinking water at a rate of 0.3 liter per hour. Junghyo Yoon, a research scientist in RLE, says,“Right now we are pushing our research to improve the production rate and hoping to make it more userfriendly and increase its energy efficiency.”“How the device could be used by everyone is one of the biggest challenges for us,”Han states.“Another limitation is the use of expensive materials.It would be interesting to see similar systems with low-cost materials.”

Reading Cheak

1.Where does the desalination device get its power?

A.From a small size suitcase.

B.From a portable solar panel.

C.From a cellphone charger.

D.From a low-pressure pump.

2.What can we know about ICP according to the text?

A.It is energy-saving.

B.It is urgent to get rid of all salts from sea water.

C.It is vital to have a filter and an electric field.

D.It is completely new to MIT researchers.

3.Which one is the advantage of the device compared with others according to paragraph 3?

A.Its technique is advanced.

B.It takes up a little space.

C.It can be carried conveniently.

D.It can be applied in a tough condition.

4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A.It is not available for the public.

B.Both lab experiments and the field test are satisfying.

C.The speed of generating drinking water is satisfactory.

D.There is no need for the researchers to adjust the device.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Driven by a small and portable solar panel, the suitcase-sized device requires less power to operate than a cellphone charger.這個手提箱大小的設備由一塊小型便攜式太陽能電池板驅動，運行所需的電量比手機充電器更少。

【點石成金】本句中，driven 為過去分詞作原因狀語，可以改寫成原因狀語從句“Because the suitcase-sized device is driven by a small and portable solar panel”。另外，過去分詞還可以作其他狀語。

Ⅱ. Text-centered chunks

rather than 而不是

apply...to 把……應用于

allow sb to do sth 允許某人做某事

make use of 使用

get rid of 除去；擺脫

be used to do sth 被用來做某事

carry out 執行；實施；完成

at a rate of 以……的速度