(★ Words: about 280; Time: 3.5 minutes)

　　It had been two weeks since two dolphins in an ocean aquarium (水族馆) in northeast China swallowed some plastic from the edge of their pool.

　　They had fallen sick almost immediately and their condition was worsening by the day. Doctors attempted to surgically remove the plastic but the contraction (收缩) of the dolphins’stomachs in response to the surgical instruments rendered their task impossible.

　　2.36-meter-high Bao Xishun, a herdsman from Inner Mongolia, positively answered the pleas of aquarium staff in Fushun, Liaoning Province, who realized that the plastic could only be removed by a human hand. Bao was confirmed as the world’s tallest living human being by the Guinness Book of World Records.

　　An arm of 1.06 meters was just the ticket. A dozen men held down the dolphins and the patients’upper jaws were tied with towels so they could not bite Bao’s giant arm. Bao reached his hand into the stomach of each dolphin and pulled out the plastic pieces.

　　It is still not known how the plastic pieces, used as danger-preventing facilities around the outside of the pool, fell into water to be eaten by the dolphins.

　　"Some very small plastic pieces are still left in the dolphins’stomachs," said Zhu Xiaoling, a local doctor. "However, the dolphins will be able to digest them and are expected to recover soon."

　　Having been living in an area of pasture near Chifeng City since his childhood, Bao, the 54-year-old, has grown to his remarkable height naturally, not as a result of a medical condition. His growth was relatively normal until the age of 16, when an inexplicable growth spurt (突增) saw him reach his record height in just seven years.

　　Help:

　　render v. to cause someone or something to be in a particular condition 致使

　　inexplicable adj. unable to be explained or understood无法解释的

　　True (T) or False (F):

　　1. Doctors didn’t know what’s wrong with these two dolphins.

　　2. Bao Xishun is the tallest man in the world at present.

　　3. Bao Xishun’s arm is as long as the dolphin’s body.

　　4. In his early childhood, Bao Xishun developed as normally as others.

　　Key: 1-4 FTFT