The Water Purification Disc - "MadiDrop"

净水圆盘MadiDrop

From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。

Students at the University of Virginia have developed a new way of purifying water. They say it could bring improved water quality to millions of people in the developing world. They called it MadiDrop. Field testing begins recently in South Africa. The laboratory in which the MadiDrop is made operates like a kitchen.

美国弗吉尼亚大学学生已经开发出了一种净化水的新方法。他们表示，它可能会给发展中国家数以百万计的人们带来水质的改善。他们称之为MadiDrop。最近在南非开始进行现场测试。制造MadiDrop的实验室运作起来就像个厨房。

Workers add ingredients and mix, weigh, press and bake. What the workers are making is a ceramic disc that contains silver.

工人们添加各种原料，然后混合，称重，按压和烘烤。工人们在做的是含银的陶瓷圆盘。

When the disc is dropped in water, silver ions are released to purify the water. Ions are atoms that have an electrical charge. Testing at the University of Virginia shows that the disc produces clean, safe water.

当圆盘被放入水中，阴离子释放出来开始净化水。离子是带电荷的原子。在弗吉尼亚大学进行的测试表明，这种圆盘可以生产出干净安全的用水。

Beeta Ehdaie is a doctoral candidate at UVA.

Beeta Ehdaie是弗吉尼亚大学（UVA）的一名博士生。

"It's not just about making a really great technology that effectively removes or kills bacteria and pathogens. It's about making a low cost, simple to use one, tailored to people in developing countries who don't have many resources."

他说，“这不仅是一项有效杀死细菌和病原体的伟大技术，而且低成本，简单易用，特别适合缺少资源的发展中国家人民。”

The students are experimenting with different sizes of MadiDrops to match them with different sized water containers. Why the name "MadiDrop"?

学生们在试验各种不同尺寸的MadiDrop以适应不同大小的水容器。为什么命名为MadiDrop呢？

The word "madi" means water in Tshivenda, a language of Limpopo Province in South Africa. There, fifty women run a factory that makes water filters. The university started the factory last summer.

“Madi”在文达语中是水的意思，文达语是南非林波波省的一种语言。在那里，50名妇女运营着一家制造滤水器的工厂。弗吉尼亚大学去年夏天开办了这家工厂。

The women mix sawdust and clay to make flower pot shaped filters that they use to purify drinking water. The water flows through the filters is which trap bacteria and solid particles. The factory sells the filters to local families. Manager Certinah Khashane says the work has changed the women's lives.

妇女们将锯木屑和粘土混合，制成用来净化饮用水的花盆状滤水器。水流经滤水器时，细菌和固体颗粒被过滤出来。这家工厂将滤水器卖给当地的家庭。该工厂的经理Certinah Khashane表示，这项工作改变了妇女们的生活。

"When they get money for those pots, they just buying school uniform for their children."

“当她们从这些滤水器中赚到钱时，她们就会给自己的孩子买校服。”

But the MadiDrop is smaller and less expensive than the filters. Over the next few months, students will test the MadiDrop in South Africa.

但和滤水器相比，MadiDrop更小更便宜。在接下来的几个月里，学生们将在南非测试MadiDrop。

Maggie Montgomery is a water expert with the World Health Organization. Over Skype, she explained what field testing should show.

玛吉·蒙哥马利（Maggie Montgomery）是世卫组织的水专家。她通过Skype解释了现场测试的目的。

"Do they find it convenient, does it have a certain taste they don't like to the water, what happens once it becomes exhausted?"

她说，“人们是否觉得它方便？是否觉得它给水带来一种他们不喜欢的异味，当它失效后会发生什么？”

If the testing is successful, the South African women will make and sell the MadiDrops. The goal is to expand such factories to other developing countries and improve millions of lives each year.

如果测试成功，这些南非妇女就将开始生产和销售MadiDrop。其目标是把这类工厂推广到其他国家去，每年改善数以百万计人的生活。

Jim Smith is a UVA engineering professor. He leads the project.

吉姆·史密斯（Jim Smith）是弗吉尼亚大学的工程教授，他领导了这一项目。

"Imagine a magic stone and you take this magic stone and you drop it in your water container. It purifies the water and makes it safe to drink. And then imagine that this magic stone only costs a few dollars. That's what a MadiDrop is."

“想象一下，一块神奇的石头，人们把它投入水容器中它就能净化水，让这些水可以安全饮用。然后想象一下，这块神奇的石头只要几美元。而这就是MadiDrop。”

Professor Smith says he has received calls from companies that want to make the MadiDrop.

史密斯教授表示，他已经接到一些希望生产MadiDrop的公司的电话。