Spider webs are more than homes, and they are ingenious traps. And the worlds best web spinner may be the Goldern Orb Weaver spider. The female Orb Weaver spins a web of fibers thin enough to be invisible to insect prt, yet _____1____ enough to snare a flying bird without breaking.
The secret of the webs strength? A type of super-resilient ____2____ called dragline. When the female spider is ready to ____3_____ the webs spokes and frame, she uses her legs to draw the airy thread out through a hollow nozzle in her belly. Dragline is not sticky, so the spider can race back and forth along ____4___ to spin the webs trademark spiral.
Unlike some spiders that weave a new web every day, a Golden Orb Weaver _____5_____ her handiwork until it falls apart, sometimes not for two years1. The silky thread is five times stronger than steel by weight and absorbs the force of an impact three times better than Kevlar, a high-strength human-made ____6____ used in bullet-proof vests. And thanks to its high tensile strength, or the ability to resist breaking under the pulling force called tension, a single strand can stretch up to 40 percent longer than its original _____7____ and snap back as well as new. No human-made fiber even comes ____8____.
It is no ____9____ manufacturers are clamoring for spider silk. In the consumer pipeline: high-performance fabrics for athletes and stockings that never run2. Think parachute cords and suspension bridge cables. A steady _____10_____ of spider silk would be worth billions of dollarsbut how to produce it? Harvesting silk on spider farms does not ____11_____ because the territorial arthropods have a tendency to devour their neighbors.
Now, scientists at the biotechnology company Nexia are spinning artificial silk modeled after Goldern Orb dragline. The ____12____ step: extract silk-making genes from the spiders. Next, implant the genes into goat egg cells. The nanny goats that grow from the eggs secrete dragline silk proteins in their ______13____ . The young goats pass on the silk-making gene without____14____ help from us, says Nexia president Jeffrey Turner. Nexia is still perfecting the spinning process, but they hope artificial spider silk will soon be snagging customers ____15____ the real thing snags bugs.
1. A) tough B) soft C) large D) smooth
2. A) cloth B) silk C) nylon D) wool
3. A) repair B) pull C) move D) weave
4. A) him B) her C) it D) those
5. A) refixes B) reproduces C) remakes D) reuses
6. A) metal B) mass C) material D) model
7. A) bredth B) length C) height D) strength
8. A) close B) well C) open D) awake
9. A) hurry B) worry C) wonder D) use
10. A) shipment B) supply C) run D) exchange
11. A) run B) go C) deal D) work
12. A) previous B) foremost C) first D) front
13. A) milk B) meat C) lungs D) muscle
14. A) no B) any C) some D) many
15. A) as fast as B) as gently as C) as fully as D) as little as
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section b 1c课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》专题复习课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》section a 2a课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section a 3a课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》section a 2d课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section a 1a-2d课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 8《Have you ever read treasure island yet》section a 2a课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section a 2b课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》section a 2b课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section a 2a课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 8《Have you ever read treasure island yet》 period 1课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》 period 3课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section b 3a-3b(含self check)课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》section a 3a课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 6《An old man tried to move the mountains》 section b 2b课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 6《An old man tried to move the mountains》课件1
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 9《Have you ever been to a museum》课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section a 1b课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》words单词听力朗读素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》 section b课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 8《Have you ever read treasure island yet》 period 2课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section b 1a-1e课件
2014人教新目标英语八年级下册unit 4《Why don’t you talk to your parents》section a 1a-2d课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section a 2d课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》section b 2b课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 8《Have you ever read treasure island yet》 section a课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit2《I’ll help to clean up the city parks》section b 2a-2e课件
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》section b 1b课本听力素材(mp3)
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 6《An old man tried to move the mountains》课件4
2014人教新目标英语八下unit 7《What’s the highest mountain in the world》 section a课件