1 . Hardware in general, and smartphones in particular, have become a huge environmental and health problem in the Global South's landfill sites (垃圾填埋场).
Electronic waste(e-waste) currently takes up 5 percent of all global waste, and it is set to increase rapidly as more of us own more than one smartphone, laptop and power bank. They end up in places like Agbogbloshie on the outskirts of Ghana's capital, Accra. It is the biggest e-waste dump in the world, where 10,000 informal workers walk through tons of abandoned goods as part of an informal recycling process. They risk their health searching for the precious metals that are found in abandoned smartphones.
But Agbogbloshie should not exist. The Basel Convention, a 1989 treaty, aims to prevent developed nations from unauthorized dumping of e-waste in less developed countries. The e-waste industry, however, circumvents regulations by exporting e-waste labelled as "secondhand goods' to poor countries like Ghana, knowing full well that it is heading for a landfill site.
A recent report found Agbogbloshie contained some of the most dangerous chemicals. This is not surprising: smartphones contain chemicals like mercury (水银), lead and even arsenic (砷). Reportedly, one egg from a free-range chicken in Agbogbloshie contained a certain chemical which can cause cancer and damage the immune system at a level that's about 220 times greater than a limit set by the European Food Safety Authority(EFSA). Most worryingly, these poisonous chemicals are free to pollute the broader soil and water system. This should concern us all, since some of Ghana's top exports are cocoa and nuts.
Some governments have started to take responsibility for their consumers' waste. For example, Germany has started a project that includes a sustainable recycling system at Agbogbloshie, along with a health clinic for workers. However, governments cannot solve the problem alone, as there is an almost limitless consumer demand for hardware, especially when governments' green policies are focused on issues like climate change.
Only the manufacturers can fix this. A more economically sustainable and politically possible solution is through encouraging hardware manufacturers to make the repair, reuse and recycling of hardware profitable, or at least cost-neutral.
1. What can we infer from paragraph 2?| A．Electronic waste requires more landfill sites across Ghana. |
| B．Electronic waste is too complex to get fully recycled. |
| C．Electronic products need to be improved urgently. |
| D．Electronic pollution is a burning question in Agbogbloshie. |
| A．Abolishes. | B．Tightens. | C．Brings in. | D．Gets around. |
| A．The threat of polluted food around the world. |
| B．The damage of chicken’s immune system. |
| C．The lack of diversity in Ghana’s exports. |
| D．The violation of EFSA’s standards. |
| A．Manufacturers’ developing a sustainable hardware economy. |
| B．Governments’ adjusting their green policies about e-waste. |
| C．Reducing customers’ demands for electronic products. |
| D．Manufacturers’ urging the government to make effective policies to ensure more profit. |
2 . A recent survey carried out by the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) found about half of clothes sold online by major fast fashion sellers are made completely from virgin polyester (纯聚酯纤维). The group studied over 10,000 clothes posted online during a two-week period in May by ASOS, Boohoo, Missguided, and PrettyLittleThing, and it made some worrying findings.
As many as 88% of the clothes on the above-mentioned websites cover virgin polyester mixed with other materials (材料). Very few have reused materials. In many cases, clothes covering both reused and virgin polyester had the word “reused” added to the product’s title, which is misleading.
The RSA study points out the production of virgin polyester causes big environmental damage. According to an MIT study, we can know that “a polyester shirt produces 5.5kg of CO2, 20% more than cotton (棉), and the same as CO2 produced by driving 13 miles in a passenger car. In 2015, polyester production was responsible for 700 million tonnes of CO2”. Clothes made cheaply from virgin polyester are not much different from the single-use plastic (塑料) packaging that is causing much environmental damage to the world.
Shoppers would do well to start viewing virgin polyester as similar to single-use plastic packaging. In order to encourage this, RSA hopes that shoppers will buy more natural fabrics, which are likely to age better, last longer, and not cause as much pollution once thrown away. The most useful strategy, of course, is to buy less. To be clear, RSA is not against all new polyester in clothing — it just needs to be used more responsibly.
1. What is described in Paragraph 2?| A．The difficulty in green production. | B．The popularity of online shopping. |
| C．The poor design of clothes sold online. | D．The actual materials used in most clothes. |
| A．By listing some examples. | B．By doing an experiment. |
| C．By referring to another study. | D．By using an expert’s words. |
| A．Advances in technology. | B．Less attention to fashion. |
| C．A change in shopping habits. | D．The disappearance of plastic. |
| A．Plastic packaging is still widely used. | B．Fast fashion causes an environmental problem. |
| C．It is unwise to follow the general fashion. | D．Environmental problems become more serious. |
3 . From the lush green hill you can see Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, in the distance. Populations of deer, rabbits and turtle live here. The air is stinky and the only signs that we are standing above a 24-metre (79 feet) deep landfill are the methane gas pipes rising from the grass.
Ljubljana is the first European capital to commit to going zero-waste. But fifteen years ago, all of its refuse went straight to landfill. “And that is expensive,” says Nina Sankovic of Voka Snaga, the city’s waste management company. “It takes up space and you’ re throwing away resources.”
So the city decided to change course.
It began in 2002 with separate collection of paper, glass and packaging in Roadside container stands. Four years later the city began collecting biodegradable waste door to door; separate collection of biowaste is set to become mandatory across Europe in 2023, but Ljubljana was nearly two decades ahead of the curve.
In 2013, every doorstep in the city received bins for packaging and paper waste. And, most controversially, scheduled collections of the residual waste were cut by half-forcing people to separate their rubbish more efficiently.
The results have been impressive. In 2008, the city recycled only 29.3% of its waste and was lagging behind the rest of Europe. Today that figure is 68%, and its landfill receives almost 80% less rubbish, putting it at the top of there cycling leader board of EU capitals. The Slovenian capital now produces only 115kg of residual waste per capital annually(the European city with the lowest figure is the much smaller Treviso, Italy, at 59kg).
1. What is the usage of the pipe rising from the grass?| A．A sign to show there is a deep landfill. | B．To emit gas rising from the grass. |
| C．To discharge methane from the deep landfill. | D．A water pipe to water grass. |
| A．Compulsory. | B．Typical. | C．Normal. | D．Reasonable. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Intolerant. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Society. | B．Geography education. | C．Tourism. | D．Environmental protection. |
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