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When Chad Pregracke was a teenager in East Moline, Illinois, he and his father lived and worked on the Mississippi River — or rather, in it. Every day they dove into the river to (1) freshwater mussels (贻贝), which they sold to Japanese customers. The river was their (2) , but Chad came to realize that it was also dirty. While
searching for mussels on the river bottom, Chad could not (3) much because the water was too muddy. When Chad Pregracke was in college, he decided that he had to (4) the river. And thatˈs what he has done.
In the summer of 1997, Chad (5) the Mississippi River Beautification & Restoration Project. Using a 20-foot motorboat and working (6) by himself, Chad cleaned up 100 miles of shoreline in Illinois and Iowa. By summerˈs end, he had (7) and recycled 45,000 pounds of trash! As people learned about Chadˈs (8) , they began to offer help. Towns and companies along the river (9) equipment, and communities (社区) (10) cleanup days.
In 1998, the project (11) . Chad fixed up two boats, and he (12) a crew. During the summer months, Chad and his crew cleaned up 900 miles of Mississippi (13) from St. Louis, Missouri, to Guttenberg, Iowa. They collected 400,000 pounds of trash — (14) from old refrigerators to plastic legs!
In the next year, Chadˈs group (15) the cleanup of more than 1,000 miles of the Mississippi River. They also (16) an“Adopt a Mississippi River Mile”program. In this program, companies and groups took (17) for keeping parts of the river clean. After that, Chad (18) the Illinois River.
Today, Chad Pregrackeˈs project has many sponsors and an annual budget of $200,000. Chad also has (19) plans. He will move eastward (20) he has done what he can for the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. He wants to clean up the Ohio River next, and then perhaps the Hudson.