雅思阅读真题（Part 2）
蜘蛛丝金色布料：百万蜘蛛织成的罕见纺织品
本篇也叫：蜘蛛丝布料、金色蜘蛛丝、蜘蛛丝纺织品、百万蜘蛛丝、蜘蛛丝衣服、蛛丝布
Part 2 · 考频：中频 · 最近考试：2024.9.14/2019.5.11
本篇为雅思阅读真题（Part 2）《A unique golden textile》，共 13 题，2024.9.14/2019.5.11雅思考试真题回忆，页面提供完整原文、题目、答案与解析，并支持在线机考模式免费练习。本页同时提供 Markdown 版本 供 AI 助手与搜索引擎直接读取。
文章讲述一个为期四年的项目，用超过一百万只野生金圆蛛的丝制成一块罕见的金色布料，并在纽约美国自然历史博物馆展出。70人从马达加斯加的电线杆上采集蜘蛛，每只提取约80英尺丝纤维，最终织成11×4英尺的布料。文中还对比了蜘蛛丝与凯夫拉、钢的强度、弹性等特性，并提到法国传教士Camboue的早期尝试。
A two-man project to use spider silk is achieved after 4 years
A
A rare textile made from the silk of more than a million wild spiders has been on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. To produce this golden cloth, 70 people spent four years collecting golden orb spiders from telephone poles in Madagascar, while another dozen workers carefully extracted about 80 feet of silk filament from each of the arachnids. The resulting 11-foot by 4-foot textile is the only large piece of cloth made from natural spider silk existing in the world today.
B
Spider silk is very elastic and strong compared with steel or Kevlar, said textile expert Silom Peers, who co-led the project. Kevlar is a lightweight synthetic fabric which is chemically related to nylon. It is very tough and durable and used in bullet-proof vest.Kevlar is also resistant to wear, tear, and heat and has absolutely no melting point. But the tensile strength of spider silk is even greater than Kevlar's amid filaments, and greater than that of high-grade steel. Most importantly, spider silk is extremely lightweight: a strand of spider silk long enough to circle the Earth would weigh less than500 grams (18 oz). Spider silk is also especially ductile, able to stretch up to 140 percent of its length without breaking. It can hold its strength below-40c. This gives it a very high toughness, which equals that of commercial fibers.
C
Researchers have long been intrigued by the unique properties of spider silk. Unfortunately, spider silk is extremely hard to mass produce. Unlike silk worms, which are easy to raise in captivity, spiders have a habit of chopping off each other's heads when housed together. According to Peers, there's scientific research going on all over the world right now trying to replicate the tensile properties of spider silk a apply it to all sorts of areas in medicine and industry, but no one up until now has succeeded in replicating 100 per cent of the properties of natural spider silk.
D
Peers came up with the idea of weaving spider silk after learning about the French missionary Jacob Paul Camboue, who worked with spiders in Madagascar during the 1880s and 1890s. Camboue built a small, hand-driven machine to extract silkfrom up to 24 spiders at once, without harming them. The spiders were temporarily restrain their silk extracted, and then let go, Peers managed to build a replica of this 24-spider silking machine that was used at the turn of the century, said Nicholas Godley, who co-led the project with Peers. As an experiment, the pair collected an initial batch of about 20 spiders. When we stuck them in the machine and started turning it, lo and behold, this beautiful gold-colored silk started coming out’, Godley said.
E
But to make a textile of any significant size, the silk experts had to drastically scale up their plan. Fourteen thousand spiders yield about an ounce of silk, Godley said, and the textile weighs about 2.6 pounds. The numbers are overwhelming. To get as much silk as they needed, Godley and Peers began hiring dozens of spider handlers to collect wild arachnids and carefully harvest them to the silk-extraction machine. We had to find people who were willing to work with spiders, Godley said, because they bite ' By the end of the project, Godley and Peers extracted silk from more than 1 million female golden orb spiders, which are abundant throughout Madagascar and known for the rich golden color of their silk, Because the spiders only produce silk during the rainy season, workers collected all the spiders between October and June. Then an additional 12 people used hand-powered machines to extract the silk and where it into 96-filament thread. Once the spiders had been silked, they were released back into the wild, where Godley said it takes them about a week to regenerate their skill. We can go back and resilk the same spiders, he said. It’s like the gift that never stops giving.
