-
Core Reading 1
What
if I Ate the Silica Packets
Marked “Do
Not Eat”?
Katherine Neer
1
吃了标有“不可食用”的干燥剂怎么办？
1
你吃下去的很有可能是硅胶或者其他种类的
What
you
would
be
consuming
is
most
干燥剂
——
用于吸收（收集）和储存水
蒸气。
likely
silica
gel
or
some
other
desiccant
--
这样用于保质的小包可见于各种产品中。
something that absorbs (collects) and
holds water
vapor. These
little packets are found in all sorts of
products to help maintain
quality.
2
Shipping can cause all kinds of
atmospheric
2 <
/p>
海运会造成各种大气条件和温度变化。增加
的湿度会降低或永久性
地损毁许多产品的品
质。例如，一瓶含有任何剂量水蒸气的维生素
如果迅速降温，
冷凝水蒸气就会损坏这些药片。
任何品质会受
到额外水分或冷凝影响的产品中
都能找到小包装的硅胶。
conditions and changes in temperature.
Increased
moisture
can
spoil
or
permanently
damage
many
products.
For
example,
if
a
bottle
of
vitamins
contained
any
moisture
vapor
and
was
cooled
rapidly,
the
condensing
moisture
would
ruin
the
pills.
You’ll
find
little
silica
gel
packets
in
anything
that
would
be
affected
by
excess
moisture or condensation.
3
Silica gel can
adsorb about 40 percent of its
weight
in
moisture
and
can
take
the
relative
3
硅胶能吸收约等于自重
40%
的水分，并将密
humidity in a closed
container down to about 40
闭容器中的相对湿度降低大
约
40%
。通过加热
percent.
Once the gel is
saturated
,
you can get rid
可以去掉硅胶中的水分，
加
热
300
华氏度
（
150
of
the
moisture
and
reuse
silica
gel
by
heating
it
摄氏度）以上，硅胶就可以重新使用。
above
300
degrees
Fahrenheit
(150
degrees
Celsius).
4
Silica gel is nearly harmless, and
that’s why
4
硅胶几乎是无害的，所以适用于食品保质。
硅其实是二氧化硅
（
SiO2
）
，
和石英中发现的材
料是一样的。胶质的硅由成百万的能吸收和储
存水分的微孔组成，
本质上相当于多孔的沙子。
you
find
it
in
food
products.
Silica,
which
is
actually
silicon
dioxide
(SiO2),
is
the
same
material
found
in
quartz.
The
gel
form
contains
millions
of
tiny
pores
that
can
adsorb
and
hold
moisture --
it’s essentially
porous sand.
5
While the contents of a silica gel
packet are
5
虽然硅胶包的内容基本无毒，但企图吞下这
basically
harmless, it would be a rather unpleasant
< br>些石英晶体的过程非常令人难受。这些微小干
experience
to
attempt
to
consume
the
silica
燥剂的唯一作用就是吸收水分。如果你把一整<
/p>
crystals. The sole job of these tiny
desiccants is to
包干燥剂倒入口中，水分会从口腔内的左右两
adsorb
moisture.
If
you
emptied
a
packet
of
the
壁、上颚、牙床和舌头上迅速流失，给你一种
stuff
into
your
mouth,
the
moisture
would
be
全新而异常精确的“口干舌燥”的感觉。如果
whisked
away
from
the
sides
and
roof
of
your
硅胶真的经过了口腔（这倒不太可能，因为你
mouth,
your gums and tongue -- giving an entirely
一定会想尽办法把它吐出来）
，
你会遭受一些非
new
and
all-too-
accurate
meaning
of
the
phrase
常刺激的副作用，比如：
“dry
mouth.”
If
silica
gel
did
happen
to
make
it
?
past your mouth
-- which is unlikely because you
?
眼睛发干
喉部干燥、刺激感
would
probably
be
making
every
effort
to
spit
it
?
out
--
you
might
suffer
a
few
irritating
side
?
effects, such as:
?Dry
eyes
?An irritated, dry
feeling in you
r throat
nasal
cavity
?An upset stomach or stomach
discomfort
6
So
just
how
many
silica
packets
would
it
不断加剧的粘膜和鼻腔的干燥感
胃不适或胃痛
?Aggravated,
dry
mucous
membranes
and
6
要多少包硅胶才能吸光人体的水分呢？我们
以一个
210
磅的男性为例来计算：人体
70%
都
是水，
210
磅的
7
0%
就是是
147
磅水。我们已
知硅胶可以吸收自重
40%
的水分，那么吸收
4
磅水需要
10
磅硅胶。
8
如此计算，吸光
147
磅水需用
367.5
磅硅
胶。一包硅胶重
< br>0.1
盎司，这就意味着一
个
2
10
磅中的男人要吃
58,800
包硅
胶
（才
能把自身的水分全部吸光）
。<
/p>
（
464
字）
（
摘
自
/human-
body/syst
ems/digestive/)
take to adsorb all the water from
someone’s body?
