1 . For centuries, historians and archaeologists have defined periods of human history by the technologies or materials that made the greatest impact on society — like the Stone Age, Bronze Age, or Iron Age. But what age are we in now? For some researchers, according to Atlas Obscura’s Cara Giamo, that question can be answered with one word: plastics.
“Plastic has redefined our material culture and the artifacts we leave behind. It will be found in stratified (分层) layers in our trash deposits (沉积层)” That’s according to archaeologist John Marston.
The wide variety of synthetic polymers (合成聚合物) would not exist if it weren’t for human action. Since the first plastic polymers were invented, about six billion tons of plastics have been made and spread around the planet, from forests to oceans ever since the first plastics polymers were invented.
Plastics are one of the most significant changes that humans have made to the Earth’s makeup. Most plastics don’t easily degrade. This only adds to the problem. Recycling isn’t an adequate solution. Not all types of plastic are easily recyclable. And there are only a few recycling plants that can process all varieties of plastic.
According to Debra Winter, writer for The Atlantic, this means that many of the materials thrown into recycling bins can cross the planet several times before they are processed. They are made into produce rugs, sweaters, or other bottles. Although millions of tons of plastic are recycled every year, millions more end up in landfills or the ocean. The problem has reached the point where it’s possible that in just a few decades there might be more plastic in the world’s oceans than fishes.
“Plastics have a supposed life span of over 500 years, it’s safe to say that every plastic bottle you have used exists somewhere on this planet, in some form or another,” Winter writes.
The damage may already be done. It may be too late for human populations worldwide to change their plastic-using ways. So the Plastic Age might soon take its place next to the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the history of human civilization.
1. Why do people call our age the Plastic Age?| A．Because plastics are not naturally made. | B．Because humans create plastics. |
| C．Because plastics influence the world greatly. | D．Because historians and archaeologists think so. |
| A．They are recycled | B．They are degraded |
| C．They are thrown away | D．They are made into bottles |
| A．Human beings are in the Plastic Age | B．Plastics have ruined our environment |
| C．We must stop using plastics altogether | D．Plastics are significant to human development |
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When I was a child, I hoped to live in the city. I think I would be happy there. Now I am living in a city, but I miss my home in countryside. There the air is clean or the mountains are green. Unfortunately, on the development of industrialization, the environment has been polluted. Lots of studies have been shown that global warming has already become a very seriously problem. The airs we breathe in is getting dirty and dirtier. Much rare animals are dying out. We must find ways to protect your environment. If we fail to do so, we’ll live to regret it.
With the
Air pollution
We should take some measures
When you think of the Arctic (北极), you imagine an icy land of pure white snow. Others imagine it as the last really clean place left on Earth. We have polluted the deepest oceans with plastic trash, and now, CNN says, “It’s the Arctic’s turn”
German scientists have recently found micro plastics (微塑料) in Arctic snow, the Associated Press reported. Micro plastic are pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters. Sadly, the scientists found 1,800 pieces of micro plastic per liter of snow.
How is plastic pollution reaching the Arctic? According to scientists, “It’s readily apparent (显然的) that the majority of the micro plastics in the snow comes from the air.” they fall off of plastic objects and are moved by the wind, just like dust. They mix with ice in the air and fall to the ground as snow. Finding these plastics in Arctic snow means that we may breathe them in. An even higher amount of micro plastic was found in the snow around cities.
The high concentrations (浓度) found in snow samples (样本) suggest micro plastics, which contain rubber or chemical used in synthetic fabrics (合成纤维), may cause significant air pollution.
Are they bad for us? Scientists cannot answer this question for now, according to the World Health Organization. We do know that our bodies cannot take in “large” pieces of micro plastics. However, if the plastics are small enough, they can find ways into our bodies and stay there for a long time, which can be bad for our health. What’s more, earlier studies have shown that micro plastics may contributes to lung cancer risk, heightening the need to further assess (评估) the risks of taking them in, the study said.
Micro plastics have also been found in rivers and oceans around the world. Previous research has found that they flow long distances and into tour oceans, damaging ecosystems (生态系统) along the way. They start in our wastewater when we wash clothes with plastic fibers. The waste water then flows into rivers and out to sea, where they are eaten by sea animals. If people then eat these animals, it means that we’re eating the plastic as well.
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5 . Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe.
