The “Three Rs” of Environmental Protection
Last time you drank a soda in an aluminum can or water in a plastic bottle, what did you do with thecan or bottle when you were finished? Did you know both could be recycled? To recycle something is to make it into something else. Pollution is the introduction of harmful chemicals into the environment that can hurt people and the earth. Pollutants can come from garbage that isn’t recycled.
Is there something you can do about it? There sure is.
First, reduce. Something simple like turning off the lights when you leave a room or turning off the water faucet while you brush your teeth can make a big difference.
When you don’t want a toy you have anymore, don’t just throw it away. Find a friend who might want it. That is reusing. Clothes you have grown out of can be donated for others to wear. A plastic cup you drank out of can be cleaned and used to store small toys in your room.
We only have one planet to live on. Be someone who makes an effort to take care of it.
| A．Garbage can be recycled and made into something new |
| B．Many of the items that are thrown away could be reused |
| C．Countless things can be recycled |
| D．Pollution affects living things other than animals |
| E．You can help by “reducing”, “reusing” and “recycling” |
| F．Pollution can also be caused by smoke and exhaust (废气)in the air and chemicals we put in the water |
| G．Walking or riding a bike rather than driving a car |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】On November 7, Lewis Pugh completed a one-kilometer swim in the freezing waters of King Edward Cove, off South Georgia in Antarctica. He was wearing only his swimming glasses, cap and Speedo !
Pugh is an advocate for our oceans and seas, working to protect these ecosystems with their large diversity of marine life. When asked why he doesn't wear a wetsuit(防寒泳衣), Pugh says, "I ask world leaders to do everything they can to protect our oceans. Sometimes the steps they need to take are difficult and unpopular. If I'm asking them to be courageous, I must also be. Swimming in a wetsuit would not send the right message."
It took Pugh about 19 minutes to complete the one-kilometer swim in Antarctica where the water averaged about 1.6 degrees Celsius. He says that his body can only tolerate about 20 minutes in the freezing waters before it starts shutting down. As he swims, his body temperature steadily drops, which in turn causes his muscle control to drop, slowing him down. When he is done with his swim, his support team rushes him to a hot shower and it takes almost an hour for his body temperature to return to normal.
Doctors and Pugh caution that one must receive months of training to swim in such cold waters. Even expert swimmers who are unused to freezing water can drown within minutes because of the physical shock experienced by the body. Pugh says he trained for six months before this swim.
This is not the first time that Pugh has swum in dangerous conditions. In 2007, he swam one kilometer in the North Pole to draw attention to the melting Arctic ice due to climate change. In 2015, he swam in the Bay of Whales in Antarctica's Ross Sea as part of his successful campaign to help set up a marine reserve there.
1. Why did Lewis Pugh swim without a wetsuits ?| A．To show his bravery. |
| B．To swim faster. |
| C．To build up his body. |
| D．To have overnight fame. |
| A．His body temperature. |
| B．His body |
| C．The water. |
| D．The water temperature. |
| A．One should be expert at swimming. |
| B．One must be used to long-distance swimming. |
| C．One should be ready to take on challenges. |
| D．One must be adequately prepared for it. |
| A．Lewis Pugh: achieving the impossible |
| B．How to survive a swim in cold waters |
| C．Lewis Pugh: swimming for a cause |
| D．How to prepare for extreme swimming |
【推荐2】Textile(纺织品)waste is a growing problem for our environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported the US throws away more than 11 million tons of clothing every year. That is why some small businesses spotting the problem are beginning to recycle in ways they haven’t before.
Create Good Company is a clothing company that tries to produce sustainable clothing and repurpose older clothing into updated fashionable items. Maggie Hendricks, the owner of Create Good Company, said, “If you can improve what you find, why wouldn’t you do that instead of buying new things? It’s a big issue not to create new waste. I would say we are 90% recycled materials.”
