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Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the megahit Nickelodeon cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants, died on November 26, 2018, on Monday. He was 57. The cause of death was ALS, which he had been diagnosed with in March last year.

Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in 1984. He then became a marine biology teacher in California. His interest, combined with his artistic talent and love of the sea and its creatures, led him to write stories as teaching tools with characters that would later become SpongeBob’s home, Bikini Bottom.

He began his animation career in 1987 and earned his Master of Fine Arts in 1992. Then he began to work full-time on writing, producing and directing on the animated series that would become SpongeBob SquarePants. The first episode aired on Nickelodeon on May 1, 1999 and the series started its full run on July 17 of that year. The series has aired nearly 250 episodes to date. It appealed not only to children but older viewers as well, with college students even organizing viewing parties for the show.

The series has won both U.S. and British Emmy Awards, Annie Awards, and ASACP Awards and has been dubbed in more than 60 languages, including Urdu, Azerbaijani and Maori.

Hillenburg also wrote, produced and directed The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which was released in 2004 and went on to gross over $140 million worldwide. Hillenburg then wrote the sequel The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in 2015.

1.When was Stephen Hillenburg born?

A In 1961.

B In 1984.

C In 1987.

D In 1992.

解析：选A。细节理解题。根据第一段Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the megahit Nickelodeon cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants, died on November 26, 2018, Monday. He was 57. 可知Stephen Hillenburg于2018年11月去世，逝世时57岁，因此他是在2018-57=1961年出生的，故选A。

2.Why did Stephen start the stories of Bikini Bottom?

A To use them as teaching tools.

B To show his artistic talent.

C To start his animation career.

D To earn animation awards.

解析：选A。细节理解题。根据第二段第二句His interest, combined with his artistic talent and love of the sea and its creatures, led him to write stories as teaching tools with characters that would later become SpongeBob’s home, Bikini Bottom.可知他写有关比基尼海底的故事是作为教具，故选A。

3.What can we learn from this passage?

A SpongeBob SquarePants is popular among children only.

B Stephen first worked as cartoon film director and producer.

C Stephen began his animation career in 1992.

D It took 11 years for the second SpongeBob movie to come out after the first one.

解析：选D。细节理解题。根据最后一段可知第一部海绵宝宝电影是2004年上映的，第二部是2015年上映的，即两部海绵宝宝电影上映时间相差了11年，故选D。

4.What does the underlined word “gross” mean?

A Spend.

B Pay.

C Earn.

D Cost.

解析：选C。词义猜测题。根据常理可知电影上映应该是要售票获得票房，因此是赚得1.4亿美元，故选C。

5.Where can you see this passage?

A In a film poster.

B In a textbook.

C In a newspaper.

D In an education magazine.

解析：选C。推理判断题。本文主要讲述了海绵宝宝的创作人Stephen Hillenburg逝世的事情，并介绍了Stephen Hillenburg的生平，这应该是一则新闻，应该在报纸上看到，故选C。