Outside an art museum in Topeka, Kansas, some kids are playing happily in what looks like a large Hobbit House while others are walking through the house's woven (编织) archway into a twisted twig (嫩枝) tower. The tower, made entirely of sticks, is a sculpture built by Dougherty.

Dougherty has created more than 200 stick sculptures all over the world. “I design my sculptures to look like they've always been there,” he says. And he likes people to get involved in his work. If they arrive during the three weeks he takes to build a sculpture, he lets them build, too. “ I want my work to help people enjoy nature.”

As a child, Dougherty learned to love nature while traveling through the woods. He would spend hours bending sticks into shelters for his brothers and sisters. When he grew up, he majored in art and learnt to make sculptures with clay. But it was too heavy to make the lines and shapes he imagined.

One day, he watched thin, young trees waving in the wind. They reminded him of the sticks he built shelters with as a boy. Soon after, he began his first creation made out of sticks.

To begin a sculpture, Dougherty digs holes and buries tall young trees in the ground for support. Then he weaves (编织) smaller sticks around them. He uses strings to hold and bend the twigs while he's weaving. When he removes the string, the sticks stay in place. It usually takes four tons of sticks to build a sculpture, and Dougherty chooses materials that would otherwise be wasted.

Dougherty's sculptures last two to four years. But even after that, they serve a purpose. The wood is cut up into tiny pieces called mulch (覆盖料), which makes soil rich and helps new plants grow after it breaks down.

【小题1】The description of kids playing in Paragraph 1 functions as ________

A．a brief introduction to the museum.

B．a vivid lead into the sculptor.

C．a lively advertisement of artistic work.

D．a clear display of the architecture.

【小题2】What can we infer about Dougherty from the passage?

A．He would like to invite visitors to build sculptures with him.

B．He likes using twigs to change the sticks before weaving them.

C．He is likely to waste tons of sticks and other materials.

D．He is devoted to the construction of all kinds of sculptures.

【小题3】What does the underlined pronoun “it” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．Sculpture.

B．Wood.

C．Soil.

D．Mulch.

【小题4】What can be the suitable title for the passage?

A．Bending sticks into sculptures.

B．A friendly companion.

C．Protecting the environment.

D．A natural art museum.