2 . Plastic is everywhere, from the Arctic ice to vital organs in the human body. In fact, previous estimates suggest that the average person swallows a credit card-worth of microscopic plastic particles(颗粒) every week. But new research shows that this could actually be an understatement.

Microplastics are plastics smaller than 5 millimeters, found in industrial waste, beauty products, and formed during the degradation of larger plastic pieces. Over time, they break down into even smaller nanoplastics. These tiny particles can pass through our intestines and lungs into our bloodstreams, reaching vital organs like the heart and brain.

While the idea of eating plastic is unsettling in itself, the major concern here is that these plastic particles contain chemicals that can interrupt our body’s natural release of hormones, potentially increasing our risk of reproductive disorders and certain cancers. They can also carry toxins(毒素) on their surface like heavy metals.

In the past, researchers have shown bottled water can contain tens of thousands of identifiable plastic fragments in a single container. However, until recently, only the larger microplastics were detectable with available measuring tools, leaving the area of nanoplastics largely a mystery.

Using Raman microscopy (显微镜学), capable of detecting particles down to the size of a flu virus, the team measured an average of 240, 000 particles of plastic per liter of bottled water, 90 percent of which were nanoplastics, a revelation 10 to 100 times larger than previous estimates.

These plastics likely originate from the bottle material, filters used to “purify” the water, and the source water itself. “It is not totally unexpected to find so much of this stuff, ” the study’s lead author, Columbia graduate student Naixin Qian, said in a statement. His team hopes to expand their research into tap water and other water sources to better inform our exposure to these potentially dangerous particles. “The idea is that the smaller things get, the more of them I reveal, ” he added.

4 . As newer, more advanced technologies come out, huge amounts of electronics (电子产品) are thrown away, instead of being reused. These goods often end up in landfills, where the chemicals inside them may be a danger to the environment. Electronics can contain harmful materials. If these materials get into the ground or water, the pollution can cause serious problems. Most electronics require metals. These metals must be mined from the Earth. Often the mining process creates serious pollution.

A group known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum is trying to make people more aware of the problems of e-waste. Recently, the WEEE Forum asked researchers from the United Nations (UN) to study a kind of e-waste that’s often not noticed because people don’t consider the goods to be electronics. The WEEE Forum calls this kind “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste.

The UN study shows that about 1/6 of all e-waste is “unable-to-be-seen”. Though it’s “unable-to-be-seen”, it’s certainly not a small amount. The “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste weighs about 9 billion kilograms. The WEEE Forum says that if this e-waste were put into 40-ton trucks and the trucks were then lined up, the line of trucks would be about 5,630 kilometers long.

The surprising kind leading the “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste group was toys. Worldwide, roughly 7.3 billion electronic toys are thrown away each year. These include goods like car racing sets, electric trains, and musical toys. They also include toys with electronic parts, like dolls that speak or games with electronic timers. In all, toys make up about 35% of “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste. But the problem is far larger than just toys. The report also shows that other everyday goods like home alarms, smoke alarms, power tools, and computer cables (电缆) are also big sources of “unable-to-be-seen” e-waste.

The WEEE Forum is hoping that as more people and governments become aware of e-waste, they will make a much greater effort to make sure electronics get reused.

5 . As we all know, waste is extremely bad for the environment. Let’s talk about why litter is harmful to our streets and towns, our drinking water, and sea animals.

Waste can have a bad influence on our cities. Cleaning up litter costs US taxpayers (纳税人) and businesses $11.5 billion each year.    1     Litter on the streets can cause road accidents with hundreds of deaths because of it. Areas that have more waste have more crime (犯罪). The litter on the streets sends a message that people don’t care about their neighborhood.

    2     The litter we drop on the ground can pollute rivers, lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water. 60%of water pollution is caused by littering. Waste hurts sea animals.     3     You may think that when you litter, “Oh, this is just one piece of litter. It can’t do any harm. But if every person does that, even if it’s only once, there will still be 7.9 billion pieces of litter in our ocean. Over one million sea animals die every year because of waste.    4    

As you can see, waste is harmful in many ways.    5     We need to take action to avoid unnecessary waste, and pick up every piece of waste we see. We should try to make it a habit because if we don’t, the waste problem will become even worse.

7 . Naturalist Enzo Suma, who is now 40, lives in Puglia, a region in southern Italy whose long coastline faces the Adriatic Sea. Floating waste accumulates in this relatively enclosed part of the Mediterranean, unlike the open ocean, where the waste tends to be spread over a vast area. Feeling concerned about that, Suma makes it a habit to pick up the washed-up waste along the shore, especially after big winter storms.

One day, Suma was walking along the beach near his home when he discovered a bottle of Coke. Suma noticed on the bottle that the price, clearly printed on the bottom, was in lire, a currency (货币) that hadn’t been used in Italy since it was replaced by the euro in 2002. Could a plastic container have well survived in the Mediterranean, he wondered, for about two decades?

That led him to founding the Archeoplastica museum. It has a collection of about 500 unique pieces recovered from Italian shores and the Coke bottle is the first one of them. All collection demonstrates the unsettling life force of plastic waste in the environment. “Seeing that a product people may have used 30, 40, or 50 years ago remains still unchanged, you’ll feel different. It’s a great shock,” Suma said to a reporter. So Suma often exhibits selected pieces from the Archeoplastica collection at local schools around his hometown of Ostuni.

“The playful side of the work allows you to arrive at the less beautiful side of things,” Suma acknowledged. “Plastic is a kind of useful substance. But it’s unthinkable that a water bottle, made from a material designed to last so long, can be used for just a few days—or even minutes—before becoming garbage. Clean the beaches. Clean the oceans. Recycle. But if we are still throwing out plastics, none of those are going to be long-term solutions.”

Nowadays, our living conditions are becoming increasingly serious owing to the destruction of our environment. Many plants and     1    (animal) are endangered, and all the food chain has been destroyed,     2     has aroused a wide concern among people.

It is obvious that there are many reasons     3     this phenomenon. Firstly, the overuse of natural resources has a bad effect on     4     balance of natural ecology. Secondly, the population of the world is increasing rapidly, making the world too     5     (crowd) for us to live in. Thirdly, it is the smoke released from factories and cars that     6     (pollute) the environment badly.

Personally, I hold the view that effective measures must be taken     7     (improve) the present situation. To begin with, the government must     8     (sure) pass laws to prevent people from throwing rubbish everywhere, and prevent factories from harming the environment. Besides, as a member of the society, we are bound to do something for environmental     9     (protect), such as planting more trees,     10     (recycle) natural resources and so on. I’m sure that things will be better in the near future if we insist on doing like this.

Factory farming involves     1     (keep) farm animals inside buildings to increase the production of meat or eggs. According to an institute, “74% of the world’s poultry, 43% of its beef and 68% of its eggs     2     (produce) in this way.”

The main     3     (argue) for factory farming is that, apart from being a lot cheaper than     4     (tradition) or organic farming, it     5     (provide) more food for a world population that has already reached seven billion. As factory farms do not use many workers, the costs are low and the production is high. Moreover, factory-farmed animals suffer from     6     (few) diseases than those living outside.

On the other hand, opponents of factory farming say that it is cruel to the animals. For instance, many farm animals are kept in small spaces     7     they can hardly move. In addition to this, factory farming has a negative impact     8     the environment because it creates a lot of waste products, and uses a lot of chemicals to control insects and drugs     9     (treat) diseases.

To sum up, despite producing cheap food, factory farming is bad for the planet and for the animals themselves. We should try to reduce this kind of farming, although we would have to pay more for our eggs     10     meat.