北京冬奥会背后的功臣：人造雪

Anyone watching the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China over the last few days have seen lots and lots of snow — man-made snow. Since the area gets little natural snow, this is the first time the Winter Olympics is taking place on almost 100% artificial snow.

This year’s Winter Olympics is being held in Beijing, China, and in two areas northwest of Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. The areas get cold in the winter, but they don’t get a lot of snow. That’s because they’re not far from the Gobi Desert, and are generally very dry.

That meant some serious changes were needed to hold the Winter Olympics there. China took water from a reservoir which helps supply Beijing’s drinking water and sent it to a nearby river. To carry the water to the mountains for making snow, the country ran miles and miles of pipes. China says making the snow took about 49,000 gallons of water. Outside experts say it probably took a lot more water than that.

China hired an Italian company called TechnoAlpin to create the snow. TechnoAlpin created artificial snow at several earlier Winter Olympics. For the snow in this year’s Olympics, TechnoAlpin laid over 40 miles (64 kilometers) of pipe and brought in hundreds of snow-making machines. Even with all of those machines, making the snow for this year’s Games took seven weeks.

In recent years, it has become more and more common to use artificial snow at winter sports events. That’s true even in places that used to have a lot of snow naturally. Some artificial snow was used in the Winter Olympics in 2010 and 2014 because of warm weather. In the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, roughly 90% of the snow was man-made. As the world warms because of climate change, problems like this are expected to become far more common. Michael Mayr, who leads TechnoAlpin in Asia, says, “You could not have winter sports now without man-made snow.”

1.Why does the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics use artificial snow?

A To save energy.

B To keep athletes happy.

C To provide enough snow.

D To protect the environment.

解析：选C。C 推理判断题。根据第一段的“Since the area gets little natural snow”和第二段的“The areas get cold in the winter, but they don’t get a lot of snow.”可知，北京冬季寒冷，但降雪不多。由此可以推知用人造雪是为了给比赛项目提供足够多的雪。故选C。

2.To create the snow, China first has to _________.

A built a reservoir

B lay miles of pipes

C find the source of water

D carry the water to the mountains

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据第三段的“To carry the water to the mountains for making snow, the country ran miles and miles of pipes.”可知，为了把水运到山上造雪，中国需先铺设绵延数英里长的管道。故选B。

3.TechnoAlpin was chosen to create the snow for _________.

A the friendship between China and TechnoAlpin

B the request of the Olympic Committee

C the lack of snow making company

D TechnoAlpin’s rich experience

解析：选D。D 推理判断题。根据第四段的“TechnoAlpin created artificial snow at several earlier Winter Olympics.”可知TechnoAlpin公司在以前的几届冬奥会上制造了人造雪。由此可推知该公司在人工制雪方面有着丰富的经验。故选D。

4.What does the author mainly want to tell us in the last paragraph?

A The reasons of climate change.

B Some examples of warm weather.

C The expectations of artificial snow.

D The necessity of using artificial snow.

解析：选D。D 推理判断题。最后一段主要告诉我们，冬季体育赛事中使用人造雪越来越普遍，且由于全球变暖，现在如果没有人造雪，就不能举办冬季运动赛事，这也说明了使用人造雪的必要性之所在。故选D。