Let’s
use
a
210
-pound
man
as
an
example.
We
know
that 70 percent of a human body is made up
of water - 70 percent of 210 pounds is
147 pounds
of water. We also know that
silica gel can adsorb
about 40 percent
of its weight in moisture. So 10
pounds
of silica gel are needed to adsorb 4 pounds
of water.
7
It turns out that
it
would take 367.5 pounds
of
silica gel to adsorb 147 pounds of water. Since
a
single
packet
of
silica
gel
weighs
0.1
ounces,
that
means
a
210-pound
man
would
have
to
consume
58,800 packets of silica gel.
(464
words)
(Retrieved and
adapted from
/human-
bod
y/systems/digestive/)
Core Reading 2
Here’s to your Health
Joan Duanyer
1
祝你健康
As
the
only
freshman
on
his
high
school’s
1
作为所在高中摔跤校队中唯一的一年级学
varsity
wrestling
team,
Tod was
anxious
to
fit
in
生，
Tod
急于融入到年长的队友中。一次比赛
with his older teammates. One night after
a match,
后的晚上，在回家的路上，队友递给他一瓶龙
he was
offered a tequila bottle on the ride home.
舌兰酒，
Tod
觉得他必须得喝，否则会显得娘
Tod felt he had to accept, or he would
seem like a
娘腔。他喝了一口，每次酒瓶传回到他手中，
sissy.
He
took
a
swallow,
and
every
time
the
他都喝一口。喝完第八口后，他失去了知觉。
bottle
was
passed
back
to
him,
he
took
another
队友们吓坏了，把他送回了家，他的母亲赶紧
swallow
after seven swallows, he passed out. His
送他去了医院。洗胃之后
Tod
才知道他的血液
terrified teammates carried him into his home, and
酒精含量很高，他很幸运才没有陷入深度昏迷
his
mother then rushed him to the hospital. After
或者死亡。
his
stomach
was
pumped,
Tod
learned
that
his
blood alcohol level had
been so high that he was
lucky not to be in a coma or dead.
2
Unfortunately,
drinking
is
not
unusual
2
不幸的是，喝酒在高中生中很普遍，这一点
在社会的其他部分也很普遍。这并
非偶然。在
我们的社会中有数不清的理由促使人们喝酒，
广告首
当其冲。谁能想起一场没有啤酒广告的
垒球或者篮球广告？酒类广告还密集出现在杂
志、
户外广告牌和大学报纸上。
根据行业估
计，
酒类经销商每年在电台和电视广告上花
60
亿
美元，在印刷广告上花
9
亿
。此外，制酒业每
年花
23
亿在印刷广
告上，自
1966
年以后大幅
扩展了在
有线电视和独立广播电台的广告。就
在最近，
NBC
成为了第一家播出烈性酒广告的
网络电台。
3
更有甚者，这些侵略性的酒类广告深化了人
among
high-school students or, for that matter, in
any
other
segment
of
our
society.
And
that’s
no
accident.
There
are
numerous
influences
in
our
society
urging
people
to
drink,
not
the
least
of
which
is
advertising.
Who
can
recall
a
televised
baseball
or
basketball
game
without
a
beer
commercial?
Furthermore,
alcohol
ads
appear
with
pounding
frequency
in
magazines,
on
billboards, and in college newspapers.
According
to
industry
estimates,
brewers
spend
more
than
$$600 million a year on radio and TV
commercials
and another $$90 million on
print ads. In addition,
the
liquor
industry
spends
about
$$230
million
a
year
on
print
advertising,
and
since
1966
it
has
greatly
expanded
its
presence
on
cable
and
independent
broadcast
stations.
Just
recently,
NBC
became
the
first
network
station
to
accept
hard liquor ads for broadcast.
3
To
top
it
all
off,
this
aggressive
advertising
们关于饮酒的误解。
4
有一种误解是酒类标志着职业成功。在一本
精致的男性杂志上，整页刊登了一幅苏格兰威
士忌广告，里面有两位男士坐在一
个高雅的饭
店里。他们都三十多岁，精心装扮，穿着看起
来很昂
贵的灰色西装。
窗户上垂着天鹅绒窗帘，
of
alcohol
promotes
a
harmful
myth
about
drinking.
4
Part
of
the
myth
is
that
liquor
signals
professional
success.
In
a
slick
men’s
magazine,
one
full-page
ad
for
Scotch
whiskey
shows
two
men
seated
in
an
elegant
restaurant.
Both
are
in
their
thirties,
perfectly
groomed,
and
wearing