2011年职称英语理工类教材A级新增文章.docVIP

2011年职称英语理工类教材A级新增文章:阅读理解第四十六篇 　　Marvelous Metamaterials 　　Invisibility cloaks1 would have remained impossible，forever locked in science fiction．had it not been for the development of metamaterials2. In Greek, meta means beyond, and metamaterials car do things beyond what we see in the natural world—like shuffle light waves around an object，and then bring them back together3．If scientists ever manage to build a full—fledged invisibility cloak，it will probably be made of metamaterials． 　　We are creating materials that dont exist in nature, and that have a physical phenomenon that doesnt exist in nature, says engineer Dentcho Genov. That is the most exciting thing. Genov designs and builds metamaterials--such as those used in cloaking--at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. 　　An invisibility cloak will probably not be the first major accomplishment to come from the field of metamaterials．Other applications are just as excitin9．In many labs，for example，scientists are working on building a hyperlens．A lens is a device——usually made of glass——that can change the direction of light waves．Lenses are used in microscopes and cameras to focus light，thus allowing a researcher to see small things or a photographer to capture image of things that are far away． 　　A hyperlens，however，would be made of metamaterials．And since metamaterial s can do things with light that ordinary materials cant，the hyperlens would be a powerful t001．A hyperlens would allow researchers to see things at the smallest scale imaginable—as small as the wavelength of visible light． 　　Genov points out that the science of metamaterials is driven by the imagination：If someone call think of an idea for a new behavior for fight，then the engineers can find a way to design a device using metamaterials．We need people who can imagine, he says． 　　Since 2006，many laboratories have been exploring other kinds of metamaterials that dont involve just visible light．In fact，scientists are finding that almost any