2014年職稱英語(yǔ)(理工類)教材補(bǔ)全短文文章及譯文8

　Watching Microcurrents Flow

　　We can now watch electricity as it flows through even the tiniest circuits. By scanning the magnetic field generated as electric currents flow through objects, physicists have managed ____1____. The technology will allow manufacturers to scan microchips for faults, as well as revealing microscopic defects in anything from aircraft to banknotes.

　　Gang Xiao and Ben Schrag at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, visualize the current by measuring subtle changes in the magnetic field of an object and ____2____.

　　Their sensor is adapted1 from an existing piece of technology that is used to measure large magnetic fields in computer hard drives.2”We redesigned the magnetic sensor to make it capable of measuring very weak changes in magnetic fields,” says Xiao.

　　The resulting device is capable of detecting a current as weak as 10 microamperes, even when the wire is buried deep within a chip, and it shows up features as small as 40 nanometers across.

　　At present, engineers looking for defects in a chip have to peel off the layers and examine the circuits visually; this is one of the obstacles ____3____. But the new magnetic microscope is sensitive enough to look inside chips and reveal faults such as short circuits , nicks in the wires or electro migration ― where a dense area of current picks up surrounding atoms and moves them along. “It is like watching a river flow,” explains Xiao.

　　As well as scanning tiny circuits, the microscope can be used to reveal the internal structure of any object capable of conducting electricity.3 Fpr example, it could look directly at microscopic cracks in an aeroplane’s fuselage, ____4____. The technique cannot yet pick up electrical activity in the human brain because the current there is too small, but Xiao doesn’t rule it out4 in the future. “I can never say never,” he says.

　　Although the researchers have only just made the technical details of the microscope public, it is already on sale,5 from electronics company Micro Magnetics in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is currently the size of a refrigerator and takes several minutes to scan a circuit, but Xiao and Schrag are working ____5____.

　　詞匯：

　　circuit 電路 scan 掃描;細(xì)看

　　magnetic 磁鐵的;磁石的 subtle 精巧的;細(xì)微的

　　visualize 使……形象化;使……具體化 dense 密集的;稠密的

　　sensor 感應(yīng)器

　　注釋：

　　1.is adapted：(使)適應(yīng)。作不及物動(dòng)詞時(shí)的用法是：“adapt to +名詞性成分”，如：The young man from the countryside adapted well to life in the big city.這個(gè)農(nóng)村青年很能適應(yīng)大城市的生活。易混的詞：(1)adopt采取;采納(及物動(dòng)詞)。adopt a positive attitude采取積極的態(tài)度。(2)adept熟練的;擅長(zhǎng)的(形容詞)。be adept in(或at)，如：This boy is adept in/at figures.這個(gè)男孩擅長(zhǎng)計(jì)算。

　　2.computer hard drives：計(jì)算機(jī)硬盤

　　3.conducting electricity：導(dǎo)電

　　4.rule ... out：排除……的可能性。又如：The police have ruled out murder in the case of the girl’s death.警方在姑娘死亡案中已排除他殺的可能性。

　　5.on sale：出售;上市。如：Will the new product be on sale next month?這種新產(chǎn)品下月會(huì)上市嗎?

　　練習(xí)：

　　A　to shrink it to the size of a desktop computer and cut the scanning

　　B　to making chips any smaller

　　C　to take tiny chips we require

　　D　to picture the progress of the currents

　　E　converting the information into a color picture showing the density

　　F　faults in the metal strip of a forged banknote or bacteria in a water

　　答案與題解：

　　1.D　manage to+v.是“設(shè)法做成”的意思。picture在此是動(dòng)詞，“to picture the progress of the cuixents”意為“繪出電流運(yùn)行圖”。

　　2.E　by在句中引導(dǎo)兩個(gè)在句法結(jié)構(gòu)上并列的分詞短語(yǔ)：一個(gè)是measuring subtle changes in the magnetic field of an object，另一個(gè)是converting the information into a color picture showing the density of current at each point。convert ... into ... 的意思是“把……轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)椤薄?/P>

　　3.B　“obstacle to+名詞性成分”的意思是“……的障礙”。

　　4.F　faults in the metal strip of a forged banknote和bacteria in a water sample與前文中的microscopic cracks in an aeroplane’s fuselage在意思上是并列的關(guān)系。

　　5.A　這部分所說(shuō)的體積的減小和所需時(shí)間的縮短恰好與前半句中提到的冰箱大小的體積和所需數(shù)分鐘的時(shí)間形成了對(duì)比。

　　譯文：觀察微電流流程

　　現(xiàn)在電流流過(guò)哪怕是最窄的電路時(shí)我們都能看到。物理學(xué)家們通過(guò)掃面電流物體時(shí)產(chǎn)生的磁場(chǎng)而繪出電流運(yùn)行圖。這種技術(shù)可以使制造者掃面微芯片上的錯(cuò)誤，同時(shí)可以找出從飛行器到鈔票等物上的細(xì)微缺陷。

　　羅德島州普羅維登斯的布朗大學(xué)Gang Xiao和Ben Schrag通過(guò)測(cè)量一個(gè)物體的磁場(chǎng)內(nèi)的細(xì)微變化并把信息轉(zhuǎn)化成顯示每一點(diǎn)電流強(qiáng)度的彩色圖片而使電流顯現(xiàn)。

　　他們的傳感器是由現(xiàn)有的用于測(cè)量電腦硬盤的大磁場(chǎng)的技術(shù)配件改造而成的。Xiao說(shuō)：“我們重新設(shè)計(jì)了磁性傳感器使它能夠測(cè)量磁場(chǎng)中非常微弱的變化?！?/P>

　　重新設(shè)計(jì)完的裝置能夠探測(cè)微弱到10微安培的電流，甚至是當(dāng)癲癇深藏在芯片中的時(shí)候，它也能夠顯示出直徑只有40納米長(zhǎng)的圖案。

　　目前，那些在芯片中尋找缺點(diǎn)的工程師們必須要?jiǎng)兊舯韺幽繙y(cè)電路。這是使芯片變得更小的阻礙之一。但是新的磁性顯微鏡非常敏感，能夠看到芯片內(nèi)部，找出短路、電線的裂痕或電遷移等缺點(diǎn)，電遷移是指電流強(qiáng)大的區(qū)域吸引周圍的原子并使它們移動(dòng)。Xiao解釋說(shuō)：“那就像看著一條河水在流淌?！?/P>

　　顯微鏡不僅能夠掃描微笑的電路，還可以用于找出能夠?qū)щ姷奈矬w的內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)。例如，它能夠直接看到飛機(jī)機(jī)身上的極細(xì)微的裂縫、偽鈔的金屬條上的卻掉或者水樣中的細(xì)菌。這種技術(shù)還不能提取人腦中的電活動(dòng)，因?yàn)槟抢锏碾娏魈×?，但是Xiao并沒(méi)有排除將來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)它的可能。他說(shuō)：“網(wǎng)永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)說(shuō)永遠(yuǎn)不能?！?/P>

　　盡管研究者剛剛公開(kāi)電顯微鏡的技術(shù)細(xì)節(jié)，位于馬薩諸塞州Fall River的微磁電子設(shè)備公司已經(jīng)在出售它了。目前它大約像冰箱那么大，而且要用幾分鐘掃描一個(gè)電路，但是Xiao和Schrag正在努力使它縮小到臺(tái)式計(jì)算機(jī)那么大，把掃描時(shí)間縮短到30秒。