20180430VoaLeb:
美国之音(voa)慢速英语 30分钟
(1)Technology Is Reshaping Fashion Industry
(2)Las Vegas Museum Lets Visitors Play Police Officer
(3)New Plastic-Eating Substance May Help Fight Against Pollution
(4) The Making of a Nation (no script)
(1)Technology Is Reshaping Fashion Industry
Technology is changing almost every industry, including fashion.
Imagine wearing a computer in the form of clothing, like a jacket. Now it is possible.
The clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss & Co. partnered with technology company Google to create what is being called a “smart” jacket. The word smart is often used to describe actions controlled by a computer. What makes this jacket “smart” is washable technology added to the cuff -- the cloth encircling the wrist.
Ivan Poupyrev heads the smart clothing project for Google.
"When somebody calls you, your jacket vibrates and gives you lights and [you] know somebody is calling you."
A touch on the cuff can provide directions for helping you get to where you need to go. The jacket also can play music when combined with a mobile phone, headphones and a small piece of removable computer hardware.
"You get the most important features of the phone without taking your eyes off the road," said Paul Dillinger of Levi Strauss & Co.
The Levi's smart jacket can be purchased on the internet for $350.
It is just one step to smarter clothing.
Poupyrev explained that Google plans to use the technology for any kind of clothing. He added that the company is working with other partners in the fashion industry “to help to make their products connected."
New patterns and materials
From how clothes are used to how they are made, computing power is reshaping the fashion industry. Designers can create structures and designs that have never existed before current technology.
New technologies are also being used to make bioengineered materials made with yeast cells in a laboratory.
Suzanne Lee is chief creative officer of Modern Meadow. She explained how her company creates leather-like material from yeast cells. She said, "We engineer them to produce collagen which is the same natural protein that you find in your skin or an animal skin. Then we really grow billions of those cells, make a lot of collagen, purify it and then assemble it into whatever kinds of materials...the designers that we're working with would like to see."
Lee added that these bioengineered materials can be described as both natural and man-made.
Technology is also changing popular fashion. The rise of social media means it is not just designers who decide the latest looks in fashion.
Artificial intelligence can now collect information from social media and the internet to help designers understand what the public likes.
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Elizabeth Lee reported this story for VOA News. Jonathan Evans adapted her report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
fashion – n. the business of creating and selling clothes in new styles; a popular way of dressing during a particular time or among a particular group of people
hardware – n. equipment used for a particular purpose
vibrate – v. to move back and forth or from side to side with very short, quick movements
feature – n. an interesting or important part, quality, ability, etc.
complicated – adj. hard to understand, explain, or deal with
yeast – n. a type of fungus that is used in making alcoholic drinks and in baking to help make dough rise
assemble – v. to connect or put together the parts of (something, such as a toy or machine
collagen – n. a substance that occurs naturally in the bodies of people and animals and is often put into creams and other products that are sold to make a person's skin smoother and less wrinkled
(2)Las Vegas Museum Lets Visitors Play Police Officer
A home invader is holding a woman hostage in her bedroom. A police officer immediately starts shouting commands, ordering the man to let the woman go. But the invader refuses and uses a weapon in his hand to attack the police officer. The officer then raises her gun and shoots the man.
The officer in this training exercise was a British woman on a visit to Las Vegas, Nevada.
The imaginary victim and criminal were on a life-size video image inside the city’s Mob Museum. The visitor was taking part in a new hands-on exhibit. Museum workers arm visitors with a gun that shoots plastic balls and put them in situations similar to those police face in real life.
New interactive exhibits
The Mob Museum opened in 2012. Its official name is the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement.
For years, the courthouse-turned museum has told about organized crime and criminal groups, like the American Mafia, also called the mob. But visitors now can also learn about the complexity of the decisions that police officers face when they react to real life situations. Some crises may require the use of deadly force.
Parts of the Mob Museum were recently remodeled. The building now has an interactive crime laboratory and even a speakeasy area.
Almost a century ago, sales of alcohol were barred across the United States. A speakeasy was a place where alcoholic drinks were sold illegally during this period, a time known as Prohibition.
The use-of-force exhibit walks visitors through video and live role-playing events, including a meeting with a suspicious person played by an actor. Museum goers are given a police duty belt and a gun that is as heavy as one police officers carry.
Visitors first watch a video presentation by a Las Vegas police officer and are then invited to a brief target-shooting exercise. Museum workers tell about gun safety, rules for use-of-force and methods used by police. Visitors learn to keep a distance from a suspect, not to keep their finger on the gun’s trigger and not to shoot someone who does not appear to be a threat.
Visitor Lesley Morris of London said, “It did feel real. It was the first time I ever held a gun. It was really informative. We don’t have guns or anything like that in England.”
Morris added that her heart rate went up as she walked through the exhibit.
Home invasion
In the case of the home invasion, visitors see a video. It shows when a homeowner informs police that someone has entered the home. Visitors at that point start acting like the officer and begin to see the inside of a home.
