进阶练17 阅读回答问题（热点话题，新题速递20篇）-备战2024年中考英语一轮复习考点帮（上海专用）

进阶练17 阅读回答问题（热点话题，新题速递20篇）（原卷版） 学校:___________姓名：___________班级：___________考号：___________ 一、任务型阅读 （23-24九年级上·上海奉贤·期中）When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near a copper smelter（炼铜厂）. It made chemicals come out and made a beautiful forest become a wasteland. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down angrily. From then on, something happened inside him. Years later Paul was back in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back. The answer from that big industry was “No”. Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately, his teachers said since there weren’t any birds or squirrels（松鼠） to spread the seeds, it would be a waste of his life to try to do it. He was told everyone knew that even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected, he wouldn't get his idea accepted. Paul later got married and had some kids. But his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. To bring trees back to the wasteland, he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting under the cover of darkness. And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. Slowly rabbits appeared. Later, as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing. Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white to plant trees and grass, but he managed to keep that impossible vow（誓言）he made to himself as a child. 1．What did the copper smelter do to a beautiful forest near Paul’s hometown? 2．The copper smelter officer agreed to let Paul bring trees back at first, didn't he?