F
Of course, spending four years to produce a single textile of spider silk isn’t very practical for scientists trying to study the properties of spider silk, or companies that want to manufacture the fabric for the use as a biomedical product, or an alternative to Kevlararmor. Several groups have tried inserting spider genes into bacteria or even cows and goats to produce silk, but so far, the attempts have been only moderately successful. Part of the reason it’s so hard to generate spider silk in the lab is that it starts out as a liquid protein that’s produced by a special gland in the spider’s abdomen. Using their spinneret, spiders apply force to rearrange the protein’s molecular structure and transform it into solid silk. When we talk about a spider spinning silk, we’re talking about how the spider applies forces to produce a transformation from liquid to solid, said spider silk expert Todd Blackledge of the University of Akron, Ohio, US, who was not involved in creating the textile. Scientists simply can’t replicate the efficiency with which a spider produces silk. Every year we’re getting closer and closer to being able to mass produce it, but we’re not there yet. For now, it seems we’ll have to be content with one incredibly beautiful cloth, graciously provided by more than a million spiders.
想在线练习这套卷子？进入机考练习
答案：a unique work of art
原文定位：A rare textile made from the silk of more than a million wild spiders has been on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City;The resulting 11-foot by 4-foot textile is the only large piece of cloth made from natural spider silk existing in the world today
同义替换：「unique」↔「rare」，「work of art」↔「textile on display at museum」
答案：the physical properties of spider silk
原文定位：Spider silk is very elastic and strong compared with steel or Kevlar;But the tensile strength of spider silk is even greater than Kevlar's amid filaments, and greater than that of high-grade steel. Most importantly, spider silk is extremely lightweight;Spider silk is also especially ductile, able to stretch up to 140 percent of its length without breaking. It can hold its strength below -40°C. This gives it a very high toughness
答案：difficulties of raising spiders in captivity
原文定位：Unfortunately;spider silk is extremely hard to mass produce;Unlike silk worms;which are easy to raise in captivity;spiders have a habit of chopping off each other's heads when housed together
同义替换：「Difficulties」↔「extremely hard to mass produce」
答案：experimenting with an old idea
原文定位：Peers came up with the idea of weaving spider silk after learning about the French missionary Jacob Paul Camboue, who worked with spiders in Madagascar during the 1880s and 1890s. Camboue built a small, hand-driven machine to extract silkfrom up to 24 spiders at once, without harming them. The spiders were temporarily restrain their silk extracted, and then let go, Peers managed to build a replica of this 24;spider silking machine that was used at the turn of the century
同义替换：「old idea」↔「used at the turn of the century」
答案：resources needed to meet the project’s demands
原文定位：Fourteen thousand spiders yield about an ounce of silk;Godley said;and the textile weighs about 2.6 pounds;The numbers are overwhelming;To get as much silk as they needed;Godley and Peers began hiring dozens of spider handlers to collect wild arachnids and carefully harvest them to the silk;extraction machine
同义替换：「meet the project’s demands」↔「To get as much silk as they needed」
答案：a scientific analysis of spider silk
原文定位：Several groups have tried inserting spider genes into bacteria or even cows and goats to produce silk, but so far, the attempts have been only moderately successful;Part of the reason it’s so hard to generate spider silk in the lab is that it starts out as a liquid protein that’s produced by a special gland in the spider’s abdomen;Scientists simply can’t replicate the efficiency with which a spider produces silk
答案：Nicholas Godley
原文定位：Fourteen thousand spiders yield about an ounce of silk;Godley said;and the textile weighs about 2.6 pounds;The numbers are overwhelming
同义替换：「tremendous number of」↔「Fourteen thousand」，「small amount of」↔「about an ounce of」
答案：Simon Peers
原文定位：According to Peers, there's scientific research going on all over the world right now trying to replicate the tensile properties of spider silk a apply it to all sorts of areas in medicine and industry, but no one up until now has succeeded in replicating 100 per cent of the properties of natural spider silk
同义替换：「qualities」↔「properties」，「medical」↔「medicine」
答案：Todd Blackledge
原文定位：Every year we’re getting closer and closer to being able to mass produce it, but we’re not there yet
同义替换：「making some progress」↔「getting closer and closer」，「manufacture」↔「mass」
答案：Simon Peers
原文定位：Spider silk is very elastic and strong compared with steel or Kevlar, said textile expert Simon Peers, who co-led the project;But the tensile strength of spider silk is even greater than Kevlar's amid filaments, and greater than that of high-grade steel
同义替换：「compares favorably」↔「even greater than」
答案：bacteria
原文定位：Several groups have tried inserting spider genes into bacteria or even cows and goats to produce silk, but so far, the attempts have been only moderately successful
同义替换：「introducing genetic material into」↔「inserting spider genes into」
答案：gland
原文定位：Part of the reason it’s so hard to generate spider silk in the lab is that it starts out as a liquid protein that’s produced by a special gland in the spider’s abdomen
同义替换：「made in」↔「produced by」，「body」↔「abdomen」
答案：transformation
原文定位：When we talk about a spider spinning silk, we’re talking about how the spider applies forces to produce a transformation from liquid to solid
同义替换：「turns this liquid into solid」↔「from liquid to solid」