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焦点词汇:2009年最好与最差的发明

ares rocket  科学发明是一个时代进步的标志。在挥别2009年的同时我们也不妨看看《时代》杂志有关“2009年最好与最差的发明”的评选。读者朋友们,你心中的评选结果又是如何呢?欢迎来信与我们分享哦。
  The best inventions of 2009; from a light bulb(电灯泡) that might be worth ten million dollars to an electric eye(电子眼), that sees for you. The list is out, this is right here. It’s from Time magazine, Time’s website, Time.com, which is a partner of CNN.com. They say the best invention of the year is this: NASA (即National Aeronautics and Space Administration,美国航空航天局) ’s Ares Rockets(Ares是希腊神话中的战神的名字,美国航空航天局用该名为其“星座计划”里的火箭命名). We have some video for you.
  
  “Three! Two! One! Ignition(点火) and lift off(发射) of Ares1-X(世界上首枚没有搭载航天飞机,直接从发射中心发射的火箭), testing concepts for the future of new rocket design.”
  
  Time calls this the best and smartest and coolest thing built in 2009. It’s designed to usher in(标志…开始) the next generation of space travel, returning astronauts to the moon, and one day, bringing people to Mars.
  
  Alright, let’s check more of the top inventions. We’re starting off with this, this electric eye. MIT(即Massachusettes Institute of Technology,麻省理工大学,美国顶尖学府,有“世界理工大学之最”的美名) researchers are developing a micro-chip(微型晶片) that could help blind people regain partial sight. The chip will be implanted into patient’s eye, and it contains a tiny camera that transmits signals to the brain.
  
  Check out this one, tweeting(在网站Twitter上留言,这种行为被称为“tweet”,Twitter是一个微型博客,用户可以通过手机或是电脑在该网上发表自己的任何想法,但字数不得超过60个) by thinking. A doctoral student at University of Wisconsin(威斯康星大学,美国一所著名的公立大学) found a way to hook something up(遇到), basically, that monitors(追踪) brain activity. And he was able to concentrate on a letter and it read that and, ultimately, he was able to use that to effectively type out a short tweet.
  
  Over here, this is the ten million dollar light bulb. This could win a prize being run by the Department of Energy that is ultimately worth ten million dollars. It uses less than10 watts(瓦特). It has as much light as a normal 60-watt bulb, and it lasts 25,000 hours.
  
  Let’s bang through(快速到…) a couple more over here. This is called the Smart Thermostat(自动调温器) . This is thermostat that would tell you how much energy all your appliances are using, and it would be able to control them—turn them on and off.
  
  And we’ll end with this one, take a look here—controller-free(无需控制器的) gaming. You wouldn’t need to hold anything in your hand to play these video games, you could use body movements and sound.
  
  Now, all these are some of the best inventions of the year. Time also points to some of the worst inventions of the year. Let me show you two of what it’s declaring the worst inventions of the year. You’ve got to see this. Take a look here—Snuggies(保暖内衣) for dogs, come on. They’re basically saying “what are people thinking?” And this you really have to see to believe. There it is, the gas-mask(防毒面具)-bra, a bra that would break apart into two different gas masks. Now, officially named by Time. Yeah, one of the worst inventions of the year.
  
  All right, this is kind of an awkward shot, so let’s get to that graphic so you can see how you can see the entire list of top 50 best inventions of the year according to Time. It’s at the blog: CNN.com\Josh, also Facebook and Twitter, JoshLevsCNN. Let us know what you think.
  
  And hey, some of these might be on the market in not too long.
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