Wonder Webs

　　Spider webs are more than homes, and they are ingenious traps. And the world’s best web spinner may be the Golden Orb Weaver spider. The female Orb Weaver spins a web of fibers thin enough to be invisible to insect prey, yet 1 enough to snare a flying bird without breaking.

　　The secret of the web’s strength? A type of super-resilient 2 called dragline. When the female spider is ready to 3 the web’s 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 web’s 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 dollars ― but how to produce it? Harvesting silk on spider farms does not 11 because the territorial arthropods have a tendency to devour their neighhors.

　　Now, scientists at the biotechnology company Nexia are spinning artificial silk modeled after Golden 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 Jeffry 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.

　　練習：

　　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 long as C　as fully as D　as little as

　　答案與題解：

　　1.A　flying bird飛入蜘蛛網時有股沖力，網線堅韌才能捕捉到它，所以選tough。本句中的without breaking也指示選tough 。

　　2.B　英語中蜘蛛網絲是spider silk。見第三段、第四段分別出現的silky thread和spider silk。

　　3.D　本句說蜘蛛織網的機制和過程，所以選weave。而且，這種蜘蛛就叫Golden Orb Weaver。

　　4.C　從上下文判斷，along之后接的是the dragline,其代詞應為it。

　　5.D　本句說Golden Orb Weaver與某些種類的蜘蛛不同，它不用每天織新網，只要網不破，就能一直使用下去，有時一用兩年，所以選reuses。

　　6.C　本句將Golden Orb Weaver蜘蛛網的牢度和張度與防彈衣材料Kevlar對比，說明該蜘蛛網堅韌的程度。填入的詞應該是Kevlar的同位語，Kevlar是一種材料，所以選material。

　　7.B　除了上下文的意思要求填length之外，本句中的用詞stretch和longer都指示要用length。

　　8.A　come后面可接形容詞。come close意為“接近”。come well，come open，come awake都能搭配，但意思與上下文不符。

　　9.C　It is no wonder(that)是“不足為奇，十分自然”的意思。只有選wonder意思才連貫。

　　10.B　從意義上判斷，a steady supply是正確的選擇。shipment(運送)、run(運轉)或exchange(交換)的意思與上下文配不上。

　　11.D　上下文的意思要求用“起作用”這個詞，英語work在本句的詞義是“起作用”。

　　12.C　下一句是以next開始的。有next，前面很可能有first之類表次序的詞。

　　13.A　常識告訴我們，把dragline silk proteins分泌在milk里，才容易分離出來，所以選meat，lungs或muscle都是不合常理的。

　　14.B　在without之后要用any，―般不用some。英語不說without no ...，many不能修飾help。

　　15.A　本題只能選as fast as。若選B、C或D，意思與上下文不符。

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