A sun umbrella in space太空遮阳伞

主题语境：科技发展 篇幅：347词 建议用时：7分钟

1 Scientists have floated the idea of using a giantspace“ umbrella” as a solar shield （护罩） to protect theEarth from too much sunlight and help reduce globalwarming.

2 Istv' n Szapudi， an astronomer at the Univer⁃sity of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy， had the bright idea of tying the huge shield toa captured asteroid （小行星） so it would have a counterweight （平衡物）. This wouldprevent it from falling back to the Earth because of the forces of gravity or blowing away inspace.

3 He said studies using this approach could start now to create a workable design thatcould reduce climate change within decades.“ In Hawaii， many use umbrellas to block thesunlight as they walk about during the day. I was thinking， could we do the same for theEarth and thereby reduce the approaching disasters of climate change？” Mr Szapudi saidon the University of Hawaii's website.

4 In his paper， published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences， MrSzapudi explained that one of the simplest ways to lower the global temperature is to shadethe Earth from just a small part of the Sun's light.

5 This idea has been thought of before， but the large amount of weight needed to makea shield made previous suggestions too expensive to build.

6 Mr Szapudi found that placing a tied counterbalance towards the Sun could reducethe weight to approximately 3.5 million tonnes—about 100 times lighter than other ideas.Using the asteroid would prevent having to launch most of the mass from Earth. Withnewer， lighter materials， the weight of the shield could be reduced even further and itwould be faster and cheaper to build and launch than other shield designs.

7 Today's largest rockets can only lift about 50 tonnes to low Earth orbit， so MrSzapudi's suggestion would still be quite challenging. However， his approach makes theidea more probable， even with today's technology， while prior concepts were completelyunachievable.

Reading

Check

1. What is the function of the giant shield？

A. To seek new asteroids.

B. To flow in space steadily.

C. To reduce global warming.

D. To improve the forces of gravity.

2. What environmental problem could the giant shield help solve？

A. Climate change. B. Global pollution.

C. Lower temperature. D. Unbalanced rockets.

3. What inspired Mr Szapudi's idea？

A. Scientists can capture asteroids in space.

B. People use umbrellas to block the sunlight.

C. Newer， lighter materials were invented recently.

D. Today's technology develops more quickly than ever.

4. What has prevented this scientific suggestion from being tried before？

A. An asteroid. B. Public's doubts.

C. Heated debates. D. High costs.

Language

Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Istvn Szapudi， an astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy， hadthe bright idea of tying the huge shield to a captured asteroid so it would have a counterweight.夏威夷大学天文研究所的天文学家Istv'n Szapudi有一个聪明的想法，那就是把巨大的护罩绑在被捕获的小行星上，这样它会有一个平衡物。

【点石成金】本句是一个并列句，so连接两个并列分句。

Ⅱ. Fill in the blanks with the words and phrases in the box.

blow away within decades approximately challenging prior

1. Please give us_________notice if you need an evening meal.

2. For new reporters， this can seem like a_________task.

3. Our English teacher is_________in her forties.

4. A storm is coming！ Tie things down before they_________！

5. Experts have warned Africa's elephants could be extinct_________.