《2026年薪火金卷高考仿真模拟卷英语》

C
In between the speedboats and wooden fishing boats in a Hong Kong harbor, a different
kind of boat sails. It looks ordinary, but as the three-meter-long new unmanned boat moves
skillfully through the water, it consumes waste floating on the surface. Wasted plastic water
bottles and juice boxes travel through a gap in the front of the boat and move up a belt.
Around 33 billion pounds of plastic trash enter the oceans every year, according to Oceana,
an ocean conservation group. The sight of this ever-growing marine litter is truly concerning.
“We have garbage trucks for the land. Why don’t we have something to clean the water?” said
Sidhant Gupta, the co-founder of the marine-tech startup Clearbot, which developed the boat.
Clearbot is trying to change that with its autonomous boats. The boats can provide data by
algorithms and analyze what items are being collected so that they can help people stop the flow
of waste into waterways. And the boats don’t stop at collecting waste. There are many other
“dull, dirty or dangerous” jobs that Clearbot’s boats are capable of. Equipped with sensors and
tools, they can map the bottom of waterways, test water quality and collect samples.
Due to the massive need for marine clean-up, Clearbot is now focused on scaling up. Gupta
hopes to have 20 boats put into use by next year, and 50 in operation within two years. “You
should be able to see these in the harbors and think it’s so normal,” said Gupta. “We want it to
be used widely.”
Some worry that too many boats will also cause pollution. But Gupta doesn’t think so. This
boat has an impressive energy system. It has solar panels on top and an 8-hour battery, which
can store the energy and enable it to operate without relying on traditional energy sources. “The
fleet has the potential to protect the marine ecology and turn to pollution-free marine operations
across a range of uses by replacing fossil fuel-powered boats,” said Gupta.
28. What drives Sidhant Gupta to develop this new boat?
A. Lack of transport boats.
B. Needs of local fishermen.
C. Increase in marine litter.
D. Waste of water resources.
29. What can we know about the performance of the boat?
A. It is multi-functional.
B. It works better underwater.
C. It requires manual operation.
D. It can avoid risky situations.
30. What does the underlined phrase “scaling up” in Paragraph 4 mean?
A. Selling abroad.
B. Functioning well.
C. Building harbors.
D. Adding production.
31. What is the boat expected to do in marine operations?
A. To achieve zero carbon emissions.
B. To help conduct research on marine ecology.
C. To develop deep-sea fossil fuels.
D. To improve efficiency of marine operations.

答案： 28.C 29.A 30.D 31.A