18．
Some young engineers from the United States have brought the Internet to several areas of rural Kenya．
Their idea was to connect the communities to the Web by satellite．But there was a problem．The areas were not even connected to Kenya's electric power supply．The answer：solar panels．Energy from the sun powers the satellite dishes and computers that link the areas with the world outside．
Kelly Moran，Joan Ervin and Tricia Donajkowski spent 10days in Kenya in November．The women recently earned master's degrees in space systems engineering from the University of Michigan．
Another engineer，Drew Heckathorn，did not go to Africa but worked on parts of the project．
Kelly Moran says there was excitement when the team would arrive to connect communities to the Internet．People would sometimes run alongside the car carrying the engineers to welcome them．And local residents would offer to help the team build the Internet stations．
People now have access to educational，medical and all kinds of other information．Farmers，for example，can easily find weather，crop and price information online．
The project began back at the college of engineering in Ann Arbor，Michigan，in 2007．That was when 25students in a class taught by Thomas Zurbuchen first talked about the idea．
The goal was to test whether Internet stations could be set up，how much they would cost，and how long they could operate．But the engineers also had to consider other things--like social needs．Students from the public health and business schools offered advice．
The young engineers also had to design the equipment to survive the heat in Africa．Professor Zurbuchen praises his former students for "making something work in a different climate far away from home．"
Google paid for the final design of the equipment．The company is also supporting the costs of the satellite bandwidth needed for the connections．Google has invested in a new company that wants to put up a system of satellites over Africa．The availability of more satellites would reduce the costs．
Just 5percent of Africans have Internet connections．The International Telecommunication Union says 1/3of Kenyans have mobile phones．But mobile phones may or may not work well with the Internet．
24．What is the main idea of the whole passage？A
A．The Internet stations to be set up in some areas of rural Kenya．
B．Engineers from America to help the communities in Kenya．
C．Solar energy has been used to operate the Internet．
D．The Internet to play an important part in people's life in Kenya．
25．Why did Google give the project financial support？B
A．It intends to help to rid Kenya's residents of poverty．
B．The project is one of its investments in Africa．
C．The use of satellites would benefit a lot its business in Kenya．
D．It wants to test whether its equipment is the best in the world．
26．The underlined part in the ninth paragraph suggests thatC．
A．it is difficult for Kelly and her partners to build the Internet stations in Kenya
B．the climate in Kenya is so bad that Kelly and her partners will have difficulty in building the Internet stations
C．what Kelly and her partners will do will make a difference to the residents in Kenya
D．to help Kenya build the Internet stations，Kelly and her partners have to leave their homes
27．From the passage we can learn thatC．
A．the idea of building the Internet stations in Kenya was put forward by Professor Zurbuchen
B．the project hasn't got any support from Kenya's government
C．the Internet stations are powered by solar energy
D．Professor Zurbuchen is giving the project the technical direction．
