Directions:
After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage
coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in
each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use
one word that best fits each blank.
The
Father of JD Printing
About
twenty years ago, the surgeons at the Wilford Hull medical center working to
separate a pair of conjoined(连体的) twins thought that only
one would be able to walk after the operation. After a model of the girls' bone
structure was {#blank#}1{#/blank#} using 3D printing,
however, they found a shared upper leg bone to be bigger than expected and
split it successfully, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} in both twins being able
to walk. Now eighty and still working as chief technology officer of 3D
Systems. Chuck Hull is enjoying some minor {#blank#}3{#/blank#} 31 years after he first printed a small black eye-wash cup using
a new method of manufacturing known as 3D printing.
At
the time, he was working for a company that used UV light to put thin layers of
plastic coats on tabletops and {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. He had an idea that if he
could place thousands of thin layers of plastic on top of each other and then
cut their shape using light, he would be able to form three dimensional
objects. After a year, he {#blank#}5{#/blank#} a system where light was
shone into a bottle of photopolymer – a material which changes from liquid to
plastic-like solid when light shines on it – and traces the shape of one level
of the object. Subsequent layers are then printed until it is {#blank#}6{#/blank#}.
After
patenting the invention, he set up 3D Systems, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} getting $6m (£3.5m) from a Canadian investor. The first {#blank#}8{#/blank#} product came out in 1988 and proved a hit among car
manufacturers, in the aerospace sector and for companies designing medical
equipment. The possibilities appear endless – from home-printed food and
medicine to {#blank#}9{#/blank#} that pictures of objects
be able to be taken in shops and then recreated using plans downloaded from the
Internet Although deliberate in his responses, there is one moment when the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} spoken Chuck Hull tells of his surprise about what exactly his
creation was capable of achieving.
