1、The Plastic Hunter 塑料猎寻者 Boyan Slat is 26. If you saw him walking down the street in Delft, Netherlands a skinny guy with a long mop of dark hair, jeans, his shirt hanging loose you might think he was just a student at a local technical university. And so he was, seven years ago, right before he dro
2、pped out of college. Slats life began to change after a holiday trip to Greece with his family when he was 16. Before taking a diving course, he had expected to see beautiful sea animals. However, what he actually saw in the ocean was an awful lot of plastic waste. From that moment on, Slat dived in
3、to a project to find a solution to this alarming problem. Struck by the idea for a floating barrier that could collect plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, he founded his company, The Ocean Cleanup, at the age of 18. Although the idea was named one of the best inventions of 2015 by TIME magaz
4、ine, he received negative feedback from the specialists in environmental issues. Slat was not discouraged and saw his mission as a race against time. It is estimated that up to 14 million tons of plastic enter the oceans from land every year. Plastic gradually breaks down into very small pieces call
5、ed microplastics (塑料微粒), which can eventually enter the food chain. After five and a half years hard work, the Dutch inventor launched the worlds first ocean plastic cleanup system: System 001. The U-shaped pipe, about 609 meters in length, snakes its way out under the Golden Gate Bridge into the Pa
6、cific. These floating barriers will capture plastic waste as the ocean currents (洋流) flow past. Ships will collect the waste and bring it to land for recycling every few months. According to Slat, if all goes to plan, an array of 60 systems could reduce the amount of plastic there by as much as 50 p
7、ercent by 2025. However, there remains a problem: What will happen to the plastic brought back to shore from Slats systems? Its likely that lots of the waste will eventually be recycled into more single-use plastics that end up back in the oceans. That doesnt mean Slat will give up. “Big problems re
8、quire big solutions,” he says. “If anyone has any better ideas, Id love to know.” （节选自 Readers Digest） 1. According to the article, all the following statements about Boyan Slat are true EXCEPT that _. A. he didnt finish college B. he spent about 3 years working on the ocean plastic problem C. he fo
9、unded The Ocean Cleanup after his trip to Greece D. his invention has been criticized by some experts 2. Paragragh 4 mainly talks about _. A. how Slat has turned his idea into reality B. how Slats cleanup system will work C. problems with Slats cleanup system D. Slats long-term plan for his company
10、3. It can be inferred from the article that Boyan Slat is _. A. inflexible and intelligent B. creative and emotional C. aggressive and passionate D. persistent and open-minded 词汇： 1. loose adj. loose clothes are big and do not fit your body tightly 宽大的，宽松的 2. awful adj. used to emphasize how much or
11、 how good, bad, etc. sth. is （用于强调）非 常的 3. alarming adj. making you feel worried or frightened 令人担忧的，令人恐慌的 alarm v. 使不安，使恐慌 4. feedback n. advice, criticism or information about how good or useful sth. or sb.s work is 反馈信息 5. specialist n. sb. who knows a lot about a particular subject, or is very s
12、killed at it 专 家，专业人员 specialized adj. 专门的，专科的 6. discourage /dIsk2rId3/ v. to make sb. less confident or less willing to do sth. 使灰心， 使泄气 discouraged adj. 灰心的，丧气的 背景信息： The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (太平洋垃圾带) is actually two enormous masses of ever-growing garbage in the north central Pacific Ocea
13、n. An ocean current nearly 10,000 kilometers long connects both of the patches. The floating trash originates from countries in Asia, North America and South America. Some of the plastic in the patch has been found to be over 50 years old. The patch is believed to have increased tenfold (十倍地) each decade since 1945. 答案：1.B 2.B 3.D
