2010年12月英语六级听力练习十四

Next year will mark the 110th anniversary of a U.S. government agency that is unknown to most Americans. Yet its work affects their everyday lives in countless ways. 

Generations knew the agency as the National Bureau of Standards. When it was founded in 1901, _____________________, and the nation used a variety of standards to measure length, weight, and mass. There were something like 30 different ways to measure quantities of liquid, for instance. 

The agency is now known as NIST - the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The Washington Post newspaper calls its headquarters complex in Maryland, on _________________________________, Uncle Sam's funhouse. 

There, NIST technicians and scientists come up with new ways to measure things, set standards for products, and test new technology in all sorts of industries. NIST maintains the earth's atomic clock, which is thought to be so accurate, _________________________________or lose a single second.