“Police,” they are told to shout to announce themselves. The video then shows the bedroom with a man holding a woman.
Pictures hanging outside the exhibit explain the use-of-force policies and methods used by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. They also provide an official count of deaths resulting from police use of force nationwide.
Las Vegas police Captain Robert Plummer says he hopes the exhibit will educate and change some people’s ideas on what police face when it comes to using deadly force.
Plummer told the Associated Press, “A lot of people wonder ’Why didn’t you shoot the gun out of his hand or shoot him in the ankle?’” If you visit the exhibit, he added, you will learn that it is nearly impossible to do because there are so many issues to consider. You have to understand your situation. So, if you miss shooting at the elbow, what is behind it, he asked? Is it an innocent citizen standing back there, is it a child or is it someone else?
Experiencing crime scenes
In another part of the Mob Museum, visitors try to identify bullets that were fired from the same gun. They also can see pictures of a real crime scene from 2016 and things that would be collected at a scene.
People can play the role of medical examiner. A video screen shows images of bodies, and visitors are told to answer a series of questions to try to identify the cause of death. The cases are based on the deaths of famous mobsters.
And below it all, people interested in learning more about Prohibition or just looking to have fun, can visit a working speakeasy in the museum. The exhibit explains in detail how organized crime took steps to make, move and sell alcohol during the 1920s.
People can test a number of current and Prohibition-era drinks. Museum goers can easily visit the speakeasy as part of their trip.
“People want experiences,” said Jonathan Ullman, museum president and CEO. “This allows us to take them back in time.”
I'm Caty Weaver.
Regina Garcia Cano reported this story for The Associated Press. George Grow adapted her report for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.
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Words in This Story
exhibit – n. an object or collection of objects shown to the public
belt – n. a material usually worn around the waist as a piece of clothing or to carry something
role – n. a part that someone has in a play or a situation
trigger – n. a moveable part of a gun that you pull to fire the gun
ankle – n. the joint between the foot and the leg
elbow – n. the joint of the human arm
scene – n. the place of an action; a sight
allow – v. to permit or let
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(3)New Plastic-Eating Substance May Help Fight Against Pollution
Scientists in Britain and the United States have designed a substance that eats plastic. They believe that, in the future, it could help reduce pollution.
The enzyme is able to break down polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. This form of plastic was patented in the 1940s. It is now used in millions of metric tons of plastic bottles.
PET plastics can remain in the environment for hundreds of years. The plastics pollute large areas of land and water around the world.
Researchers from Britain’s University of Portsmouth and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory made the discovery. They did so while examining the structure of a natural enzyme that is thought to have evolved in a waste recycling center in Japan.
John McGeehan, a professor at Portsmouth, co-led the work. He said the researchers found that the natural enzyme was helping a bacteria break down PET plastic. So, the researchers decided to make small changes to its structure by adding some amino acids.
This led to a valuable change in the enzyme’s actions. It made the enzyme’s plastic-eating abilities work more quickly.
“We’ve made an improved version of the enzyme better than the natural one already,” McGeehan told the Reuters news service. He added that it may be possible for them to make more improvements to it in the future.
The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the team’s findings earlier this month.
The team is now trying to make it possible for the enzyme to be able to break down much larger amounts of PET plastics.
McGeehan said, “It’s well within the possibility that, in the coming years, we will see an industrially viable process to turn PET, and potentially other (plastics), back into their original building blocks so that they can be sustainably recycled.”
Independent scientists not directly involved with the research said the discovery was interesting. But they warned that the enzyme’s development as a possible solution for pollution was still in the early stages.
Oliver Jones is a chemistry expert at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University. He told Reuters that enzymes are not harmful to humans and other animals. They easily break down in natural conditions. Also, extremely small organisms can produce them in large amounts.
“There is strong potential to use enzyme technology to help with society’s growing waste problem by breaking down some of the most commonly used plastics,” Jones said.
Douglas Kell is a professor of biological science at Manchester University. He said further rounds of work “should be expected to improve the enzyme yet further.”
He added that the discovery brings the goal of creating manmade, sustainably recyclable chemical substances much closer to reality.
I’m Pete Musto.
Kate Kelland, Stuart McDill and Gareth Jones reported this story for the Reuters news service. Pete Musto adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
Words in This Story
enzyme – n. a chemical substance in animals and plants that helps to cause natural processes
patent(ed) – v. to get an official document for something that gives a person or company the right to be the only one that makes or sells that thing for a certain period of time
evolve(d) – v. to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state
recycling – n. the process of making something new from something that has been used before
amino acid(s) – n. any one of many acids that occur naturally in living things and that include some which form proteins
journal – n. a magazine that reports on things of special interest to a particular group of people
viable – adj. able to be done or used
potentially – adv. able to become real
sustainably – adv. done in a way so that something is able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed
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