1 . Not only does the use of plastic water bottles hurt your wallet, it also increases pollution and wastes energy and water. Only 23% of all plastic in America ends up in a recycling bin, meaning over $ 1 billion worth of plastic is treated as rubbish a year. Recently, Skipping Rocks Lab has invented a kind of water bottle called Ooho.
It is a convenient, clear water bottle that can either be drunken or eaten. To drink it, you can either peel off the membrane (薄膜) or tear a hole in the membrane with your teeth to pour the water into your mouth. To eat it, you simply put the whole bottle in your mouth. One problem the scientists have run into is how to ship large amounts of Ooho bubbles(水泡) without arriving with a very wet truck. However, they have attempted to package units of individual bubbles together inside a larger and thicker membrane. It is targeting large outdoor events, such as marathons, music festivals, and sporting events, where tons of plastic bottles are used, and frequently left behind as litter. And too much plastic is sure to do harm to the environment, which could account for their purpose of such a new invention.
The team has been working for the past two years to develop the technology and materials needed to produce Ooho; they have recently applied a patent for their new advancements. The price for an individual bubble or a unit of bubbles has not been set yet, but they cost about two cents to create a unit, which is cheaper than plastic bottles. It has appeared at events in London, San Francisco, Boston, at conferences, festivals, and so on.
Ooho is catching many people’s attention and has raised over $ 1 million and gained 1,000 investors in only three days. It is mostly being sold at events at the moment to keep the consumer’s interest while the production machine is getting up and running. It is quickly making a rise,so keep an eye out this year for these bottles of the future.
1. How is most plastic dealt with in America?| A．It’s sold. | B．It’s recycled. |
| C．It’s buried. | D．It’s wasted. |
| A．To make a profit for a company. | B．To protect the environtnent. |
| C．To make people eat as they drink. | D．To reduce the cost of plastic bottle. |
| A．It is easy and safe to ship it in large amounts. |
| B．It has become popular since it began to be sold. |
| C．It might be sold at a lower price than plastic bottles. |
| D．It cost the team a lot of money to develop the technology. |
| A．Ooho is to be a success in the future. |
| B．Ooho is being supported by smart people. |
| C．Ooho is taking the place of plastic bottles now. |
| D．Ooho is being produced to attract more investors. |
2 . Birds enjoy a relatively slow rate of extinction but a new study suggests that rate might be severely underestimated(低估). Even worse, if human actions continue, bird extinction rates could skyrocket and 12 percent of the known bird species(物种) could be dying out by the end of the century.
Presently there are 10,000 known bird species — most identified after 1850 — and an estimated 130 of those have become extinct since 1500, setting the extinction rate at about one species every four years.
But according to Stuart Pimm of Duke University, this rate fails to take into account three key points: The continual identification of extinct bird species from fossil remains; numerous "missing" species not yet declared extinct; and the fact that present extinction rates were not calculated using the proper baseline date for when the species was first described.
Taking these points into consideration, the extinction rate is closer to one bird species per year, says Pimm, the leading author of the study. And the rate could be three times as high as that if not for recent bird preservation efforts.
In previous centuries, bird extinctions took place mainly on islands as Polynesian peoples expanded into the Pacific or Europeans took over the Americas, wiping out birds along the way.
In recent years, scientists are seeing an increased number of extinctions on continents, again because of human activities. Habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, and climate change combine to harm many bird species. Before human influence, the estimated rate of bird extinctions would have been only one species per hundred years, researchers estimate.
Bird extinction rates are slower than for most animals, mainly because humans do more harm to other species and people take special efforts to protect birds. Still, if the present trends continue, the researchers estimate that the bird extinction rate will continue to climb to as many as 10 species per year,
1. The underlined word "skyrocket" in the first paragraph means| A．fly high |
| B．appear soon |
| C．increase quickly |
| D．change regularly |
| A．one species per hundred years |
| B．one species every year |
| C．three species per year |
| D．ten species every year |
| A．Humans have started destroying bird habitat in recent years. |
| B．Humans are doing more harm to animals than to birds. |
| C．Humans have made no effort to protect birds. |
| D．Humans are responsible for the bird extinctions. |
| A．Humans' Fighting against Bird Extinction |
| B．Humans' Responsibilities for Bird Protection |
| C．Bird Extinction Rates Far Worse Than Realized |
| D．Bird Extinction Occurring on Islands and Continents |
3 . Plastic is easy, convenient, cheap and long-lasting, but it does great harm to the environment.
