2015考研英语阅读理解精读P33—工学类.docVIP

2015考研英语阅读理解精读P33—工学类 　Passage 33 　　Bryant Linares has one heck of a secret family recipe: how to make world-class diamonds. Seven years ago his father, Robert, produced a diamond in a high-pressure chamber of carbon gas and dropped it into an acid solution to clean it off. When he returned the next morning, he expected to find the usual yellow stone--a crude artificial diamond of some use to industry, perhaps, but not the stuff of dreams. At first there didnt seem to be any stone at all. Then he saw, at the bottom of the beaker, so clear it was almost invisible, a perfect quarter-carat crystal of pure carbon. It was the eureka moment, says Bryant. His father had managed what many scientists had given up on long ago: to manufacture a stone that wouldnt look out of place on an engagement ring. 　　Man-made diamonds are nothing new--industry started making them in the 1950s, and each year about 80 tons of low-quality synthetic diamonds are used in tools like drill bits and sanders. High-quality crystals, though, open up huge possibilities, jewelry being the least of them. Scientists are most excited about the prospect of making diamond microchips. As chips have shrunk over the years, engineers have struggled with ways of dissipating the heat they create. Because silicon, the main component of semiconductors, breaks down at about 200 degrees Fahrenheit, some experts believe a new material will be needed in a decade or so. Diamonds might fit the bill. They can withstand 1,000 degrees, and electrons move through them so easily that they would tend not to heat up in the first place. Engineers could cram a lot more circuits onto a diamond-based micro-chip--if they could perfect a way of making pure crystals cheaply. 　　The race is on. After working in secrecy for years refining their technique, the Linareses company, Apollo Diamond, now spits out 20 carats a week, both for jewelry and for diamond wafers that could be fashioned into microchips. Rivals have also been busy. G