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
英语讲义【55】形容词的位置
英语讲义【38】麻烦的复数名词
英语讲义【37】几个发展迅速的词缀
英语讲义【52】表达数目和数量的特别方法
英语讲义【39】垂悬结构
英语讲义【73】片语动词
英语讲义【61】英语短语
代词精讲(7)
英语讲义【54】具副词功能的过去分词短语
英语讲义【15】无须冠词的名词
英语讲义【26】beside 和besides 通用吗?
代词精讲(20)
英语讲义【59】名词修饰语的排列秩序
英语讲义【14】主动语态之形,被动语态之意
英语讲义【27】sometime和sometimes同义吗?
英语讲义【9】动词形态不对应
英语讲义【49】条件句和让步句如何表达
英语讲义【24】间接引语的错误
英语讲义【42】“疑问词+不定式动词”结构
英语讲义【6】动词主语别忘了呼应
英语讲义【43】名词数目错误处处
英语讲义【44】合成动词
英语讲义【19】容易混淆的常用词
英语讲义【32】形容词后缀不可乱加
英语讲义【22】被动语态的动词
英语讲义【58】转化动词活灵活现
英语讲义【18】特殊句子的被动语态
英语讲义【20】“义同形异”的常用词
英语讲义【7】不定冠词a/an的用法
英语讲义【35】英语派生词哪里来?
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |