Fiery Blooms of the Sun|火热绽放的向日葵

by Owain Mckimm

Did you know that alluring sunflowers are helping clean up nuclear disasters?

Sunflowers are one of nature's most distinctive symbols of warmth, happiness, and vigor. Their tall stems and bold colors brighten up any garden. Their seeds and oil are considered healthy alternatives _(1)_ many ingredients, and the plant itself can be used in a variety of different industries, from paper production to water purification.

Despite being a very prevalent crop in Europe, the sunflower is in fact _(2)_ to the Americas. Sunflowers were first cultivated by indigenous Americans around 5,000 years ago. The seeds were used to make flour, and the oil used as a primitive beauty product for achieving glossy hair and skin. The sunflower's seeds _(3)_ in the middle of the plant's large head. Despite appearing like a single flower, the head is actually made up of numerous small flowers called florets _(4)_ together in a dense spiral pattern. It is an example of mathematical perfection _(5)_. The florets arrange themselves according to the so-called golden ratio. This is a mathematical phenomenon _(6)_ creates the tight spiral pattern and fits the maximum amount of florets into the available space.

Another miraculous _(7)_ of the sunflower is that it has been used to clean up harmful radioactive materials from the waters and soil around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, the site of a terrible nuclear meltdown in 1986. Sunflowers are now also being used for similar purposes at the Fukushima plant in Japan, which suffered from a nuclear disaster in 2011.

1.  (A) at  (B) in  (C) on  (D) to

2.  (A) obvious (B) native  (C) generous    (D) equal

3.  (A) retire  (B) react   (C) mature  (D) recover

4.  (A) to pack (B) packed  (C) packing (D) pack

5.  (A) in nature   (B) on purpose  (C) by mistake  (D) by chance

6.  (A) that    (B) what    (C) where   (D) it

7.  (A) fortune (B) process (C) feature (D) attention

火热绽放的向日葵

你知道这些吸引人的向日葵正在帮忙清理核灾吗？

向日葵是自然界中最能代表温暖、快乐及活力的鲜明象征之一。向日葵高大的茎和显眼的颜色使所有的花园都增色不少。向日葵的种子和油都被认为是许多食材的健康替代品。而这种植物本身也可用于各种不同的行业中，从纸张的制造到水源的净化不一而足。

尽管向日葵在欧洲是非常盛行的作物，事实上它可是在美洲土生土长的。向日葵最早是在大约 5 千年前由美洲土著开始栽种。它的种子被用来制造面粉，而它的油被当作最早用来使头发和皮肤有光泽的美容产品。向日葵的种子是在大花冠中央长大成熟。虽然看起来像是单独的花，事实上向日葵的花冠是由许多小花以密集的螺旋密纹组合而成。它堪称是自然界中完美数字的实例。这些小花根据所谓的黄金比例排列而成。这是创造出紧密螺旋密纹的数学现象，而且将最多的小花安排到可用的空间里。

向日葵另一项神奇的特色是它被用来清理在乌克兰车诺比核电厂周围水源及土壤所含的放射性物质，该地点于 1986 年发生了可怕的反应炉核心熔毁的意外。而向日葵目前也在 2011 年受到核能灾难的日本福岛核电厂被用作类似用途。

答案：    D   B   C   B   A A   C

车诺比核电厂 4号机组于 1986 年 4 月 26 日凌晨 1 点 23 分发生爆炸，是历史上最严重的核能发电厂意外事故。这次灾难所释放出的辐射线剂量是投在广岛的原子弹的 400 倍以上。由于车诺比发电厂没有保护掩体，导致受到核辐射尘污染的云层飘往众多地区，包括原苏联西部的部分地区、西欧、东欧、斯堪地那维亚半岛、不列颠群岛和北美东部部分地区。此外，乌克兰、白俄罗斯及俄罗斯境内均遭受到严重的核污染，超过 30 万名的居民被迫撤离。依据前苏联的官方报告，约百分之六十受到辐射尘污染的地区皆位于白俄罗斯境内。但根据 2006 年的报告指出，半数的辐射尘都落在前述的 3 个前苏联国家以外。