选词填空
A novel way of making computer memories, using bacteria FOR half a century, the 5． of progress in the computer industry has been to do more with less. Moore’s law famously observes that the number of transistors which can be crammed into a given space 6． every 18 months. The amount of data that can be stored has grown at a similar rate. Yet as 7． get smaller, making them gets harder and more expensive. On May 10th Paul Otellini, the boss of Intel, a big American chipmaker, put the price of a new chip factory at around $10 billion. Happily for those that lack Intel’s resources, there may be a cheaper option—namely to mimic Mother Nature, who has been building tiny 8．, in the form of living cells and their components, for billions of years, and has thus got rather good at it. A paper published in Small, a nanotechnology journal, sets out the latest example of the 9．. In it, a group of researchers led by Sarah Staniland at the University of Leeds, in Britain, describe using naturally occurring proteins to make arrays of tiny magnets, similar to those employed to store information in disk drives. The researchers took their 10． from Magnetospirillum magneticum, a bacterium that is sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field thanks to the presence within its cells of flecks of magnetite, a form of iron oxide. Previous work has isolated the protein that makes these miniature compasses. Using genetic engineering, the team managed to persuade a different bacterium—Escherichia coli, a ubiquitous critter that is a workhorse of biotechnology—to 11． this protein in bulk. Next, they imprinted a block of gold with a microscopic chessboard pattern of chemicals. Half the squares contained anchoring points for the protein. The other half were left untreated as controls. They then dipped the gold into a solution containing the protein, allowing it to bind to the treated squares, and dunked the whole lot into a heated 12． of iron salts. After that, they examined the results with an electron microscope. Sure enough, groups of magnetite grains had materialised on the treated squares, shepherded into place by the bacterial protein. In principle, each of these magnetic domains could store the one or the zero of a bit of information, according to how it was polarised. Getting from there to a real computer memory would be a long road. For a start, the grains of magnetite are not strong enough magnets to make a useful memory, and the size of each domain is huge by modern computing 13．. But Dr Staniland reckons that, with enough tweaking, both of these objections could be dealt with. The 14． of this approach is that it might not be so capital-intensive as building a fab. Growing things does not need as much kit as making them. If the tweaking could be done, therefore, the result might give the word biotechnology a whole new meaning.
答案
5．E （essence）
6．H（doubles）
7．A（components）
8．K（devices）
9．O（technique）
10．F（inspiration）
11．L（manufacture）
12．I（solution）
13．C（standards）
14．B（advantage）
【分析】
本文是一篇说明文。文章介绍一种制造计算机存储器的新方法。使用细菌已有半个世纪之久，计算机工业进步的本质是用更少的资源做更多的事。
5．根据A novel way of making computer memories, using bacteria FOR half a century, the ____1____ of progress in the computer industry has been to do more with less.可知，这是一种制造计算机存储器的新方法，使用细菌已有半个世纪之久，计算机工业进步的本质是用更少的资源做更多的事。结合句意可知答案为E （essence）
6．根据Moore’s law famously observes that the number of transistors which can be crammed into a given space ____2____ every 18 months.可知，摩尔定律著名的论断是：能放入某空间内的晶体管数量每18个月就会翻一番。结合句意可知答案为H（doubles）
7．根据Yet as ____3____ get smaller, making them gets harder and more expensive.可知，然而，随着组件变得越来越小，制造它们变得越来越困难，成本也越来越高。结合句意可知答案为A（components）
8．根据Happily for those that lack Intel’s resources, there may be a cheaper option—namely to mimic Mother Nature, who has been building tiny ____4____, in the form of living cells and their components, for billions of years, and has thus got rather good at it.可知，幸运的是，对于那些缺乏英特尔资源的人来说，也许还有一个更便宜的选择——那就是模仿大自然母亲，她已经以活细胞及其组件的形式制造了数十亿年的微型设备，并因此变得相当擅长。结合句意可知答案为K（devices）
9．根据A paper published in Small, a nanotechnology journal, sets out the latest example of the ____5____.可知，发表在纳米技术期刊《Small》上的一篇论文阐述了这项技术的最新例子。结合句意可知答案为O（technique）
10．根据The researchers took their ____6____ from Magnetospirillum magneticum, a bacterium that is sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field thanks to the presence within its cells of flecks of magnetite, a form of iron oxide.可知，研究人员的灵感来自于磁螺菌。磁螺菌是一种对地球磁场敏感的细菌，因为其细胞内存在磁铁矿颗粒(一种氧化铁)。结合句意可知答案为F（inspiration）
11．根据Using genetic engineering, the team managed to persuade a different bacterium—Escherichia coli, a ubiquitous critter that is a workhorse of biotechnology—to ____7____ this protein in bulk.可知，通过基因工程，研究小组成功说服了一种不同的细菌——大肠杆菌，这种无处不在的生物是生物技术的主力——批量生产这种蛋白质。结合句意可知答案为L（manufacture）
12．根据They then dipped the gold into a solution containing the protein, allowing it to bind to the treated squares, and dunked the whole lot into a heated ____8____ of iron salts.可知，然后，他们将黄金浸入含有蛋白质的溶液中，让它与处理过的方块结合，然后将整块黄金浸入加热过的铁盐溶液中。结合句意可知答案为I（solution）
13．根据For a start, the grains of magnetite are not strong enough magnets to make a useful memory, and the size of each domain is huge by modern computing ____9____.可知，首先，磁铁颗粒的磁性不够强，不足以构成有用的存储器，而且按照现代计算标准，每个磁畴的尺寸都很大。结合句意可知答案为C（standards）
14．根据The ____10____ of this approach is that it might not be so capital-intensive as building a fab.可知，这种方法的优点是，它可能不像建造工厂那样需要大量资金。结合句意可知答案为advantage
