One of the difficulties the engineers came across was to put sand on the sea bed to create the breakwater（防浪堤）.Finding the right sand for the project was also a daunting task, as the sand from Dubai's deserts was too fine. Instead, sand from the sea was used, as it was coarser（粗糙）. Once the breakwater was built, construction of the island began.

　　The Palm Island are really impressive in terms of engineering. However, these projects are so large that they may have changed the ecology of the region. Also, an immense(极大的）amount of money and resources go into maintaining the islands, which is a major concern at the moment. Only time will tell if building the Palm Islands was actually a good decision.

24. What does Paragraph 1 mainly show us?

A. Beautiful attractions of Dubai,

　　B. The geographical features of Dubai.

C. The purposes of building the Palm Jumeirah,

　　D. The difficulty in developing the tourism industry.

25. Why were some changes made to the initial plan for the project?

A. To reduce the building cost.

　B. To get the islands completed sooner.

C. To get the building materials more easily.

　D. To make the island look more natural,

26. What does the underlined word"daunting" in Paragraph 4 mean?

A. meaningless B. difficult C. impossible D. necessary

27. According to the last paragraph, how is the construction of the Palm Islands?

A. Profitable. B. Surprising. C. Worrying. D. Unbelievable.

C

　　Does your local high school have a student newspaper? Only 1 in 8 of New York's public high schools has student newspapers - and many of those are published just a few times a year. A few more are online, which can leave out poorer schools.

Rebecca Dwarka, an 18-year-old senior who works for her student paper said,