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  3. We’ve become a rather germ-phobic (恐惧症) society, what with our antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizers, automatic water faucets (水龙

We’ve become a rather germ-phobic (恐惧症) society, what with our antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizers, automatic water faucets (水龙

admin2012-08-05  49
问题     We’ve become a rather germ-phobic (恐惧症) society, what with our antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizers, automatic water faucets (水龙头) and self-flushing toilets—all of which are supposed to reduce our contact with potential disease-causing bugs. But it turns out that at least one pathogen-fighting (抵抗病 原体的) strategy may actually be exposing us to more germs, rather than fewer.
    Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital conducted an eye-opening study on the bacterial growth within two different kinds of taps-hands-free, automatic faucets activated by an electronic eye, and the old-fashioned manual type that users have to turn in order to start the flow of water. About 50% of the water samples from the electronic faucets tested positive for some bacteria, while only 15% of the samples from the manual faucets did. Yes, the automatic faucets harbored more bugs than the manual ones, but that doesn’t mean they’d make you sick. The water samples were taken from faucets located all over the hospital, including patient rooms, and no patients reported infections from the water.
    Still, in a hospital setting, the findings could be cause for alarm. That’s because hospitalized patients are more likely to have compromised immune systems, whether they are being treated for cancer or undergoing an organ transplant. That’s why Hopkins officials decided to play it safe and go back to manual faucets in a new building under construction on campus that would include patient rooms. "The electronic faucets are in the process of being removed and the plan is to remove them from the existing hospital as well," says Sydnor, a fellow in infectious diseases at Hopkins.
    Why are the automatic faucets so bug-friendly? Gregory Bova, senior engineer at the hospital, says it’s the plumbing. While the plumbing for manual faucets is relatively straightforward, with a pipe each for hot and cold water feeding into the faucet, hands-free models are more complex. They include various valves (阀门), screens and filters designed to prevent backflow of hot or cold water to the wrong pipe, and all that machinery provides the perfect nesting ground for bacteria and other pathogens.
    Sydnor and Bova both acknowledge that the results surprised them. They never expected that the hands-free faucets would contain more bacteria than the manual ones. In fact, their study started out as a way to determine how often they should program the automatic faucets to run in order to flush out colonies in case they weren’t used often enough. It turns out the faucets were never that idle, but that they were a fertile location for bacteria to take hold. Still, the amount of bacterial growth the researchers found wasn’t enough for them to avoid electronic faucets in public restrooms: in the public, non-patient care areas of the hospital, Sydnor and Bova say they’re keeping the automatic model.
What was Sydnor and Bova’s study originally designed for?
选项 A、Doing a count of colonies in automatic faucets.
B、Ensuring automatic faucets work properly and frequently.
C、Demonstrating the convenience of using automatic faucets.
D、Reminding people to beware of germs in faucets.
答案B
解析 事实细节题。由定位句可知，他们的研究开始时是为了确定在自动水龙头不被人经常使用的情况下，应该每隔多久对它们进行程序设定，好让水冲走里面的菌丛。由此可见，该研究最初的目的是确保自动水龙头正确而频繁地工作，因此答案为B)。
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