Joana Lia Ferreira, an assistant professor of conservation and restoration at the NOVA School of Science and Technology, notes that archaeologists first defined the great material ages of human
2022年考研英语一阅读第一篇文章出自《Science》2021-7-2期，如下
People often complain（grumble被替换）that plastics are too durable.【1】Water bottles, shopping bags, and other trash litter the planet, from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, because plastics are everywhere（ubiquitous被替换）and don't break down easily.【2】But some plastic materials change over time. 【3】They crack and frizzle.【4】They “weep" out additives.【5】They melt into sludge.【6】All of which creates huge headaches for institutions, such as museums, trying to preserve culturally important objects.【7】The variety of plastic objects at risk is dizzying: early radios,avant-garde sculptures, celluloid animation stills from Disney films, the first artificial heart.【8】
S1中，表示“抱怨”这个动词，《科学》杂志用的是grumble，小声地表示不满、抱怨或发牢骚。grumble也可作名词指“抱怨、牢骚”。
ubiquitous原义就是无处不在，属于考研超纲词汇，出题者在这里替换成everywhere . 但是雅思和专八曾出现过该词，如下例，相关同学需重视。
转折处是文章主题的聚焦句，But转折，S3：But some plastic materials change over time. 但是某些塑料会随着时间的流逝而变化。S4、S5、S6 是变化的具体表达：它们有的开裂和卷曲、有的渗出添加剂，有的腐化成污泥。
Invisible to the naked eye, they are ubiquitous. （剑桥雅思16）
We are probably all familiar with background music in films, which has become soubiquitous as to be noticeable in its absence. （剑桥雅思11-T4）
A ubiquitous woodland mix of lawn grasses and trees has found its way throughout Europe and the United States, and it's now spread to other cities around the world.（2015专八-P4）
21. According to Paragraph 1, museums are faced with difficulties in____
[A] maintaining their plastic items.
[B] obtaining durable plastic artifacts.
[C] handling outdated plastic exhibits.
[D] classifying their plastic collections.
定位到S7，preserve culturally important objects，保护重要文物，preserve就是保护的意思，如preserve the forest（保护森林）、preserve old buildings（保护老房子）。所以21题，博物馆面临的困难就是在保护上，maintain就有此义。而obtain是“获得”的意思、handle是“处理”、classify是“分类”。
译：人们常抱怨塑料太耐用，从珠穆朗玛峰到马里亚纳海沟，水瓶，购物袋和其他垃圾随处可见，这是因为塑料袋无处不在且不易分解。然而一些塑料会随着时间的推移而变化，它们开裂和卷曲。它们渗出添加剂，腐化成污泥。这些后果给博物馆等保护文化遗产的机构带来了巨大的麻烦。面临风险的塑料物品种类繁多，眼花缭乱:早期收音机、前卫雕塑、迪士尼赛璐珞动画、第一颗人造心脏。
Certain artifacts are especially vulnerable because some pioneers in plastic art didn't always know how to mix ingredients properly, says Thea van Oosten, a polymer chemist who, until retiring a few years ago,worked for decades at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.【9】“It's like baking a cake: If you don't have exact amounts, it goes wrong," she says.【10】 “The object you make is already a time bomb.’’【11】
22. Van Oosten believes that certain plastic objects are_____
[A] immune to decay.
[B] improperily shaped.
[C] inherently flawed.
[D] complex in structure.
S9：didn't always know how to mix ingredients properly。Van Oosten不知道如何正确地混合成分
S10：If you don't have exact amounts, it goes wrong。如果没有准确的量，蛋糕就坏了
S11：The object you make is already a time bomb。这个东西就像定时炸弹
所以，S9、10、11都是在讲它内在缺陷的问题
译：聚合物化学家Thea van Oosten说，某些手工艺品特别容易受到损害，因为塑料艺术的一些先驱者并不知道如何正确地混合成分。她在荷兰文化遗产局工作数十年，直到几年前方退休。曾形容到: “这就像烤蛋糕: 如果你没有准确的量，就会错。”你做的东西已经是定时炸弹了。”
And sometimes, it's not the artist's http://fault.In the 1960s, the Italian artist Picro Gilardi began to create hundreds of bright, colorful foam pieces. 【12】Those pieces included small beds of roses and other items as well as a few dozen“nature carpets”---large rectangles decorated with foam pumpkins, cabbages, and watermelons.【13】 He wanted viewers to walk around on the carpets - which meant they had to be durable.【14】
S12：not是转折句，这并非艺术家的过错，双重否定表肯定，所以有时候也是正确的。
译：有时候，这并非艺术家的过错。20世纪60年代，意大利艺术家Picro Gilardi开始创作数百件色彩鲜艳的泡沫作品。这些作品包括小玫瑰花床和其他物品，以及几十个“天然地毯”——一个大长方形装饰着泡沫南瓜，卷心菜和西瓜。他希望观众在地毯上走来走去——这意味着地毯必须耐用。
Unfortunately,the polyurethane foam he used is inherently unstable.【15】It's especially vulnerable to light damage, and by the mid-1990s, Gilardi's pumpkins, roses, and other figures were splitting and crumbling.【16】Museums locked some of them away in the dark.【17】
