Question

We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away polluting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.

The 16-year-old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, has discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair, a ＄10,000 prize, a ＄20,000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.

Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms(微生物)．If those microorganisms could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.

With this goal in mind, he grounded plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth．Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months．Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control．Sure enough, the plastic exposed(暴露) to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.

The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.

“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me．One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags．The answer: not much．So I decided to do something myself.” Said Daniel Burd.

1.Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair because ________.

A. he found a way to degrade plastics in shorter time

B. he contributed much to environmental protection

C. he found a new kind of microorganism

D. he could encourage microbe growth in an easier way

2.Daniel Burd exposed one plastic sample to dead bacteria to ________.

A. make the live bacteria work better

B. know which bacteria worked faster

C. test how effective his method was

D. control the temperature in the process

3.Maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because ________.

A. plastics can get hot easily

B. microbes can produce heat themselves

C. much carbon dioxide is produced

D. the temperature can be controlled

4.Daniel Burd got his idea from ________.

A. his school textbook

B. the failure of researchers

C. his everyday work

D. the practice of other people

Answer

1.A

2.C

3.B

4.C

【解析】

试题分析：本文是关于环保的一篇文章。主要讲述了一个加拿大的高中生，发现了一种能够快速降解塑料的方法，并因此获奖的故事。

1.细节理解题。从文章第二段“...has discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada－Wide Science Fair...”可知，Daniel Burd因发现短时间降解塑料袋的方法而获奖。故选A。

2.推理判断题。从文章第四段中的“...exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control”可知，他这样做的目的在于测试他的方法是否有效。故选C。

3. 细节理解题。根据倒数第二段maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work可知，细菌在工作的时候会产生热量。故选B。

4.推理判断题。从文章最后一段丹尼尔·伯德说的话“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, ...So I decided to do something myself.” 可知，他是从每天的工作中得到启发的。故选C。

考点：考查科学发明类短文阅读。

【名师点睛】

做好细节理解题的几点建议：

细节理解题属直接解答性问题，是阅读理解题中最简单的一种，多数属中低难度的题。但高考所占的比例大，应特别引起注意。事实和细节题的命题特点是：对文章或某一段落中的一些特定细节或文章重要事实的理解，一般包括直接理解题和语义转化题。直接理解题能在原文直接找到答案，而语义转化题则需要将题目信息与原文信息加工或整理后才能得出结论。

做细节理解题具体方法与步骤如下：

①略读材料，大概了解原文，掌握中心或主旨；

②按文章的体裁，作者写作的组织模式及有关的信息词。如for example, first, second…等预测应该到何处寻找自己所需要的事实；

③将自己精力放在寻找你所需要的细节上。快速通篇跳读，全文扫视，找到细节出处，待找到含细节句子时，放慢速度，仔细核对比较内容，直至找到答案。如第7小题从文章第二段“...has discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada－Wide Science Fair...”可知，Daniel Burd 因发现短时间降解塑料袋的方法而获奖。故选A. 第9小题根据倒数第二段 maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work可知细菌在工作的时候会产生热量。故选B.