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A super-reflective cooling coating

A team of Columbia University researchers thinks that painting buildings with a new type of coating could help. Some cities already use white roofs to try to cool buildings by reflecting sunlight. But the new coating developed by the scientists can help buildings even cooler.

"It's like snow," says Yuan Yang, an assistant professor at Columbia. Snow, he explains, is filled with micron-sized（微米级的）crystals of ice that create tiny pockets of air that scatter light—the effect that makes snow white rather than transparent like ice, and highly reflective. The researchers created a polymer（聚合物）coating that also has nano to-micro-scale pockets of air that turn it white. "Our paint can be much more reflective than normal paint," he says.

Regular white paint might reflect 85% of the sunlight that hits it. The new coating, depending on its thickness, could reflect as much as 99%. If used with colored paint, it's less effective, but also keeps buildings cooler than they would otherwise be; the coating is also less effective in areas with high humidity（湿度）. In a hot, dry city like Phoenix, the white coating could keep a building around 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the outdoor air on a summer day. Most Arizonans have air conditioning, and in a city where temperatures regularly reach well over 100 degrees, the coating isn't likely to replace it. But it could help buildings use less energy to stay cool. For the small fraction of residents there who don't have air conditioning, the coating could potentially help protect their health on the hottest days. In 2018, more than 155 people in Phoenix died in heat waves.

In places where air conditioning is currently uncommon, such as Seattle, where there were a record number of hot days last July, but only one-third of residents have air conditioning, the coating might help stave off （延缓）the need to install new systems. In the developing world, the coating could potentially help those who don't yet have electricity or who can't afford an air conditioner. But the biggest impact of the technology—which the researchers hope to commercialize—is likely to be its ability to help air conditioners use a little less electricity and help cut emissions. Without changes, the emissions from air conditioners are predicted to almost double by mid-century.

1.What is the key information the author wants to give in Para 2?

A.Why snow is reflective. B.What makes snow white.

C.What the polymer coating is. D.How the new coating works.

2.What does the underlined word “it" in Para. 2 refer to?

A.The ice. B.The snow.

C.The new coating. D.The normal painting.

3.What's Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A.The necessity of air conditioners in cities.

B.The effectiveness of the new technology.

C.The widespread use of the white coating.

D.The influence the hot weather has on health.

4.What's the biggest impact of the new coating?

A.Reducing emissions indirectly. B.Helping keep buildings warm.

C.Assisting the poor potentially. D.Stopping using air conditioners.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题

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