SSS 2009-05-27_在线英语听力室_免费在线英语听力学习网站

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This is Scientific American 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute.

The fridge is one of your home's biggest energy hogs¹. Better insulation² can make refrigerators much more efficient. And a panel encasing a vacuum is one of the best insulators³ known. But vacuum-insulated panels are too pricy for widespread use.

Enter some University of Michigan students, they took something called rice husk ash, the leftover⁴ husks from processing rice are burned for energy and the ash remains⁵. It's high in silicon⁶ and carbon. So they tinkered with the ash and developed a new core material for vacuum-insulated panels. It's about 50% cheaper than what’s currently available. And the resulting panels are such good insulators that swapping⁷ them into the refrigerators could lead to about a 50% energy savings⁸. Their space efficient too, a one-inch-thick ash panel equals today’s four-inch-thick polystyrene panels.

Then Michigan Business students partnered with the scientists to create a company called Husk Insulation. They entered the invention in the M.I.T Clean Energy Prize Competition. And on May 13th, Husk Insulation won the competition's first prize, a cool 200,000 dollars, which will be invested in further research and development.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American 60-Second Science, I'm Cynthia Graber.

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收听单词发音

1 hogs
n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人
参考例句：
'sounds like -- like hogs grunting. “像——像是猪发出的声音。来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险 I hate the way he hogs down his food. 我讨厌他那副狼吞虎咽的吃相。来自辞典例句

2 insulation
n.隔离；绝缘；隔热
参考例句：
Please examine the insulation of the electric wires in my house.请检查一下我屋子里电线的绝缘情况。 It is always difficult to assure good insulation between the electric leads.要保证两个电触头之间有良好的绝缘总是很困难的。

3 insulators
绝缘、隔热或隔音等的物质或装置( insulator的名词复数 )
参考例句：
There is no sharp line separating conductors from insulators. 实际上并没有一个明显的界限将半导体和绝缘体分开。 To reduce heat losses the pipes are covered by thermal insulators. 为了减少热散失，管子外包保温层。

4 leftover
n.剩货，残留物，剩饭；adj.残余的
参考例句：
These narrow roads are a leftover from the days of horse-drawn carriages.这些小道是从马车时代沿用下来的。 Wonder if that bakery lets us take leftover home.不知道那家糕饼店会不会让我们把卖剩的带回家。

5 remains
n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹
参考例句：
He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。 The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 silicon
n.硅(旧名矽)
参考例句：
This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。 A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

7 swapping
交换，交换技术
参考例句：
The slow swapping and buying of horses went on. 马匹的买卖和交换就是这样慢慢地进行着。 He was quite keen on swapping books with friends. 他非常热衷于和朋友们交换书籍。

8 savings
n.存款，储蓄
参考例句：
I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。 By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。