''It can't be done. '' Boyan Slat heard this over and over when he first proposed a way to clean up millions of tons of plastic polluting our oceans.

Slat, who grew up in the city of Delft in the Netherlands, was on a diving trip in Greece three years ago when he was deeply impressed by plastic. ''There were more plastic bags than fish, '' he says. ''That moment I realized it was a huge issue and that environmental issues are really the biggest problems my generation will face. ''

That fall, Slat, then 17, decided to study plastic pollution as part of a high school project. Soon, Slat learned that no one had yet come up with practical way to clean up this massive garbage patches. Most proposed solutions involved ''fishing'' up the plastic using ships equipped with nets—which, as Slat discovered, would likely take more than 1,000 years, cost too much, let off too much sea life along with the trash.

Slat proposed an alternative that mostly avoided these problems: a solar-powered system using a floating plastic tube which will go around the garbage and trap it is 600 meters long. Wind, waves and ocean currents will push the trash toward the tube. A ship will pick up the trash and take it back to the shore. Best of all, Slat predicted his system could clean up the North Pacific Garbage Patch within five to 10 years.

The following, Slat entered the aerospace engineering program at the Delft University of Technology and officially announced his ocean cleanup concept at TEDxDelft. But nothing much moved forward.

Slat organized a team of volunteers and employees for The Ocean Cleanup, which now numbers about 100. In answer to opposition, Slat and his team raised $100,000 from a crowd funding campaign and began testing a 40-meter collecting barrier near the Azores Islands last March.

Over the next three to four years, Slat will push toward a fully operational large-scale project by testing a series of longer and longer barriers.

【小题1】What inspired the boy to study plastic pollution?

A．One of his high school projects.

B．Others' opposition to his proposal.

C．Humans’ failure in cleaning up the ocean.

D．The shockingly heavy plastic pollution in ocean.

【小题2】What can we say about Slat's design?

A．It is powerful but only used in California and Hawaii.

B．It is huge but causes great damage to sea lives.

C．It makes full use of natural forces and is friendly to nature.

D．It was welcomed by all the public and worked very well.

【小题3】What hasn't Slat done to make his idea into reality?

A．Presenting his idea at TEDxDelft.

B．Raising funds with his team.

C．Doing test.

D．Stopping plastic from washing into the ocean.

【小题4】What does the author mainly do in this article?

A．Explain a strange idea.	B．Introduce a fascinating person.
C．Describe a social phenomenon.	D．Praise a point of view.