1 . Plastic bags are a popular container in much of the world, but they are also a major source of pollution which need hundreds of years to break down, and as they do, tiny pieces can poison soil, lakes, rivers and oceans. So, environment experts urge people to reuse and recycle plastic bags.
Maryland artist Allita Irby just does so. It all starts with the morning newspaper, and the plastic bag that the paper comes in. The mixed media artist recognized its rich possibilities three years ago. “As I was taking the newspaper out, I felt the texture (质地) of these bags. I just looked down and realized it takes three to make a braid (发辫). I’ll just put a few main materials in just to make it strong enough.” Since then, Irby has been using plastic bags to create abstract lines in her art works.
Before using plastic bags in her pieces, Irby used natural materials like feathers, leather and dried plants, all of which contain elements that represent her Native American ancestry and identity, like her piece called “Navaho Bundles”. “I was making a hair style, a Navaho hair style when the hair was heavy and it was looped back on itself. I took the piece and looped it back onto itself and secured it with a tie.
Ms. Irby’s neighbors praise her ability to turn wastes into treasure. Some people, like Charlotte Hogan, asked the artist to teach them how to create art from used plastic bags. Aleta Meyer expressed surprise, “ I’ve never given any more thought to what to do with a plastic bag. This is definitely different.” Shirley Watts plans to show others her art. “I want to make a masterpiece that I can put in a frame and put it on my wall and then I know that I did it,” she said.
Allita Irby says anyone can do it and all you have to do is open your eyes and bring the outside in.
1. The first paragraph is written to offer _______.
| A．the conditions of making plastics | B．the background of the story |
| C．the reason for using plastics | D．the importance of plastic bags |
| A．will never use plastic bags herself | B．pays much attention to her hair style |
| C．was born in a Native American family | D．only uses plastics to make art works now |
| A．They are similar to Navaho hair styles. |
| B．They are actually tools used in daily life. |
| C．They offer Irby the inspiration to recycle plastic bags. |
| D．They are made of natural materials. |
| A．They live in the same neighborhood. | B．They are all mixed media artists. |
| C．They are active in protecting the environment. | D．They learn art from the same master. |
| A．Watts follows Irby to make art works. |
| B．Meyer says she’ll never make plastic arts. |
| C．Irby thinks what it needs is to discover beauty. |
| D．Hogan thinks they are the best ones for churches. |
2 . If you spent years training to be a lawyer and had a great steady income, would you leave it to undertake a harebrained（轻率的） plan that only your mum and girlfriend believed in? That’s exactly what Tom Pakenham did.
He had the idea of starting an eco-friendly taxi company and so with five environmentally friendly cars Green Tomato Cars was born. Now, only a few years later, the company has a group of 60 Toyota Prius Hybrids.
When the company started in 2006 Tom says, “ Only my mum, girlfriend Sophie, now my wife, and Jonny ( his business partner ) were 100 percent behind the idea of starting London’s first cab service. ”
Tom, who sold his￡150,000 flat to raise money for the business, received the support of some well-known persons, Buckingham Palace officials and BSkyB managers．Even Al Gore is a fan.
Currently carrying 500-600 passengers a day, Green Tomato Cars is a shining example that commercial（商业的）success and green issues are compatible.
“All our drivers and employees are employed from the local community. We use local garages, service agents and vehicle sign-writers even though that is not always the most competitive choice. The reason is that to bring green products to the fore we believe we must not be worse than conventional（传统的）taxis. The target is to be recognized as No.1 provider of environmental goods and services in London and around the world.”
All their hard work has paid off as The Department for Transport has acknowledged Green Tomato Cars progress by giving them the Fleet Hero Award and last year the company was highlighted at the WTM World Responsible Tourism Day.
Pleased with the publicity, Tom says, “ I like to think we are playing our part with the cars switching to electricity. Carbon dioxide reductions of more than 600 tons have been achieved and this low footprint has sparked（触发）a revolution in the taxi world.
1. The underlined word “compatible” probably means ________.| A．only a dream |
| B．necessary |
| C．able to exist together |
| D．within easy reach |
| A．earn more money to protect the environment |
| B．encourage more people to protect the environment |
| C．solve unemployment of the local community |
| D．set up No.1 provider of environmental goods and services |
| A．electricity | B．petrol | C．gases | D．solar energy |
| A．can only produce more than 600 tons of carbon dioxide |
| B．are as good as the other taxis |
| C．are more expensive to take |
| D．cost less and make greater profits |
Do you want to know how to live an environmentally friendly lifestyle? Here is a short list of ways that you can help protect the environment.
