考满分 toefl

1 .<-NARRATOR:->Listen to part of a lecture in an environmental engineering class.

旁白：听一段环境工程学课程。

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->At the end of yesterday's class, we were discussing landfills and the hundreds of millions of tons of everyday garbage which are deposited into them each year in the United States.

教授：在昨天那节课的最后，我们讲了垃圾填埋区和美国每年存放的上百吨日常生活垃圾。

2 .It's a growing problem-quite simply we're running out of space to put our garbage.

这个问题越来越突出了。简单来说，我们用以堆放垃圾的空间快用光了。

3 .And this is especially true for solid organic waste... food scraps from home or food-processing plants, waste from farms, that sort of thing.

这对有机固体废物而言尤其如此：来自家庭或食品加工厂的食物残渣，来自农场的废弃物，诸如此类。

4 .Did you know that two-thirds of the waste sitting in our landfills is organic material?

你们知道吗？在垃圾填埋区里三分之二的垃圾是有机材料。

5 .We have government recycling programs for materials like plastic, glass, and metal, yet widespread solutions for organic waste materials haven’t really been addressed in the United States.

我们有政府开展的回收计划，回收像塑料、玻璃和金属的材料，但在美国还没有处理有机废物材料的广泛应用的解决方案。

6 .I think this is just asking for trouble in the future.

我认为，对于将来而言，这是在自找麻烦。

7 .So today I want to talk about a technology that offers a potential solution to the problem—anaerobic phased solids digestion, or APS digestion.

所以今天我想谈一谈一项科技，能为此问题提供一个可能的解决方法，厌氧分步分解固体法，或称为APS分解法。

8 .First of all, what does “anaerobic” mean? Ah, anyone …?

首先，厌氧是什么意思？有人知道吗？

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->Without oxygen?

学生：没有氧气？

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->Correct. APS digestion uses anaerobic bacteria—ones that thrive in the absence of oxygen—to consume… to, to break down … organic material.

教授：对！APS分解法运用厌氧细菌在缺氧环境下大量繁殖来消化、分解有机材料。

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Excuse me, professor? Um...­ those anaerobic bacteria you're talking about... Well, aren't anaerobic bacteria also used in wastewater treatment plants?

学生：教授，不好意思。你说的这些厌氧细菌……污水处理厂不也在用这些细菌吗？

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->Yes, in fact they are. Would you like to explain this to the class?

教授：对，事实上他们确实在用。你能给班上同学解释一下吗？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Sure. So, when wastewater is treated, one of the byproducts is a thick liquid called sludge—and … aren’t anaerobic bacteria used to break down the sludge?

学生：当然！处理污水的时候，其中（产生的）一种副产品是一种粘稠的液体，叫污泥。这些厌氧细菌不是用来分解污泥的吗？

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->That’s right. Anaerobic bacteria have been used in wastewater treatment for decades.

教授：对。将厌氧细菌运用在污水处理中已有几十年历史。

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->So, how is this technology different?

学生：那这项技术有什么不同？

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->Good question.

教授：问得好。

2 .Um, the anaerobic digestion systems used in wastewater plants are designed to treat sludge, not solids.

污水处理厂的厌氧分解系统是为处理污泥设计的，而非固体。

3 .Now, in the past, researchers have attempted to treat solid organic waste with that same equipment.

过去，研究人员尝试用相同的设备处理有机固体废物。

4 .But there was always a problem.

但总是有问题出现。

5 .In order to process the solid waste … th-the kind we find in landfills … you had to pretreat the solids to turn them into sludge—first by breaking the material apart mechanically into small particles, and then adding a lot of water, until you got a kind of thick, soupy mix that the equipment could handle.

为了处理固体废物， 即我们在垃圾填埋区找到的那种...你要先对固体作预处理，将其转变成污泥。 首先，用机器把原材料打碎成小颗粒，然后加入大量的水，直到得到一种浓稠的、液状的、能被设备处理的混合物。

6 .But that extra step took time and required a lot of energy.

