题型：阅读理解 题类：常考题 难易度：普通
黑龙江省鹤岗市第一中学2018-2019学年高一下学期英语第二次月考试卷
Dogs are our best friends. That's especially true after a disaster, such as an earthquake. When buildings fall down, search and rescue dogs help find trapped people. Dogs' amazing noses can pick up the smell of survivors. Now scientists have developed an electronic tool that does the same thing. It's taking smell detection(探测) to a whole new level.
The new invention is a sort of electronic nose, which can detect extremely low levels of many compounds(化合物) from people's skin. This isn't the first time engineers have developed such an object. Earlier models, however, have been bulky and expensive. They could not detect low levels of target compounds either. The new one is inexpensive and small enough to fit inside hand-held equipment.
The electronic nose can detect extremely slight smell of more than one compound at the same time. "Being able to do this, in such a small object, is the significant discovery," says Sotiris E. Pratsinis, Professor of Process Engineering&Materials Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His team tested it in special spaces. They were like the small spaces where people might be trapped. Chemicals given off by the volunteers built up inside. The electronic equipment detected those compounds at unbelievably low levels.
The results were good news for the research team. But they may be not for our four-legged friends, who could soon be out of a job. "Ideally, this technology could replace search and rescue dogs," Pratsinis says.
Stephen Taylor, an electrical engineer, agrees that the new technology has some benefits over dogs. Still, he thinks it may be too soon to have our trusty friends retire. He suspects, "I foresee that such an object could add to the fine work done by the dogs." Taylor also pointed out some potential limitations of the new invention. "E-noses are useful, but can be very likely to be affected by unstable readings and interruption," he says.
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