VOA常速英语2018--变形材料面世或将方便日常生活

An assistant at the morphing matter lab drops a few pieces of flat dry pasta into a pot of boiling water. In a few minutes, these rigid¹ flat strips will turn into soft spiral shapes called fusilli that can hold a lot of tasty sauce. Packaging dry pasta in flat form saves a lot of space and packing material.

变形物质实验室的一名助手将几块又扁又干的意大利面倒入一锅沸水中。只需几分钟，这些僵硬的面条就会变成螺旋形状的软糯物体，这就是螺旋粉。螺旋粉可以搭配更多美味的调味汁。扁平的干意面比较好收纳，这样可以节省很多空间和打包材料。

The same goes for other morphing materials. For example, you can have all your furniture pieces flat impact, shipped home, plug it into the wall. With the heat from the electricity, you can trigger to self-assemble into the right table or chair you want.

其他变形材料也是如此。比如，你可以将所有家具的组件以扁平的方式包装，然后运回家，插在墙上通电，然后电能产生的热能就可以让它们进行自我组装，然后变成用户想要的桌子或椅子。

The labs director, assistant professor Lining² Yao, says making the material bent³ into a certain shape requires learning about its physical properties. We are programming some pre-strain within the thermoplastic network on a micro scale. Even more interesting are materials that may be able to change shape back and forth⁴ like this morphing paper.

实验室负责人、助理教授姚李宁表示，制作这种可以弯曲成特定形状的材料是需要对材料的物理特性有所了解的。我们正在对热塑性网络中的一些预应变进行小范围编程。更有意思的是可以赖会改变形状的材料，比如这种变形材料。

For example, a garment that can respond to your sweat, and automatically open and close up flaps on the back to keep your body cool or warm. The question is how expensive would it be to manufacture such materials. We try by the end of the project to figure out a very easy recipe, both software and hardware, to make it very available for the users we targeted towards. Yao says researchers are still learning how to control different morphing materials, but shape changing pasta may be the first to find its way to customers.

比如，有的衣服可以对人体的排汗做出反应，自动开关背部的布料来保持身体的凉爽或温暖。问题在于制造这种材料的成本有多高。我们试图在项目结束之际弄清楚一个非常简单的方法，无论是硬件还是软件，这样的话，我们的目标用户就能使用了。姚李宁表示，虽然研究人员还在学习如何控制不同的变形材料，但能改变形状的意面可能是首批面向市场的一种变形材料应用。

1 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

2 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

3 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

4 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。