【明報專訊】Kiara Nirghin (基婭拉), a 16-year-old South African (南非) student at St Martin's High School in Johannesburg (約翰內斯堡), has won a grand prize and a US＄50,000 (about HK＄388,000) scholarship at Google Science Fair 2016 with her innovative project that uses orange peel and oil from avocado skin to develop a cheap material that helps soil retain water.

Her project is called "Fighting drought (旱災) with fruit". South Africa has recently seen the worst drought since 1982. Kiara then came up with the idea of helping soil to store more water. She carried out three experiments over 45 days. She eventually developed an "orange peel mixture" as an alternative to an expensive and non-biodegradable material often used to help soil to absorb water.

"I absolutely love the captivating subjects of chemistry (化學) and physics (物理) in school. I have always had a great love for chemistry since I was young," Kiara said. She has a particular interest in natural sciences, including food science. She hopes what she has made could help farmers to save crops and save money.

(sources: Ming Pao, BBC, Africanews)

■ Photo Story

Kiara beat peers between 13 and 18 from around the world. The Google Science Fair award ceremony took place in California, US, where she was awarded a trophy on stage.

◆Kiara's invention help soil retain water at a low cost.

See how the orange peel mixture work!

(YouTube keywords: Kiara Science 2016)

■ English highway﹕ come up with (phrasal verb)

"Come up with" means to suggest or think of an idea or plan.

e.g. Bill came up with a plan to stop Eason from playing tricks on other people.

■ Quiz

Answer the following questions.

(Answers on next text)

1. Is the following sentence true or false?

Kiara used peels of all the fruits she could find to make a mixture that can replace non-biodegradable material.

True / False

2. Find a word in paragraph two to fill the blank.

It may rain tomorrow, but we have an ______________ to a barbecue in the park.

3. Which of the following is the purpose of Kiara's product?

a. to fertilise the soil

b. to retain water in soil

c. to plant fruit trees

d. to kill pests in soil

4. Which area(s) of science does Kiara like?

____________________________________________

■ Glossary

scholarship (n) 獎學金

orange peel (n phr) 橙皮

non-biodegradable (adj) 不可生物降解的

captivating (adj) 迷人的