According to the EPA, the average consumer(消费者)throws away 81.5 pounds of clothes every year. “Anywhere between 10%-17% of the waste that’s going into landfills(废弃物填埋场)is made up of things like textiles and clothing,” said Danny Katz with the CoPIRG Foundation. “A lot of the clothing that we’re producing doesn’t even get worn, so it’s going right to the landfill or even being burned and contributing to pollution that way. It’s really worrying.”
This is why businesses like Create Good Company exist — to use outdated clothing and turn it into dresses or jackets. “There’s just so much waste and so many big companies that might not think about it,” Hendricks said. “Just standing with other like-minded people who are interested in sustainability is important.”
Another important element Hendricks has focused on is creating these items and selling them at an affordable price. “Sustainability sometimes is green washed in companies and they make things more expensive,” Hendricks said. “That’s not how we become a sustainable world. I think making products affordable is important to me. I want to buy things that are better for the environment without throwing my pocketbook in the fire.”
1. What makes Danny Katz worried?| A．The use of old clothing. | B．The cost of textile pollution. |
| C．The effect of clothing waste. | D．The future of the textile industry. |
| A．Its price. | B．Its sales. |
| C．Its producer. | D．Its quality. |
| A．The EPA’s measures to reduce textile waste. |
| B．Consumers being aware of the seriousness of textile waste. |
| C．Textile businesses’ social responsibility and their waste. |
| D．Small businesses working to prevent textile waste. |
【推荐3】We’re drowning in plastic. If you want to reduce your own contribution to the plastic pollution problem, recycling might seem like an easy solution.
But what happens after you clean out those plastic containers and pour them into a recycling bin? Unfortunately, the outcome isn’t as rosy as many people think; recycling is unlikely to give plastic to-go containers new life. “Of all the waste produced in 2017, only 8.4% of it eventually got recycled. It’s not that consumers aren’t motivated to recycle or that they don’t have ready access to recycling programs; the United States simply doesn’t have the proper facilities (设施),” said John Hocevar, a marine biologist with Greenpeace USA.
A recent report surveyed the United States’ 367 materials recovery facilities—the facilities that sort our recycling—and found only plastic bottles were regularly recycled. The fate of most other types of plastic such as packaging usually ends up being buried or burnt.
Not all plastic is created equal. If you turn over a transparent plastic bottle, like those used to hold water, you’ll notice a number “1” inside a triangular recycling symbol. Non-transparent jugs, like the kind that hold milk, get a “2”. At materials recovery facilities, or MRF’s, plastics get sorted based on these numbers, which indicate how recyclable they are.
Numbers 1 and 2 are relatively recyclable. Recycling gets more difficult with higher numbers, called “mixed plastic”. This waste makes up around 69% of all the plastic we use. It’s much more expensive to process than numbers 1 and 2.
So what the United States needs is facilities equipped to process other kinds of plastic. But Hocevar came up with a different solution: “The really simple answer is that we have to stop making so much throwaway plastic.”
That said, is recycling worth it? For bottles labeled (贴标签) “1” or “2”, the answer is “yes”. There’s also a growing market for plastics labeled “5”. For other numbers, Hocevar’s answer was simple: a resounding (响亮的) “no” on numbers 3, 4, 6 and 7.
1. Which problem is the USA facing according to the text?| A．People don’t know the best way to recycle. |
| B．Ready recycling programs are not accessible. |
| C．People lack awareness about plastic recycling. |
| D．There isn’t suitable equipment for plastic recycling. |
| A．Productive. | B．Promising. |
| C．Unsatisfying. | D．Controversial. |
| A．Whether it is easy to recycle them. |
| B．The recycling technology they need. |
| C．They places where they were produced. |
| D．Which dustbin we should put them into. |
| A．Give up the use of plastic. |
| B．Develop more cheaper facilities. |
| C．Only recycle plastics labeled 1 to 5. |
| D．Reduce the production of mixed plastic. |
