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Somewhere between 40,000 and 110,000 tons of plastic waste produced by Americans ends up in the ocean, according to a study published in the journal Science.
It's difficult to point out where all that waste comes from, and researchers think that much or most of it probably comes from the nation's seriously-populated coasts. But there's also evidence that the nation's inland waterways serve as a passage for plastic to travel thousands of miles into the oceans.
While researchers have documented plastic and human trash floating in the world's oceans, there has been relatively little attention paid to plastics in rivers, streams and lakes. "To my knowledge, no one has studied particular routes, with the exception of places like L.A, and Baltimore Harbor where there are measures in place to prevent trash in rivers from entering the ocean." said Kara Lavender Law, an oceanographer.
The few studies that exist, however, suggest that it may be a huge problem. A 2011 study of two southern California urban rivers---including Santa Ana River---found that every square meter of water contained from 125 to 819 pieces larger than 4.75 millimeters. Another survey of the Meuse River, which flows 575 miles through France, Belgium and the Netherlands to the North Sea, found that it contained 70,000 pieces of plastics per square meter of water, about 500 of which were roughly an inch or bigger in size.
If there's anything positive in this, it's you that can do something, at least on a personal level, to reduce the amount of plastic that goes into the oceans. "Put trash where it goes." said Jenna Jambeck, an associate professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia. "Use reusable items---bags, cups and bottles---to reduce waste."
Finally, Jambeck urges people to pick up litter along waterways, and record it with a phone app called the Marine Debris Tracker. The data you provide can help scientists to get a better handle on the trash problem.
1.According to the text, the least polluted place might be __________.
A.Santa Ana River B.Meuse River
C.Baltimore Harbor D.The North Sea
2.How does the author prove plastic waste in rivers is a huge problem?
A.By referring to experts' views. B.By listing statistics.
C.By making comparisons. D.By following time order.
3.What does Jenna Jambeck advise us to do?
A.Make use of plastic items. B.Reduce the size of waste we throw away.
C.Stay positive about the oceans' future. D.Start from small things to deal with waste.
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Around 45% of plastic waste is recycled annually in the UK and is on the increase. However, one of the problems with present plastic recycling methods is that you end up with a lower-quality plastic with worse properties （特性）than the original. This means that plastic drink bottles cannot simply be recycled into new drink bottles continuously, but instead are used for other lower-grade products like park benches.
Now, British scientists have developed a new method of chemical recycling. They use lower temperatures and more environmentally-friendly starting chemicals than previous methods to turn plastics back into their constituent chemical molecules （分子）.In this way, they can be used to make new plastics of the same quality as the original.
"Most plastic is now recycled using mechanical methods, where they are transformed into liquids before being made into something new," said a professor named Matthew Jones. "The problem is, melting plastic changes its properties and reduces the quality. Out method of chemical recycling overcomes this problem. Then plastics can be used all over again without losing any properties?"
The researchers are recycling some kinds of plastics, including plant-based PLA, a plastic used for food packaging and PET, which is used for drink bottles. So far, the technology has only been demonstrated on a small range. However, scientists are now working to produce larger quantities of starting chemicals.
"There is no single solution to the problem of plastic waste — the approach has to be a combination of reducing, reusing and recycling. Our method of chemical recycling could allow carbon to be recycled endlessly rather than digging more up from the ground in the form of fossil fuels, or letting it into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas," said Dr. Paul McKeown from the University of Bath.
1.What is the problem with the present plastic recycling?
A.The quality of recycled plastics declines.
B.Plastic drink bottles cannot be recycled.
C.The amount of plastic waste is increasing.
D.Recycled lower-grade products sell badly.
2.How do scientists recycle plastic waste with the new method?
A.By transforming it into fuels.
B.By heating it into liquid state.
C.By keeping its original properties.
D.By changing its molecule structure.
3.What can we learn from what Dr. Paul McKeown said?
A.Fossil fuels are endless resources.
B.The plastic waste problem has no solution.
C.Recycled carbon leads to greenhouse gases.
D.The chemical recycling is environment-friendly.
4.In which part of the website can we find the text?
A.Business. B.Tech & Science.
C.Lifestyle. D.Arts & Culture
高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
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Americans this year will swallow 15,000 tons of aspirin, one of the safest and most effective drugs invented by man. The most popular medicine in the world today, it is an effective pain reliever. Its bad effects are relatively mild and it is cheap.
For millions of people suffering from arthritis(关节炎), it is the only thing that works. Aspirin, in short, is truly the 20th-century wonder drug. It is also the second largest suicide drug and is the leading cause of poisoning among children. It has side effects that, although relatively mild, are largely unrecognized among users.
