1. Answer the following questions.

1. What ingredients do Canadian scientists suggest using instead of animal fat? 2. Why is the novel use of an ethylcellulose organogelator (oleogel) so important for people’s health? 3. What is the leading cause of death worldwide? 4. What kind of fats do we call hard fats? 5. What happened when Marangoni’s team first heated up and then cooled ethylcellulose? 6. What methods were used to test the gel’s hardness? 7. What does the work of Marangoni’s team show? 8. What are researchers from Marangoni’s team doing now?

2. Give synonyms to the following words:

to show, an agent, to alter, continual, to eliminate, to reduce, amount, a disease, worldwide, to link, a consumption, difficult, to investigate, ability, a composition, to increase, a method, to happen, to test, to assess, to create.

 

17. Artificial Enzyme Used to Neutralize a Natural Plant Poison

to emulate	імітувати	to spur	стимулювати
tough	міцний; в’язкий	fragile	крихкий
chestnut	каштан	stripped-down	демонтований
to cause	викликати	dramatically	значно
twitching	судорога	to alter	змінювати
vomiting	блювання	counterpart	аналог
responsible	відповідальний	resistant	стійкий

For the first time, a human-designed chemical enzyme – a chemzyme – has been used to break down a toxin found inside fruits and vegetables.

Chemzymes are designed to emulate the body’s naturally occurring enzymes, but are much simpler and tougher. A chemzyme designed by a Danish scientist successfully neutralized glycoside esculin, a toxic compound found in horse chestnuts. The toxin can cause nasty problems like muscle twitching, lack of coordination, vomiting, diarrhea, depression and paralysis.

Enzymes are made from strings of amino acids and are responsible for chemical reactions inside the body. They can quickly break down food and toxins, and can be used in other applications to spur chemical reactions. But they are very complex and fragile, and therefore hard to duplicate.

Chemzymes are stripped-down versions of natural enzymes, containing the minimum ingredients for them to work, according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, where the chemzymes were developed.

Scientists have been working on synthetic enzymes for a variety of applications, including medicine and industry. But Jeannette Bjerre, who just received her Ph.D. at the University of Copenhagen, has shown for the first time that artificial enzymes can be designed to neutralize food-borne toxins.

The chemzyme’s simple design might make it easier to create new chemzymes for specific tasks. Researchers have already shown that simple changes in a chemzyme’s structure can dramatically alter its chemical-reaction abilities.

So far, no one has been able to make chemzymes that work as quickly as their natural counterparts. But chemzymes are more resistant to heat and chemicals, so they would be easier to produce in large quantities, which could open new doors for pharmaceutical and chemical research.

Speech patterns

to be designed + Infinitive	бути призначеним, щоб
The Internet is also designed to widen our access to information.	Інтернет також призначений, щоб розширити нам доступ до інформації.
to be designed for	бути призначеним для
This book is specially designed for advanced English learners.	Ця книга спеціально призначена для поглибленого вивчення англійської.

according to somebody	згідно заяви; як повідомляють
According to Einstein, the Universe is expanding.	Згідно теорії Ейнштейна, всесвіт розширюється.
According to him you are wrong.	За його словами ви неправі.
according to something	згідно чогось
According to the law of conservation of matter, it cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system.	Згідно закону збереження матерії, вона не може бути створена чи знищена в ізольованій системі.

so far	до сих пір, досі
so far as (as far as)	оскільки
So long!	до побачення
so-called	так званий
so-so	так собі
so much the better (worse)	тим краще (гірше)
So be it!	нехай так і буде!