但那一步额外的步骤花费不少时间，而且需要大量能源。

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->That sounds like it would cost a lot.

学生：这听起来成本不低。

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->That's right. But APS digestion is designed specifically to handle solid waste, so it’s much more cost-effective.

教授：对。但APS分解法是为处理固体废物而设计的，所以性价比高得多。

2 .The new technology processes organic waste in two phases ...remember, APS stands for anaerobic phased solid digestion.

这项新技术处理有机废物需要两个阶段，记住，APS代表厌氧分步分解固体法。

3 .First, the waste material is loaded into a large closed container along with different types of anaerobic bacteria.

首先，把废物材料装入一个大的闭合容器中和多种不同的厌氧细菌一起。

4 .The bacteria break the solids down into acids and hydrogen gas.

细菌会把固体分解成酸和氢气。

5 .The hydrogen is extracted, and the remaining acids are transferred into a different container for the second phase of the process.

将氢气抽出，剩下的酸运输到另一个容器里，准备进行第二阶段。

6 .There, another type of bacteria converts the acids into methane gas.

在这个阶段，另一种细菌会将酸转化成甲烷。

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->Aren't hydrogen and methane gas bad for the environment though?

学生：但氢气和甲烷不是对环境有害吗？

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->The answer, in this case, is no, because they don’t escape into the atmosphere.

教授：这种情况下并非如此，因为气体不会泄露到大气中。

2 .The gases are captured and can be burned to produce electricity, which saves a lot of money and, ultimately, decreases our need for fuels like petroleum and coal, which are not only expensive but are also polluting.

这些气体会被收集起来，可以燃烧发电， 这样就能省下一大笔钱，还能从根本上降低人们对像汽油和煤炭这种燃料的需求，这些燃料不仅很昂贵，还会污染环境。

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->So organic waste from landfills could be processed this way?

学生：那垃圾填埋区里的有机废物也能用这种方法处理？

1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->It's certainly one possibility.

教授：这很有可能。

2 .And APS digestion systems are very versatile...they can be installed just about anywhere.

而且APS分解系统非常多用，任何地方都能安装。

3 .See, anaerobic digestion systems used at wastewater treatment plants are huge tanks that hold thousands of gallons of wastewater.

污水处理厂里的厌氧分解系统是（用到）巨大的贮水池，里面有几千加仑的废水。

4 .But the APS containers are small enough to be set up on-site, where the waste is generated...like at food-processing plants or on farms.

但APS容器足够小，能在现场安装，即产生废物的地方，像是食品加工厂或农场。

5 .So garbage doesn't have to be transported long distances.

人们就不用长途运输垃圾了。

6 .As a matter of fact, a couple of universities successfully set up demonstration projects.

实际上，已经有好几个大学成功设立了示范项目。

7 .They collected food scraps from dining halls and local restaurants and processed them in APS facilities.

它们收集来自食堂和当地餐厅的食物残渣，用APS设备进行处理。

8 .Not only did the universities save money, we’re also learning even more about the APS process.

学校不仅节省了金钱，我们还能了解到更多关于APS进程的知识。

9 .What's the next step forward?

下一步是什么呢？

10 .Well,…. APS digestion uses several different types of anaerobic bacteria, right?

APS分解法会用到好几种不同的厌氧细菌，对吧？

11 .So, what are the most efficient bacteria in the process?

那整个过程中，最高效的细菌是哪种呢？

12 .If researchers can figure that out, the highest performing bacteria mix for a system could be determined.

如果研究人员能把这个问题弄清楚，就能确定出一种对某系统而言具有最高效率的细菌混合物了。

13 .Ultimately, the goal would be to grow enough of those particular bacteria to support large-scale commercial APS systems.

最终的目的是培育出足够多的细菌来供大规模的商业化APS系统使用。