Sea lions and seals may swim in cold ocean water, but even they get chilly sometimes. Seeing an injured seal wrapped in a blanket at a marine(海的) mammal center gave Haley Humes and Hayley Jeffries an idea for a special Girl Scout project. They decided to make blankets to keep injured animals warm. They would give these blankets to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California.
“We knew we wanted to help animals,” Haley said. “We went to the center to ask questions about what they needed. They don’t have a heated floor, and all the babies crowded together to stay warm.”
Friends since kindergarten, Haley and Hayley made 12 blankets to keep the Marine Mammal Center’s seals and sea lions warm. Using fun images like Winnie-the-Pooh, the girls took two hours to make each blanket. The first sea lion to test out a blanket looked pretty in pink.
“It was a sick baby and really liked it,” Haley said. “It curled up in it right away.”
“The blankets are beautiful and the animals love them!” said the Mammal Center’s Michele Hunter. “It’s nice to see children taking pride in their work and doing something to help animals.”
During the project, the girls took dozens of pictures for the PowerPoint presentations they gave to Girl Scout leaders. Those presentations helped Haley and Hayley raise $250 to buy additional supplies the center needed.
This was the first project the girls ever worked on and took months to plan and carry out.
“I learned that in order to make something happen, you have to take it slowly and step by step,” Hayley said. Just as important, the girls discovered that two people really can make a difference. “Knowing you’re making a difference……with these animals is amazing,” Haley said. “It was like the animals became my new friends.”
The Pacific Marine Mammal Center cares for sea lions and seals, as well as for other marine mammals. Since opening in 1971,the center has saved more than 5,000 injured marine mammals.
【小题1】          What does the underlined word“ chilly” in Paragraph 1 mean?

Sea lions and seals may swim in cold ocean water, but even they get chilly sometimes. Seeing an injured seal wrapped in a blanket at a marine(海的) mammal center gave Haley Humes and Hayley Jeffries an idea for a special Girl Scout project. They decided to make blankets to keep injured animals warm. They would give these blankets to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California.

“We knew we wanted to help animals,” Haley said. “We went to the center to ask questions about what they needed. They don’t have a heated floor, and all the babies crowded together to stay warm.”

Friends since kindergarten, Haley and Hayley made 12 blankets to keep the Marine Mammal Center’s seals and sea lions warm. Using fun images like Winnie-the-Pooh, the girls took two hours to make each blanket. The first sea lion to test out a blanket looked pretty in pink.

“It was a sick baby and really liked it,” Haley said. “It curled up in it right away.”

“The blankets are beautiful and the animals love them!” said the Mammal Center’s Michele Hunter. “It’s nice to see children taking pride in their work and doing something to help animals.”

During the project, the girls took dozens of pictures for the PowerPoint presentations they gave to Girl Scout leaders. Those presentations helped Haley and Hayley raise $250 to buy additional supplies the center needed.

This was the first project the girls ever worked on and took months to plan and carry out.

“I learned that in order to make something happen, you have to take it slowly and step by step,” Hayley said. Just as important, the girls discovered that two people really can make a difference. “Knowing you’re making a difference……with these animals is amazing,” Haley said. “It was like the animals became my new friends.”

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center cares for sea lions and seals, as well as for other marine mammals. Since opening in 1971,the center has saved more than 5,000 injured marine mammals.

1.          What does the underlined word“ chilly” in Paragraph 1 mean?

2.          When Haley and Hayley saw an injured seal wrapped in a blanket, they_____.

3.          What can we learn about Haley and Hayley from the text?

4.          Which of the following words can best describe the work of Haley and Hayley?

5.          According to the text, the Mammal Center_____.

President Bush may talk about a plan to Mars, but Bruce Jones thinks there is still a healthy thirst for exploration into underwater worlds on our own planet. After growing up with a grandfather in the marine construction① business, Jones quickly got a feel for the water. He started diving at age 9 and, by the 1980s, began offering advice for those interested in the submarine② business. By 1993, he was running his own company, U.S. Submarines, which designs and builds submarines for others.

Jones has $40 million spent in building a hotel where the most expensive rooms will be 50 feet under the sea off Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Unlike the Jules Undersea Lodge — the only undersea hotel now, just off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. — guests at the Poseidon won’t need to put on a wet suit to their rooms. They also won’t need to worry about changing pressure levels since the rooms will be kept at above-surface pressure. Instead, they can move easily to their $1,500-a-night underwater rooms by escalator③.

“I think there are a large number of people who would be interested,” said Jones, “including anyone who is looking for a different experience.”

Each room will feature strong walls that look out onto coral④ gardens. There will be controls in each room that guests can use to change the lighting of the underwater worlds outside their windows and to provide food to fish swimming just outside. It sounds exciting— but will it happen? It’s hard to say.

“By now I envisioned⑤ we’d have whole underwater cities,” Cooper said. “It’s about time some of these visions became reality.”

Notes:

① marine construction  海洋建筑

② submarine  adj. 海下的

③ escalator  n.  自动梯

④ coral  n.  珊瑚

⑤ envision  v.  展望

1. The first paragraph takes President Bush for example in order to ______.

  A. praise President Bush’s plan to Mars

B. humorously introduce the main subject to readers

  C. support President Bush’s plan to Mars

D. show Bruce Jones is against President Bush’s plan

2. According to the text, who had a great effect on Bruce Jones?

  A. His father.     B. His friends.       C. His grandfather      D. His grandmother

3. According to Bruce Jones’s undersea hotel, we know that ______.

  A. fish outside can be seen through the hotel’s walls

  B. the hotel has been built and came into use

  C. it will be easy to swim into the underwater rooms

  D. visitors will have to wear wet suits against water

4. According to Cooper’s words, his attitudes towards the underwater hotels are ______.

  A. disappointed       B. critical       C. objective      D. hopeful

Did you know that vegetables can grow in the climates they are not used to? Cool climate vegetables like asparagus (芦笋) are now able to be grown in places as hot as Hawaii. In Hawaii, marine (海的)engineers have been able to actually let you believe such vegetables that they are living in cooler climates. In that way they grow faster and taste better. What these engineers have been using is very simply cold sea water. How did they use it? They place pipes in the soil and cold water flowing through them cools the earth. This causes plant growth and enables gardeners in tropical climates (热带气候) to grow crops from cooler climates. Also some of these pipes are exposed to the air and they make the air “wet” and thus water the gardens. What especially makes people happy about this process (过程) is that nothing to the natural conditions is being used. Another new use for cold ocean water is to cool buildings. Engineers believe that for example the entire west coast of the United States could be air-conditioned using seawater.

72. What does the new system enable the gardeners to do?

   A. Water the field with seawater.                          B. Grow asparagus in hot places.

   C. Grow cool climate vegetables in hot areas.        D. Cool the soil.

73. Sea water mentioned in the passage is mainly used to________.

     A. water the farms                                               B. water the gardens     

     C. cool the air                                                      D. make the earth cool

74. What is the report mainly about?

   A. How to grow vegetables in hot areas.              B. How to grow crops in tropical climates.

   C. How to cool the soil.                                     D. How to use sea water.

75. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

   A. sea water can act as an air-conditioner

   B. asparagus are only grown in hot places

   C. the writer wants to tell us something about scientific advance

   D. sea water has many advantages