Previous studies have linked high exposure to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problems, but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke(中风) within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants(污染物) were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of “moderate” quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.
The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.
1. The passage aims to________.| A．call the government to improve environmental air quality |
| B．list all the factors that can cause heart problems |
| C．inform people of the relationship between heart problems and air quality |
| D．persuade people to exercise more and give up smoking to decrease the risk of heart problems |
| A．relatively high | B．extremely low | C．relatively low | D．extremely high |
| A．Smoking is the most immediate factor that causes heart problems. |
| B．High level of air pollution can lead to heart problems in a short time after exposure. |
| C．Moderate air quality doesn’t raise the risk of stroke. |
| D．It’s not important to be aware of the air quality. |
6 . Around the world, people are realizing the significant problems caused by plastic waste. In the last 65 years, we have become increasingly dependent on plastic. It’s easy to understand why: it’s cheap to produce, light—therefore easy and cheap to transport—and incredibly strong and durable.
One popular solution to the problem is to ban single-use plastic. In the UK, shoppers are encouraged to make more environmentally-friendly choices in packing and transporting their food. A tax has already been placed on plastic carrier bags, which has cut their use by 90%.
Such plans are well-intentioned, but may not be helpful in getting rid of the use of single-use plastic altogether.
Another issue is that alternative(可供替代的) materials are often more environmentally harmful than plastic. Take paper bags, for example.
Clearly there is a need to reduce plastic waste and its impact on the environment.
| A．But it’s these advantages that also make it so harmful. |
| B．They are easily broken and rarely reusable, unlike plastic. |
| C．It improves the local economy and saves costs in managing litter and waste. |
| D．One of the fields where single-use plastic has an important role is medicine. |
| E．However, simply banning the use of single- use plastic may not be the best option. |
| F．Bans on single-use plastic items like drinking straws are also coming into play. |
| G．Research shows four times more energy is required to produce a paper bag than a plastic bag. |
7 . The amount of plastic in our oceans-and thus in our seafood-is rising. A study says Europeans alone throw about 11,000 small pieces of plastic every year. And unless we make some very big changes, that number could reach 780,000 pieces per person within a few decades.
Microplastics are popular additives(添加剂)to a wide range of personal care products, from face wash to toothpaste. We wash them off and send them down the drain(下水道), where they head out into the water supply. And there they’ll stay, absorbing chemicals, until something or somebody comes along and eats them.
Studies have found that fish that consume microplastics are smaller than others. They refuse real food in favor of more plastic. Their eggs are less likely to hatch, and they are less likely to escape from other hunters.
Researchers at the University of Ghent in Belgium have been studying the effects of microplastics on shellfish(海贝). The average shellfish sucks(吮吸)in and spits(吐)out about 20 liters of water per day. Most of the plastic particles in that water will be sent back out into the ocean. Most, but not all; lead researcher Colin Janssen says the shellfish they examined had an average of one tiny plastic piece.
Janssen and his colleagues say the same process occurs in humans who consume shellfish. About 99 percent of the microplastics will pass through your system. That still leaves 1 percent to stay in the body, and we don’t yet know what that means for our health.
“We do need to know the fate of the plastics,” Janssen said. “Where do they go? Are they forgotten about by the body, or are they causing inflammation (炎症) or doing other things? Are chemicals coming out of these plastics and then causing damage? We don’t know.”
1. What does the underlined word “They” refer to in paragraph 3?| A．The researchers in the study. |
| B．The fish which eat the small fish in the ocean. |
| C．The common people who eat fish and seashell. |
| D．The small fish which eat plastic pieces. |
| A．It will be easier to catch them. |
| B．Their population will get smaller and smaller. |
| C．They will help reduce the amount of plastic pieces in the ocean. |
| D．People will find it an effective way to deal with water pollution. |
| A．It means developing a good taste in delicious food. |
| B．It means that eating sea creatures is dangerous. |
| C．It means storing plastic in the human bodies. |
| D．It means that plastic shellfish can take the place of real one. |
| A．No one will be sure of its effects. | B．They will lead to some strange diseases. |
| C．They will be forgotten. | D．They will give off some poisonous chemicals. |
8 . People often recommend planting trees to make cities greener, cleaner and healthier. But during heat waves, city trees can actually increase air pollution. Indeed, a new study finds that up to 60% of the ozone (臭氧) in a city’s air on hot days may have its origin in chemicals released by trees.
