Young Inventor Creates Plastic from Fish Scales

Lucy Hughes, a 24-year-old English inventor, has used fish skin and scales(鳞)to create a new kind of plastic that will break down in about six weeks. Her invention won 2019 James Dyson Award, which was created by the famous English inventor James Dyson to encourage students to try to use their creativity to solve problems in the real world.

Lucy Hughes studied how to design products at the University of Sussex in England. As a designer, she knew a lot about how wasteful many products are. Plastic bags, for example, are often used once for a short time and then thrown away. She decided to challenge herself to make something out of waste instead

The University of Sussex isn't far from the coast. Ms. Hughes spent some time studying the fishing business and the waste from fish that were thrown away. After some tests, she decided that the fish skin and scales seemed like the most likely parts for her product. She tried more than 100 different experiments before getting things just right. Ms. Hughes called her finished product "MarinaTex". It solves two problems: the single-use plastic and fish waste.

MarinaTex is clear and feels like plastic, but it's stronger than normal plastic that is of the same thickness. It is also cheap to make since it's made from fish waste. The process of making MarinaTex also doesn't use much energy. Most importantly, MarinaTex doesn't take hundreds of years to break down. On its own, it breaks down in four to six weeks.

For winning the contest, Ms. Hughes will earn f,30, 000. Her school will get f,5, 000. She is looking forward to moving ahead with her idea. She hopes the award money will help her with the process of getting MarinaTex into use as quickly as possible. She thinks that one of the best uses for MarinaTex will be in some kinds of food packaging.

1.What did Lucy Hughes create?

2.How many experiments did Lucy Hughes try?

3.What problems does MarinaTex solve?

4.What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

5.How will Lucy Hughes possibly spend the award money?

In the modern age, human society runs on energy. Most machines need electricity to operate. Humans cannot live without electricity even a single day in their daily life and work. They have many different ways to create electricity. But some ways are harmful to the environment.

For example, fossil fuels (化石燃料) are the most common kind of energy.They include coal, oil, and natural gas. First, people have to dig them from the ground. This can sometimes harm the environment. However, scientists are creating cleaner and better ways to do that these days. So the environment is not harmed as much as before. But when people burn these fossil fuels, they can give off a lot of harmful gases, which is considered to be one of the greatest causes of global warning. This might harm the environment.

Tidal (潮汐) energy is another way to make electricity. This uses the ocean tides to make electricity. But some kinds of tidal energy can kill many fish and other sea animals. Also dams (大坝) can create lots of clean energy. But dams create lakes and change the way that rivers run. So they can do great harm to the balance of nature around the lakes and along the rivers.

Nuclear (核) energy is a very powerful form of energy. It is cheap. It is also very clean. But many people are afraid of it because it uses radioactive materials. Also, there have been some very serious accidents in the past which caused great harm to human and nature. But the technology is much better these days. so many countries are starting to use nuclear energy more.

1.In Paragraph I the underlined part “human society runs on energy” means “______”.

A.humans in the society waste much energy B.people use energy to make the world work

C.our society is full of varied kinds of energy D.humans cannot run fast without energy

2.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE about fossil fuels?

A.They are dug from the ground. B.They are considered expensive.

C.They hardly harm the environment. D.They are not widely used in the world

3.From the passage, we know that tidal energy can ______.

A.cause serious accidents B.change the way that rivers run

C.give off a lot of harmful gases D.kill many living things in the ocean

4.Many countries start to use nuclear energy more because ______.

A.it’s a common kind of energy B.people are not afraid of it now

C.it’s cheap, clean and safer than before D.people can’t live without it

5.The passage is probably in the part of ______ in a newspaper.

A.health B.science C.culture D.sports

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网