Anyone watching the 2022 Winter Olympics, from February 4 to 20, has seen lots and lots of snow — man-made snow. Since the area gets little natural snow, this is the first time the Winter Olympics has taken place on almost 100% artificial snow. 

This year’s Winter Olympics was held in Beijing 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 usually very dry.

So something necessary was done to ensure that all sports events would be carried out well. Water from a reservoir(水库) was taken to a nearby river. Then people ran miles and miles of pipes(管道) which sent water to the mountains for making snow. An Italian company called TechnoAlpin created the snow with hundreds of snow-making machines. It took seven weeks.

The artificial snow is of different kinds, depending on what’s needed for each sport. For example, the snow for downhill skiing is different from the snow made for cross-country skiing. However, it isn’t the same as natural snow, which has more air and less water.

In recent years, it has become more and more common to use artificial snow at winter sports events, even in some 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, around 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.”

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1.How long did the Beijing Winter Olympics last?

A For 4 days.

B For 17 days.

C For 20 days.

D For 22 days.

解析：选B。B 数字计算题。根据第一段第一句的“Anyone watching the 2022 Winter Olympics, from February 4 to 20”可知，2022北京冬奥会是在2月4日至20日举行，为期17天。故选B。

2.What caused the lack of natural snow for the 2022 Winter Games?

A The dry weather.

B The cold winter.

C The wet condition.

D The faraway desert.

解析：选A。A 推理判断题。根据第二段的最后一句“That’s because they’re not far from the Gobi Desert, and are usually very dry.”可知，因为北京冬奥会比赛场地离戈壁滩不远，天气干燥，所以自然降雪少。故选A。

3.Which of the following is necessary for making the snow?

A Building a reservoir.

B Carrying out events.

C Laying lots of pipes.

D Making new machines.

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。根据第三段的“Then people ran miles and miles of pipes”可知，为了制造人工雪，大量铺设了管道。故选C。

4.What does the underlined word “it” refer to in Paragraph Four?

A The Olympic sport.

B The man-made snow.

C The downhill skiing.

D The cross-country skiing.

解析：选B。B 词义指代题。根据后面的“natural snow”自然雪可知，本句把人造雪与自然雪进行对比，由此可知it指代人造雪。故选B。

5.What does the last paragraph want to tell us?

A The reasons for climate change.

B Some examples of warm weather.

C The bright future of artificial snow.

D The necessity of using artificial snow.

解析：选D。D 主旨大意题。最后一段主要介绍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，这也直接表明了使用人造雪的必要性。故选D。