Passage 39
学霸导读 越大越好？不一定。小东西同样可以带来大的影响哦。
Bigger isn’t a 1 better. People who are doubtful about this argument （ 论点 ） just need to look at smartphones and personal computers， which have served as the technological driving force of the past century. It is the continual shrinkage （ 收缩 ） of components （ 成分 ） that have c 2 the explosion of computing power and enabled these gadgets （ 小装置 ） to be accessible to people across the world.
Inspired by this, researchers and scientists have been working on areas where making things small may mean big results. And in 2016, the Nobel Prize has b 3 the tradition of celebrating big by presenting the biggest prizes to discoveries on the smallest scales.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to a cellular-level （ 细胞级别 ） experiment. Yoshinori Ohsumi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology won the prize for his research on “autophagy” （ 自体吞噬 ）， which is a “self-eating” process seen in cells.
What’s more， in recognition of their working on the strange properties of matter in extreme states and taking their research all the way d 4 to an atomic scale （ 原子级 ）， the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three British-born scientists who currently work in the U.S.
Another new f ield is one of nano-technology （ 纳米科技 ）. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists who m 5 to build the world’s tiniest machines out of molecules （ 微粒 ）. These devices， i 6 a nano-sized car， are so small that they are invisible （ 看不见的 ） to the human eye.
Small as the subjects are, the benef its of the scientists’ research are huge. More importantly, their i 7 may even eventually be turned into products that benef it mankind.
“It will only be some time before their research leads to advances as unimaginable to us now as lasers and computer chips were a hundred years ago，” Laura H. Greene， president-elect （ 当选总裁 ） of the American Physical Society told The New York Times.
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高频词汇
continual /kən'tɪnjuəl/ adj. 频频的，频繁的，再三的
explosion /ɪk'spləʊʒən/ n. 急剧扩大；激增，突增
extreme /ɪk'striːm/ adj. 极度的；极端的
currently /'kʌrəntli/ adv. 当前，目前
eventually /ɪ'ventʃuəli/ adv. 最后；终于
unimaginable /ˌʌnɪ'mædʒɪnəbl/ adj. 难以想象的