小木板——医院好眠助手

山西 白瑞芝

在医院待过的人都知道医院各种各样的噪音会影响睡眠，为此，Metasonixx公司研发了一种由超材料制成的木板。 该木板可以放在病床周围，它会在吸收光和空气的过程中，抵消它周围相同数量的噪音，继而为病人带来一夜好眠。

题材体裁科技发明说明文338★★★文章词数难度建议用时6分钟

Anyone who has spent time in a hospital will know that it is rarely a quiet place, with beeping machines, ringing phones, alarms, televisions and conversations all disrupting patients'peace. Now, however, scientists may have found the solution with an extremely lightweight panel that cancels out almost all surrounding noise and can be placed round a patient's bed.

The panel is made of a “metamaterial” that can let in air and light while blocking out the same amount of sound as putting up a two-inch thick block of plywood that weighs four to six times as much. The panels are being tested in the intensive care wards （病房） of two hospitals.It was created by Metasonixx, a start-up founded in 2019 by Dr Gianluca Memoli from Sussex University and Professor Bruce Drinkwater from Bristol University.

“I've been conscious of the situation or noise in hospitals for a while, but it was when we were clapping for the NHS at 8 pm every week that I thought I could actually try to give them less noise,” Memoli said.

The panel, which is 170 cm tall and 70 cm wide, is made from regular plastic but is given properties that it does not normally have through the way Metasonixx cuts geometric （几何的）structures within it—a process known as metamaterials. The design allows sound waves to take two different routes through the panel. One section is engineered to slow one sound wave so that it is perfectly out of step with the sound wave passing through the other section. When the two meet at the other side of the panel, they cancel each other out.

This is similar to what noise-cancelling headphones achieve, but while they require microphones to detect the incoming sound wave,and a speaker to generate the counter-wave,Metasonixx's panel has no moving parts and does

Reading Check

1. What's the main purpose of the panel?

A. To do a test in the hospital.

B. To help the patients sleep well.

C. To solve people's sleeping problems.

D. To decrease the noise in the hospital.

2. When did Memoli decide to develop the panel?

A. When he stayed in hospital.

B. When he addressed a lecture.

C. When he attended a weekly activity.

D. When he found the noise in the hospital.

3. What's the similarity between the panel and noise-cancelling headphones?

A. The designers.

B. The materials.

C. The shape and size.

D. The working principle.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A. The panel can't be applied to other devices.

B. The panel can be easier to cancel out almost all surrounding noise.

C. The panel can reduce more noise than other technology.

D. The panel can't be used without a microphone and a speaker.not need any power to produce the effect. As the panels can also let light and air through if needed, they could also be placed over noisy fans,Memoli said.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

The panel, which is 170 cm tall and 70 cm wide, is made from regular plastic but is given properties that it does not normally have through the way Metasonixx cuts geometric structures within it—a process known as metamaterials. 这块木板，高170厘米，宽70厘米，由普通塑料制成，但Metasonixx公司切割其内部几何结构的方式赋予了它通常不具备的特质——这一过程被称为超材料。

【点石成金】句中，which is 170 cm tall and 70 cm wide为非限制性定语从句，修饰先行词The panel；that it does not normally have为定语从句修饰先行词properties；Metasonixx cuts geoetric structures within it为省略关系词that的定语从句，修饰先行词the way；known as metamaterials为过去分词短语作定语，修饰名词a process。

Ⅱ. Theme-centered chunks

cancel out 抵消

let in 允许进入

block out 挡住；遮住（光线或声音）

intensive care wards 重症监护室

be conscious of 意识到

clap for 为……鼓掌

be made from 由……组成

be known as 以……知名；被认为是；被称为

be similar to 与……相似