两家公司在捕获二氧化碳方面取得进展

As the world struggles to deal with the climate crisis， some companies are working to remove polluting carbon dioxide from the air. That’s a bulky and challenging goal， but two US companies have recently made important progress.

Scientists say there’s so much CO2 in the atmosphere. That means humans need to come up with ways of removing carbon from the air and storing it. This is called Direct Air Capture （DAC）.

A company called Heirloom has just opened the first DAC plant in the United States. Heirloom’s process uses limestone， a common rock， to capture CO2. The company heats up limestone to separate out the CO2， which is then locked away in concrete. Heirloom uses renewable electricity to produce the heat， so the process doesn’t produce more CO2.

The process is extremely expensive， but many large， polluting companies are paying Heirloom to share the credit for removing the CO2. The new plant can remove 1，000 tons of CO2 a year. That’s a tiny amount compared to how much carbon needs to be removed from the atmosphere. But the company says it hopes to remove a billion tons per year by 2035.

Graphyte is another US company working on DAC. The company claims its carbon capture method is very cheap， mainly because Graphyte lets plants do the work of capturing the CO2. The company collects unwanted plants and wood products from farmers and lumber companies. It dries this “biomass” completely so that it can’t break down. Graphyte then smashes the dried plants into small bricks which it seals in a special wrapper and buries deep underground.

Graphyte says its process doesn’t use much energy and can work anywhere. The plant and tree material the process uses would release carbon if it wasn’t treated. And the cost is less than $100 to capture a ton of CO2. That’s far cheaper than most other DAC processes. The company is building a factory， but it’s not running yet.

（材料出自News For Kids网站，有删改）

1. What does the underlined word “bulky” mean in Paragraph 1？

A. Dear.   B. Huge.

C. Funny. D. Interesting.

2. What does Heirloom use to capture CO2？

A. Heat. B. Lock.

C. Concrete.   D. Limestone.

3. What can be inferred from Paragraph 4？

A. Heirloom’s way are shared free.

B. Heirloom’s process is too expensive.

C. Heirloom can remove great carbon in a year.

D. Heirloom is popular among large， polluting company.

4. Why is Graphyte’s process cheap？

A. Graphyte uses unwanted plants and wood products.

B. Graphyte asks their workers to dry plants into small bricks.

C. Graphyte asks farmers and lumber companies to help them.

D. Graphyte uses cheap wrappers and buries them underground.

1. B。解析：词义猜测题。根据材料第一段第一句中的“the climate crisis”和第二句中的“challenging goal”，我们可知气候问题是个富有挑战性的问题，同时也是“庞大的（bulky）”。故选B。

2. D。解析：细节理解题。根据材料第三段第二句“Heirloom’s process uses limestone， a common rock， to capture CO2”，我们可知Heirloom用石灰石来捕获二氧化碳。故选D。

3. D。解析：推理判断题。根据材料第四段第一句“The process is extremely expensive， but many large， polluting companies are paying Heirloom to share the credit for removing the CO2”，我们可知虽然Heirloom的处理方式非常耗钱，但是许多污染严重的大公司都在向Heirloom支付费用，以分享去除二氧化碳的功劳，这说明Heirloom是受欢迎的。故选D。

4. A。解析：细节理解题。根据材料第五段第二句“The company claims its carbon capture method is very cheap， mainly because Graphyte lets plants do the work of capturing the CO2”，我们可知Graphyte使用植物来捕获二氧化碳，所以它的处理方式花费较少。故选A。