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.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 $370 million 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 “________” in 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

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.B

2.D

3.A

4.C

【解析】

1.

解析　根據第一段最后一句“...which，they hope，would improve sanitation for millions of people around the world.”可知他希望這會改善全世界數以百萬人的衛生環境。

2.2】　D

解析　第二段講的是傳統抽水馬桶的問題。第二段第二句“Firstly，it wastes a huge amount of potential drinking water.”可對應答案A項；第三句“Secondly，they are more likely to cause pollution.”可對應答案B項；最后一句“Finally，standard lavatories simply aren’t practical in remote areas.”可對應答案C項。文中沒有提到D項。

3.3】　A

解析　根據第一段前兩句可知toilet和loo是同義詞，也就是說loo是“廁所”的意思。根據第三段劃線詞所在的句子的意思可知，比爾·蓋茨提出的這個問題的挑戰性在于，人們要設計出一個不用流水，不用電和無菌桶的latrine。因此，latrine的意思應該是“廁所”。

4.4】　C

解析　根據倒數第二段第一句“But the winner was a solar?powered design which generated hydrogen gas and electricity.”可知獲勝者設計了太陽能裝置，能產生氫氣和電。