Since plastic entered mass production, 8 billion tons have been produced – and we aren’t very good at recycling. By 2015, 6,945 tons of plastic waste had formed, with around 9 percent of it getting recycled. About 79 percent of it ends up in landfills or around the environment, including the ocean. We may end up drowning in plastic before long.
Chemists at Colorado State University have found a polymer（聚酯）that has many of the qualities of plastics – it’s light, strong, durable and heat-resistant – but that can be changed back to its original small-molecule（分子）state for complete recycling. Even after being recycled, the polymer can be turned back into its plastic-like state, and this can be done quickly and cheaply.
This new polymer has all the good qualities of plastics, yet it is relatively easy to make and to recycle. Making it requires room temperature conditions, a short reaction time to bond the monomer（单体）into polymers and only a small amount of the catalyst（催化剂）remains in the end product. It has a high molecular weight, stands up to heat and generally behaves like plastic. Recycling it requires similarly little effort. Mild lab conditions are required and so is a catalyst. Once applied, the polymers are once again monomers in a matter of minutes and can be used to create another product.
But don’t get too excited about this just yet. Scientists stressed that the polymer isn’t ready for mass products just yet. There’s still plenty of development to do, including making it more economical to produce and recycle.
1. What can we infer from the second paragraph?| A．It is impossible to recycle old plastics. |
| B．79 percent of plastics has been recycled. |
| C．Small quantities of plastics get recycled. |
| D．Landfills aren’t enough to handle plastics. |
| A．Its purposes. | B．Its qualities. |
| C．Its structures. | D．Its applications. |
| A．Mild temperature. | B．Cold temperature. |
| C．Body temperature. | D．Room temperature. |
| A．it is not very cheap | B．it seems too light |
| C．it is hard to recycle | D．it can’t stand cold |
4 . Small and round transparent water bottles filled with natural water could help provide a solution to London's plastic waste problem, according to Skipping Rocks Lab, the company in the British capital that produces them. They added that the balls have been made of plant and seaweed extracts and will decompose（分解）after four to six weeks if not consumed.
With many cities struggling to get rid of vast numbers of used plastic water bottles, the ‘Ooho’ has begun to meet the thirst of consumers in San Francisco and London. A report published last Thursday said more than 4,000 plastic bottles had been removed from the River Thames in a month last year, proving the scale of the waste problem.
"We think Ooho may not be the solution for all the applications that plastic bottles have, but definitely for short term consumption it could be a solution," said Rodrigo, the founder of Skipping Rocks Lab. In a trial near London Bridge last Wednesday, Ooho drew a mixture of surprise, amusement and delight among those who sampled them. London's city assembly said Ooho was a step forward. "It could be part of the solution but not the only solution. You also need to be able to refill bottles at railway stations for example," said Leonie Cooper, the Chair of the assembly's environment committee.
The company aims to target, among other consumers, marathon runners, who will be able to eat the Oohos mid-race without concerns about the environment. It is also considering sealing alcohol for a whole new market. "People see these small round bubbles and they just think ‘shots’. So that's definitely something we're looking at," said Skipping Rocks Lab Chief Operating Officer Lise. "We have sealed alcohol, we want to perfect it, and hopefully this will be the great change of the future."
1. ‘Ooho’ can help solve the plastic waste problem because ________.| A．it is small and transparent | B．it is filled with natural water |
| C．it is made of plant and seaweed | D．it can disappear some time later |
| A．Subjective. | B．Unreal. |
| C．Objective. | D．Ridiculous. |
| A．Technology and Invention. | B．Health and Medicine. |
| C．Industry and Economy. | D．Tourism and Development. |