Unfortunately（不幸的是），un表否定，所以S15是转折句，怎么不幸了，是因为这个塑料成分不稳定。S15具体解释了S12，它没有错，因为是化学构成不稳定。
译：遗憾的是，他使用的聚氨酯泡沫本质上是不稳定的。其特别容易因光线照射损伤，到20世纪90年代中期，Gilardi的南瓜、玫瑰和其他作品都开始分裂和崩解。博物馆把它们中的一些锁在黑暗中。
So van Oosten and her colleagues worked to preserve Gilardi's sculptures. They infused some with stabilizing and consolidating chemicals.【18】Van Oosten calls those chemicals “sunscreens" because their goal was to prevent further light damage and rebuild worn polymer fibers. 【19】She is proud that severalsculptures have even gone on display again,albeit sometimes beneath protective cases.【20】
译：因此，van Oosten和她的同事们尽全力保护Gilardi的雕塑。他们给一些雕塑注入了稳定和巩固作用的化学物质。Van Oosten称这些化学物质为“防晒霜”，因为它们的目标是防止进一步的光线造成损伤，并重建磨损的聚合物纤维。她引以为豪的是，一些雕塑可以再次展览，尽管有时需要在保护壳下。
《Science》杂志原文：So van Oosten and colleagues at RCE began to study ways to protect polyurethane. First,they took foam samples similar to the nature carpets and infused some with stabilizing and consolidating chemicals that modern manufacturers often use.Van Oosten calls those chemicals“sunscreens" because their goal was to prevent further light damage and rebuild worn polymer fibers. Then the team used xenon lamps to artificially age both treated and untreated samples, and examined them under high-powered microscopes. ..........Van Oosten is proud that several have even gone on display again, albeit sometimes beneath protective cases.
23. Museums stopped exhibiting some of Gilardi's artworks to____
[A] keep them from hurting visitors.
[B] duplicate them for future display.
[C] have their ingredients analyzed.
[D] prevent them from further damage.
此题直接定位到S19, their goal was to prevent further light damage and rebuild worn polymer fibers. 其目的是防止光线造成进一步的损伤
Despite success stories like van Oosten's,preservation of plastics will likely get harder.【21】Old objects continue to deteriorate. 【22】Worse, biodegradable plastics designed to disintegrate, are increasingly common.【23】And more is at stake here than individual objects.【24】Joana Lia Ferreira, an assistant professor of conservation and restoration at the NOVA School of Science and Technology, notes that archaeologists first defined the great material ages of human history---Stone Age, Iron Age, and so on---after examining artifacts in museums. 【25】We now live in an age of plastic, she says,"and what we decide to collect today, what we decide to preserve .... will have a strong impact on how in the future we'll be seen."【26】
Despite表转折，S21:preservation of plastics will likely get harder. 塑料的保存变得愈加困难。
24. The author thinks that preservation of plastics is___
[A] costly
[B] unworthy
[C] unpopular
[D] challenging
解1：作者的观点或态度往往是正面的，且偏抽象，ABC带着负面，故排除
解2：主题句S3 But some plastic materials change over time. 但是某些塑料会随着时间的流逝而变化。
主题句S12：这并非艺术家的过错
主题句S15：因为塑料成分不稳定，所以不幸
主题句S21: 塑料的保护变得愈加困难。
从S3、S12、S15到S21，可见保护之艰难，充满挑战
25. In Ferreira's opinion, preservation of plastic artifacts___.
[A] will inspire future scientific research.
[B] has profound historical significance.
[C] will help us separate the material ages.
[D] has an impact on today's cultural life.
opinion观点题应该具有深刻和抽象性，又放在最后问，还需具备结果导向。B 的significance（重要性）和D的 impact（影响）包含高度的概括性，而AC都是在表述具体，一个是激励科学研究、另一个是区分物质时代，故排除AC。
我们再定位到S25：notes that archaeologists first defined the great material ages of human history---Stone Age, Iron Age, and so on---after examining artifacts in museums.
Ferreira指出，考古学家定义了人类历史上的伟大物质时代，这一切都归功于博物馆在保护塑料制品的功劳。
S26：will have a strong impact on how in the future we'll be seen.她提到了影响，但是没有具体涉及是文化的影响，还是其他政治、经济的影响。所以排除D。
D的选项，正是《Science》原文最后一段作者本人的观点，不是Ferreira的观点。作者认为 today can be culturally meaningful- and even cherished
译：尽管有像van Oosten这样的成功故事，但塑料的保存依然困难。旧的物品不停得变质。更糟糕的是，可降解塑料的微生物越来越普遍。这种风险比单个物体更大。NOVA科技学院的保护和修复助理教授Joana Lia Ferreira指出，考古学家在检查了博物馆中的文物后，首先确定了人类历史上的伟大物质时代——石器时代、铁器时代等等。我们如今生活在一个塑料的时代，她说，“我们今天决定收集什么，我们决定保存什么……这将对未来我们的前景产生强烈的影响。”