1 . Clothing rental is a hot new industry and retailers (零售商) are demanding to get on board in hopes of attracting green shopper.
But is renting fashion actually more environmentally-friendly than buying it, and if so, how much more? Journalist and author Elizabeth Cline investigated (调查) this question and concluded that it's not as sustainable as it seems.
Take shipping, for example, which has to go two ways if an item is rented — receiving and returning. Cline writes that consumer transportation has the second largest carbon footprint of our collective fashion habit after manufacturing.
She writes, ''An item ordered online and then returned can send out 20 kilograms of carbon each way, and increases up to 50 kilograms for rush shipping. By comparison, the carbon impact of a pair of jeans purchased from a physical store and washed and worn at home is 33.4 kilograms, according to a 2015 study by Levi's.''
Then there's the burden of washing, which has to happen for every item when it's returned, regardless of whether or not it was worn. For most rental services, this usually means dry cleaning, a high impact and polluting process. All the rental services that Cline looked into have replaced perchloroethylene (氯乙烯), a carcinogenic (致癌的) air pollutant, still used by 70 percent of US dry cleaners, with alternatives, although these aren't great either.
Lastly, Cline fears that rental services will increase our appetite for fast fashion, simply because it's so easily accessible. There's something called ''share washing'' that makes people waste more precisely because a product or service is shared and thus is regarded as more eco-friendly. Uber is one example of this, advertised as ''a way to share rides and limit ear ownership.'' and yet ''it has been proven to discourage walking,bicycling, and public transportation use.''
Renting clothes is still preferable to buying them cheap and throwing them in the dustbin after a few wears, but we shouldn't let the availability of these services make us too satisfied. There's an even better step — that's wearing what is already in the closet.
1. What is Elizabeth Cline's attitude toward clothing rental?| A．Approving. | B．Unfavorable. |
| C．Objective. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．rental services are on the rise |
| B．clothing rental will be as successful as Uber |
| C．renting clothes might waste more than expected |
| D．renting clothes might make people lose interest in fast fashion |
| A．give up renting any clothing |
| B．purchase inexpensive clothes |
| C．rent clothes rather than buy them |
| D．make full use of clothes we've possessed |
| A．Clothing rental is a new fashion. |
| B．Clothing rental is retailers' preference. |
| C．Renting clothes is not that eco-friendly. |
| D．Renting-clothes business is in a dilemma. |
2 . SYDNEY —Australian scientists have designed a system which uses microwaves to break down plastic into an environmentally friendly by-product.
Head of Electrical Engineering at Australia’s James Cook University, Prof. Mohan Jacob revealed on Thursday that by using microwaves, plastic waste can be converted into biochar(生物炭), charcoal that can be used as a soil conditioner.
“We are developing a processing room, which could process many kinds of plastic materials, up to 5 kilograms of waste,” Jacob said. “It will be a typical example system for the development of biochars from different types of plastics under various conditions.” Jacob explained that microwave energy is used to heat the plastic waste above 600 degrees centigrade within the custom-made room, where it ends up as a biochar, which can then be used to improve the properties of soil.
Currently underway is step one of the project, testing the room, after which, step two will involve improving the energy efficiency of the system and maximizing the yield of by-products. If all goes to plan, step three will be to construct a medium scale waste processing system which is customizable and can be installed remotely.
Jacob said that with the average person using 130 kg of plastic every year, there is an urgent need for developing better ways of processing it.
“Perhaps contrary to popular opinion, plastic is an indispensable material in modern life. It is cheap, competent, lightweight, and has many benefits like maintaining food quality and safety and preventing waste,” he said.
However, “abandoned plastics endanger our marine wildlife, and have begun to enter the food chain. There is an urgent need for developing technologies to recover plastic waste.”
1. How does the system function?| A．Microwaves are used to produce plastic. |
| B．Plastic waste is heated in the microwaves. |
| C．Plastic waste is cut into pieces and buried into the soil. |
| D．Microwaves change plastic waste into biochar by heating. |
| A．Plastic consumption now is acceptable. |
| B．Plastic should be abandoned in our life. |
| C．The system of processing plastic has come into use. |
| D．Finding better ways to deal with plastic waste is urgent. |
| A．Make up for a loss in time. |
| B．Find or regain lost possession. |
| C．Extract or recycle an energy source for reuse. |
| D．Return to a normal state of health, mind or strength. |
| A．3 steps of processing plastic waste. |
| B．A way of producing plastic products easily. |
| C．A new system of breaking down plastic waste. |
| D．A program designed for plastic use in the daily life. |
3 . Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.
Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.
Among the bag makers’ argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.
The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.
Environmentalists don’t dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.
1. What has Steven Stein been hired to do?| A．Help increase grocery sales. |
| B．Recycle the waste material. |
| C．Stop things falling off trucks. |
| D．Argue for the use of plastic bags. |
| A．Bans on plastic bags. |
| B．Effects of city development. |
| C．Headaches caused by garbage. |
| D．Plastic bags hung in trees. |
| A．They are quite expensive. |
| B．Replacing them can be difficult. |
| C．They are less strong than plastic bags. |
| D．Producing them requires more energy. |
| A．Plastic, Paper or Neither |
| B．Industry, Pollution and Environment |
| C．Recycle or Throw Away |
| D．Garbage Collection and Waste Control |
4 . Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment. “We didn’t know at that time there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it,” says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.
But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement .Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many， many times,” says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first. According to US government reports, emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons .The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9. Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with, the world is a safer and healthier place. A kind of “Green thinking” has become part of practices.
Great improvement has been achieved. In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs; today in 1995 there are about 6,600. Advanced lights, motors, and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution.
Twenty –five years ago, there were hardly any education programs for environment. Today, it’s hard to find a public school, university, or law school that does not have such a kind of program. “Until we do that, nothing else will change!” says Bruce Anderson.
1. According to Anderson, before 1970, Americans had little idea about ___.| A．the social movement | B．recycling techniques |
| C．environmental problems | D．the importance of Earth Day |
| A．The grass –roots level. | B．The business circle. |
| C．Government officials. | D．University professors. |
| A．They have cut car emissions to the lowest. |
| B．They have settled their environmental problems. |
| C．They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities. |
| D．They have reduced pollution through effective measures. |
| A．Education. | B．Planning |
| C．Green living | D．CO reduction |