City trees offer a host of benefits. They provide cooling shade, absorb carbon dioxide, and also release oxygen into the air. But oxygen is far from the only gas that trees and certain other green plants release into the air. One of these chemicals is a hydrocarbon(碳氢化合物) that can react with burning pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides (氮氧化合物). The result is the formation of ozone which can cause airway diseases.
Galina Churkina works in Germany at Humboldt University of Berlin. She and her team wanted to explore how much chemicals released by trees could affect city air. To do this, the researchers turned to a computer. They asked it to model the likely reactions between plant chemicals and nitrogen oxides in air throughout the Berlin city area. To do that, the researchers fed in local weather data for two summers. One was 2006, when there was a heat wave. The other was 2014, when temperatures were mild.
An average daily high there in summer tends to be at roughly 25℃. On such a day, chemicals released by area greenery would likely have contributed to making about 6 to 20 percent of the ozone in the city’s air. But during a heat wave, when temperatures are more than 30℃ , tree-chemical emissions (发出物) are also high. As a result, they are now likely to be responsible for up to 60 percent of the ozone in air.
Churkina says her team was not surprised to see the contrary relationship between plants and pollution. The results, Churkina says, suggest city tree-planting programs should not ignore the role this greenery may play in bad summer air pollution. Adding more trees will improve quality of life only if those cities also undertake plans to sharply cut vehicle pollution (汽车污染).
1. What might people think of the new study finding?| A．Reasonable. | B．Intelligent. | C．Surprising. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．It is released by trees and other green plants. |
| B．It directly comes from the burning of oxygen. |
| C．A part of nitrogen oxides results in ozone in the end. |
| D．It is from the chemical reaction between a hydrocarbon and burning pollutants. |
| A．The higher the temperature is, the more ozone forms. |
| B．There’re no emissions of chemicals in spring or autumn. |
| C．Churkina suggests the number of city trees be lessened. |
| D．Churkina was surprised at seeing the contrary finding first. |
1. Where does the conversation probably take place?
| A．In a shop. | B．In a classroom. | C．In a canteen. |
| A．The woman hasn’t used plastic plates and cups before. |
| B．Paper plates and cups have replaced plastic ones in the U.S. |
| C．The man is not interested in plastic materials. |
10 . It seems there’s nowhere left to run from the microplastic (微塑料的)pollution. A small pilot study recently took microplastics from one of Europe’s most distant places, the French Pyrenees mountains, and found as many microplastics in the soil as you might expect from a big city like Paris.
The reason? The wind. Researchers now fear that our planet’s winds can pick up microplastics from about anywhere and transport them around the world, sometimes in large quantities. “We’d kind of expected it in a city getting blown around,” said Steve Allen from the University of Strathclyde in the UK, one member of the team. “But way up there? We expected to find some, ” he said. “We didn’t expect to find so many.”
Microplastics are pieces smaller than a fifth of an inch that have broken down from larger pieces of plastic. The forces of nature don’t distinguish (区分)between materials like stones and rocks, and plastics. Wind and waves hit plastics and break them down just the same, making them into dust that can then get swept up by the gentle wind and into the atmosphere. It’s a continuing environmental concern, as more and more microplastics find their way into our food and air.
The fact that microplastics can be found in large numbers even in distant places is a sign that is has become a global pollution problem. Steve Allen and his team set up collectors 4,500 feet up in the mountains for five months to trap plastic particles (粒子) as they fell to the Earth. The team found that an average of 365 plastic particles fell on their square meter collector daily. This included bits form plastic bags, plastic film and packaging material, among other plastic sources. Many of these materials were small enough to be breathed in without even realizing it. They’re in the air, and they’re everywhere.
1. How did Steve Allen think of the finding?| A．It was interesting. | B．It was surprising. |
| C．It was conflicting. | D．It was disappointing. |
| A．How the wind spreads the microplastics. |
| B．How the microplastics come into being. |
| C．How the microplastic pollution appears. |
| D．How the wind makes the pollution serious. |
| A．It is difficult to collect them. | B．They all come from big cities. |
| C．They are part of the air we breathe. | D．It is impossible to know their source. |
| A．Plastics have been found in the distant areas. |
| B．Plastics are proved to do great harm to the soil. |
| C．The microplastic pollution is worse in big cities. |
| D．Wind is carrying microplastics around the world. |
