Page 4 - 高考试题分析（2024年版）英语

【试题出处】 2023年英语高考新课标I卷第24~27题
【试题】

When John Todd was a child, he loved to explore the woods around his

house, observing how nature solved problems. A dirty stream, for example,
often became clear after flowing through plants and along rocks where tiny

creatures lived. When he got older, John started to wonder if this process
could be used to clean up the messes people were making.

After studying agriculture, medicine, and fisheries in college, John went
back to observing nature and asking questions. Why can certain plants trap

harmful bacteria (细菌)? Which kinds of fish can eat cancer-causing chemi‐

cals? With the right combination of animals and plants, he figured, maybe he
could clean up waste the way nature did. He decided to build what he would

later call an eco-machine.
The task John set for himself was to remove harmful substances from

some sludge ( 污 泥). First, he constructed a series of clear fiberglass tanks
connected to each other. Then he went around to local ponds and streams and

brought back some plants and animals. He placed them in the tanks and wait‐
ed. Little by little, these different kinds of life got used to one another and

formed their own ecosystem. After a few weeks, John added the sludge.
He was amazed at the results. The plants and animals in the eco-machine

took the sludge as food and began to eat it! Within weeks, it had all been di‐
gested, and all that was left was pure water.

Over the years, John has taken on many big jobs. He developed a green‐
house-like facility that treated sewage (污水) from 1,600 homes in South Bur‐

lington. He also designed an eco-machine to clean canal water in Fuzhou, a
city in southeast China.

“Ecological design” is the name John gives to what he does. “Life on
Earth is kind of a box of spare parts for the inventor,” he says. “You put or‐

ganisms in new relationships and observe what’s happening. Then you let

- 70 -