Question

One of the world's richest men has taken a close interest in one of man’s most basic functions: visiting the toilet．Bill Gates’s charitable organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is looking for inventors to design the loo of the future, which, they hope, would improve sanitation for millions of people around the world．

So, what's wrong with the traditional flush toilet? Firstly, it wastes a huge amount of potential drinking water．Secondly, they are more likely to cause pollution．This is a real problem in many areas of the developing world, where, according to United Nations estimates, unsafe sanitation causes half of all hospitalizations．Younger people are particularly at risk．Illnesses which cause diarrhea are responsible for the deaths of about 1.5 million children a year．Finally, standard lavatories simply aren’t practical in remote areas．

The challenge set by Bill Gates was to come up with a latrine which works without running water, electricity or aseptic tank(化糞池)．It also needed to operate for less than 5 cents．28 designs were displayed at the recent Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Seattle, USA．Among them was one which turned human waste into electricity using microwaves, another which converted human waste into charcoal, and yet another which used urine for flushing．

But the winner was a solar-powered design which generated hydrogen gas and electricity.The team from the California Institute of Technology（CIT）picked up a prize of $ 100,000.

But clearly Bill Gates doesn’t feel he’s flushing money down the toilet．After the Seattle event he said, “We, couldn’t be happier with the response we’ve gotten,” Gates has even pledged $370m more to the future toilet project．They hope to field test more prototypes over the next three years．

1.Why is Bill Gates paying people to invent new toilets?

A．Because he wants to test people’s sense of creativity．

B．Because he wants to improve sanitation for many people．

C．Because he thinks the traditional ones are out of fashion．

D．Because he can’t design this kind of things himself．

2.Which of the following is NOT a problem with the traditional flush toilet?

A．They waste too much water．

B．They might cause diseases．

C．They are not always practical．

D．They are too complicated to use.

3.The underlined word “latrine” in the third paragraph might have similar meanings to the word “__ ”n the text．

A．Loo              B．sanitation          C．diarrhea          D．prototype

4.The team from CIT won the prize because their design        .

A．can change human waste into electricity

B．can turn human waste into charcoal

C．can produce power with solar energy

D．can use urine for flushing

5.If someone “flush money down the toilet”, they are       .

A．showing off their wealth

B．being angry with their work onditions

C．wasting money for nothing

D．expressing their great determination

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.B

2.D

3.A

4.C

5.C

【解析】

試題分析：這篇文章講了世界首富比爾蓋茨對廁所的功能很感興趣，由于現在的抽水馬桶存在很多弊端，所以他們正在研發未來的廁所。

1.根據Bill Gates’s charitable organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is looking for inventors to design the loo of the future, which, they hope, would improve sanitation for millions of people around the world．故選B。

2.根據Firstly, it wastes a huge amount of potential drinking water．Secondly, they are more likely to cause pollution．This is a real problem in many areas of the developing world, where, according to United Nations estimates, unsafe sanitation causes half of all hospitalizations．Younger people are particularly at risk．Illnesses which cause diarrhea are responsible for the deaths of about 1.5 million children a year．Finally, standard lavatories simply aren’t practical in remote areas．故選D。

3.latrine是廁所的意思，而Loo 也是廁所的意思，所以答案為A。

4.根據But the winner was a solar-powered design which generated hydrogen gas and electricity. The team from the California Institute of Technology（CIT）picked up a prize of $ 100,000，因此選C。

5.根據But clearly Bill Gates doesn’t feel he’s flushing money down the toilet．與選項C相符，為正確答案。

考點：說明文閱讀理解。

點評：要想答好題目，重在理解全文意思。這篇文章比較難，先看問題，再帶著問題讀短文，找出各段落的主旨句，理解全文內容，總結全文中心，然后再回到問題上來，很容易選出正確答案。