★Prevent energy leaks（泄漏）at home. Heating and cooling can make up to 50 percent of your energy bill each month.
★Plant trees in your yard and community. Everyone knows that planting trees can help the environment.
★
★Use solar energy more often.
★Think about green transportation. Just sit and think about a few environmentally friendly ways you can get from one place to another.
| A．Trees have many good influences. |
| B．Use natural wind to dry your clothes. |
| C．There are many ways to use solar power. |
| D．Use ceiling fans to cool off in summer. |
| E．You can take a bus when going to the movie theater. |
| F．Turn off lights and electronic devices when you’re not using them. |
| G．You can heat and cool your home more efficiently by fixing leaks. |
4 . Like all big cities, Paris has a traffic problem: lots of cars, lots of traffic jams and lots of pollution from exhaust fumes (废气). So the city began a project to improve the situation.
Under the Velib project (‘Velib’ comes from velo liberty, or ‘bicycle freedom’) people can take a bicycle, use it for as long as they want, and then leave it at the same or another bicycle station. The first half-hour on the bike is free, but if you don’t return it after 30 minutes, you have to pay. But it’s only €1 a day or €29 a year! The bicycles are heavy (25 kg), and they are all gray and have baskets. There are about 20,000 of them in the city, and around 1,450 bicycle stations. So there are a lot more Velib stations than the 298 subway stations!
Paris is not the first city to have a project like this. But not everybody thinks it’s a great idea. One Parisian said, “These bicycles are only for short journeys. If people want to travel across the city, they won’t use a bicycle - they’ll still use their cars.”
A city spokesman said, “The bicycle project won’t solve all our traffic problems, of course. But it might help reduce air pollution. Traffic, together with factory fumes, is a big problem. There aren’t any simple answers to traffic problems and pollution in cities. But unless we do something now, there will be more traffic jams and temperatures will continue to rise, so the problems in our environment will get worse. The bikes might help people to lead a healthier life, too.”
1. What can we learn about the Velib project?| A．Its bikes have no baskets. | B．Its bikes are light and colorful. |
| C．It aims to make traveling easier. | D．It owns more stations than the subway. |
| A．Free. | B．€1. |
| C．€29. | D．€30. |
| A．The cost is rather high. |
| B．It’s hard to find a Velib station. |
| C．It’s not suitable for a long journey. |
| D．The distance between two Velib stations is long. |
| A．Worried. | B．Positive. |
| C．Uncaring. | D．Doubtful. |
How to Help Save the Environment Cleaning up the existing damage to our environment and preventing further destruction is a huge job. It can seem that there is no way one person, especially a young person like you, can make a difference.
| A．But you can make your contribution |
| B．This saves you money with fewer trips to the gas station |
| C．It might not seem as cool as driving yourself |
| D．They may be the secret sources of the large number on your electric bill |
| E．This can help start a dialogue in your community about a particular environmental issue |
| F．You don’t have to give lectures or force them to accept your opinions |
| G．They don’t take up much space but can prevent a lot of waste |
6 . Are you facing a situation that looks impossible to fix?
In 1969,the pollution was terrible along the Cuyahoga River Cleveland, Ohio. It
But the river wasn’t changed in a few days
Maybe you are facing an impossible situation. Maybe you have a habit
While there are
7 . 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 |
8 . Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary material we are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.
1. What does the underlined word “over-consumption” refer to?| A．Using too much packaging. |
| B．Recycling too much waste. |
| C．Making more products than necessary. |
| D．Having more material than is needed. |
| A．the tendency of cutting household waste |
| B．the increase of packaging recycling |
| C．the rapid growth of supermarkets |
| D．the fact of packaging overuse |
| A．Unpackaged products are of bad quality. |
| B．Supermarkets care more about packaging. |
| C．It is improper to judge quality by packaging. |
| D．Other products are better packaged than food. |
| A．Fighting wastefulness is difficult. |
| B．Needless material is mostly recycled. |
| C．People like collecting recyclable waste. |
| D．The author is proud of his consumer culture. |
