Want to travel faster than light According to one of the most sacred principles of physics, that's impossible. In a vacuum, light travels at 186,282 miles per second, and in a medium like air or water, it goes only a bit slower, which is why when you turn on your bedside lamp, you don't have to wait half an hour before the light gets to your pillow. But now it turns out that with the right equipment, scientists can get light to go very, very slowly--as slow as 38 miles per hour. They think they can get it to move even slower, around two hundredths of a mile per hour.

　　Putting the brakes on light might have applications years down the road, but right now it's a fascinating new physical property. To get there, physicists led by Lene Vestergaard Hau of the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Mass., used a tiny blob of supercooled sodium, activated with a laser at a particular wavelength. A second laser can then be fired through the normally opaque sodium; it passes through, but not much faster than a racehorse can run.

　　The experiment, reported in last week's issue of the journal Nature, took advantage of a peculiar property called electromagnetically induced transparency. Every element has a certain color of light with which it interacts most strongly. Light at that exact wavelength would normally be totally absorbed. For sodium, the stuff these researchers used, it's the yellow of common street lights. But a laser at a slightly different wavelength, called a coupling beam, can alter the quantum properties of the atoms so they no longer absorb that wavelength. The quantum seas part, and a laser at the wavelength that should have been absorbed passes through unfettered.

　　But changing the way a medium absorbs light also transforms the way light moves through it. All transparent substances slow down the light that moves through them--that's why light seems to bend, or refract, when it passes from air to water. Electromagnetically induced transparency, says Stanford physicist Steve Harris, spectacularly alters sodium's refractive properties. Light takes seven microseconds to cross a sample only eight thousandths of an inch long; in the vacuum of space, light would go more than a mile in the same time.

　　The sodium slows light the most if it's in a special state, a quantum curiosity called a Bose-Einstein condensate. It's created when atoms are cooled until they stop moving almost entirely. The atoms merge; the quantum wave functions that define them combine into one. ``You need a very pure gas, very cold, and the atoms in it can't be colliding with each other,'' says Eric Cornell, a physicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder and one of the makers of the first Bose-Einstein condensate. Chilled to just billionths of a degree above absolute zero, individual sodium atoms become a single, dense glob, atoms vibrating in lockstep.

　　Superslow light will remain a laboratory curiosity for some time to come. If they can slow photons down enough--Hau is shooting for about a centimeter a second--scientists could make images of the light as it passes by. In theory, it might be brought virtually to a stop, although it's hard to know what you'd do then. Now, if only they could get it to go faster--that would be something.

　　1.What do scientists expect to achieve in the study of light
　　[A]They want to get rid of absorption of the light.
　　[B]They want to travel faster than light.
　　[C]They want to get the superslow light.
　　[D]They want to get the light to move even faster.

　　2.Which of the following is the advantage of electromagnetically induced transparency
　　[A]It causes no absorption of light.
　　[B]It makes the color of light much brighter.
　　[C]It stops the passing of light.
　　[D]It changes the nature of light.

　　3.The expression “putting the brakes on light”(Line 1, Paragraph 2) most probably means _______.
　　[A]activating light
　　[B]confining light
　　[C]reserving light
　　[D]slowing down light

　　4.Why does light seem to bend when crossing from air to water
　　[A]Light is absorbed when entering the water.
　　[B]Transparent substances slow down the light.
　　[C]Light changes its way when entering the water.
　　[D]The water reflects light when light travels across it.

　　5.Which of the following is true according to the text
　　[A]Superslow light has been applied widely.
　　[B]Light can even be brought to a stop.
　　[C]The research on superslow light still has a long way to go.
　　[D]It is impossible to travel faster than light.

　　答案：CADBC

　　篇章分析

　　本文采用先总括说明，后具体阐述的方式，介绍了科学的发展如何使比光速走的还快这一原本不可能出现的现象成为可能。第一段指出科学研究的新进展可以使光速变得非常非常缓慢；第二段指出这一研究的大体思路；第三段、四段和五段指出这一研究的具体研究方法；第六段指出目前这一研究领域的状况。

　　词汇注释

　　catch n. 捕获物；挂钩；锁环；诡计；难人的问题；蹊跷

　　put the [a] brake on [口]对...加以延缓; 缩减; 限制

　　blob n. 一滴，一团；小斑点；光泡，气泡；(不规则形状)液滴

　　Electromagnetically induced transparency电磁诱导增透性；电磁诱导透明

　　Bose-Einstein condensate玻色－爱因斯坦凝聚(态)

　　curiosity 奇特性；新奇的事物

　　lockstep n. 因循守旧，陈旧古板的做法, 前后紧接, 步伐一致

　　shoot for vi. 争取完成；企图达到；追求，力争

　　bring to a stop 使停止, 制止

　　if only adv. 只要，但愿；若是...那该多好啊; 真希望...; 只要, 只要...就好

　　be something 了不起, 很重要；有几分道理；有所安慰[满足]；(在某处)任职

　　难句突破

　　To get there, physicists led by Lene Vestergaard Hau of the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Mass., used a tiny blob of supercooled sodium, activated with a laser at a particular wavelength.

　　主体句式：physicists … used a tiny blob …

　　结构分析：本句是一个简单句。“to”表目的，“to get there”并不是说“要到达那里”，而是说“要达到这一步”；主语是“physicists”，“led by”之前其实省去了“who were”，这就变成了过去分词来修饰名词“physicists”;谓语是“used”；“a blob of”的意思是“一滴，一团”；“activated”的用法同“led”一样，之前省去了“which was”，用来修饰“sodium”。

　　句子译文：要达到这一步，由来自麻萨诸塞州剑桥市罗兰科学研究所的莱内维斯特嘉德豪教授领导的一个物理学家小组使用的是用特定波长激光激活的极其微小的一(滴)团超冷钠。

　　题目分析

　　1.答案为C，属事实细节题。文章开头用“WANT TO TRAVEL FASTER THAN light”这一本不可能的现象来引起读者的兴趣，其实这并不是此领域研究的目的。原文对应信息是：“But now it turns out that with the right equipment, scientists can get light to go very, very slowly--as slow as 38 miles per hour. They think they can get it to move even slower, around two hundredths of a mile per hour. ”，“Putting the brakes on light might have applications years down the road, but right now it'