Although aspirin was first sold by a German company in 1899, it has been around much longer than that. Hippocrates, in ancient Greece, understood the medical value of the leaves and tree bark which today are known to contain salicylates(水杨酸碱), the chemical in aspirin. During the 19th century, there was a great deal of experimentation in Europe with this chemical, and it led to the introduction of aspirin. By 1915, aspirin tablets were available in the United States.
A small quantity of aspirin (two five-grain tablets) relieves pain and inflammation(炎症). It also reduces fever by interfering with some of the body’s reactions.
1.The passage is written to ________.
A．suggests us using more aspirin B．reminds us of the side effects of aspirin
C．gives us a whole view of aspirin D．discusses the good effects of aspirin
2.According to the author, aspirin ________.
A．is very safe B．first appeared in 1899
C．can be harmful to children D．can hardly be dangerous
3.Generally speaking, the author seems to be ________.
A．in favor of aspirin B．against the use of sapirin
C．not interested in aspirin D．careful in using aspirin
4.What is the best title for this passage?
A．How to Use Aspirin B．Why I Take Aspirin
C．The Most Popular Medicine D．The Side Effects of Aspirin
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Plastic-Eating Worms
Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.
Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. ＂Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, ＂she explains, ＂The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ＂
Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?
Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply ＂millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.＂
1.What can we learn about the worms in the study?
A.They take plastics as their everyday food.
B.They are newly evolved creatures.
C.They can consume plastics.
D.They wind up in landfills.
2.According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to .
A.identify other means of the breakdown
B.find out the source of the enzyme
C.confirm the research findings
D.increase the breakdown speed
3.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might .
A.help to raise worms
B.help make plastic bags
C.be used to clean the oceans
D.be produced in factories in future
4.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To explain a study method on worms.
B.To introduce the diet of a special worm.
C.To present a way to break down plastics.
D.To propose new means to keep eco-balance.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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Plastic-Eating Worms
Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.
Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. ＂Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, ＂she explains, ＂The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ＂
Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?
Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply ＂millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.＂
1.What can we learn about the worms in the study?
A.They take plastics as their everyday food.
B.They are newly evolved creatures.
C.They can consume plastics.
D.They wind up in landfills.
2.According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to .
A.identify other means of the breakdown
B.find out the source of the enzyme
C.confirm the research findings
D.increase the breakdown speed
3.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might .
A.help to raise worms
B.help make plastic bags
C.be used to clean the oceans
D.be produced in factories in future
4.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To explain a study method on worms.
B.To introduce the diet of a special worm.
C.To present a way to break down plastics.
D.To propose new means to keep eco-balance.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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Dogs and humans have been living side-by-side for about 15,000 years, but there are tons of facts about dogs that perhaps we have never heard of.
Night vision
Dogs have good night vision. Their large pupils let more light in and the rods (视杆细胞) work better in poor light. But the biggest factor is the tapetum (反光组织), which reflect light at the back of the eye. Besides, dogs’ whiskers (胡须) also help them “see” in the dark because they pick up on very small changes in air, providing dogs with information about the size, shape, and speed of things nearby.
Secret tail code
Dogs can use their tails to communicate. They wag their tails to the right when they are relaxed or happy, and to the left when nervous or threatened. When they’ re aggressive, the tails will stick straight-up in the air. A broad wag is friendly while a slow wag is neutral, neither excited nor anxious.
Dreams
We often see a dog’s body making sudden movements in its sleep. Dogs have the same brain wave patterns as humans’ while they are asleep, so they dream just like we do.
Super nose
Dogs can find their way home despite long distances. Their noses are a vital part of their incredible sense of direction. The part of a dog’s brain that controls smell is 40 times larger than humans’. They’re able to follow smells for miles. Furthermore, dogs have an amazing ability to recognize the smells given off by the abnormal cells in human bodies, including cancer. This is something scientists are eager to explore further. And interesting, a dog’s “fingerprint” is on its nose. The patterns on dogs’ noses are so distinct that they can actually be used to identify the animals.
A sixth sense
Dogs act strangely before something bad, like a storm or earthquake, happens, for they are sensitive to low frequencies that humans can’t sense. So don’t let their strange behavior go unnoticed next time. It could save your life.
1.Which of the following indirectly helps dogs see well in the dark?
A. Their rods. B. Their tapetum.
C. Their whiskers. D. Their pupils.
2.If a dog holds up the tail, it indicates ________.
A. happiness B. attack
C. friendliness D. relaxation
3.What hasn’t been discovered about a dog?
A. Why it can sense natural disasters. B. Why it has an acute sense of smell.
C. What emotions it shows with its tail. D. How it can smell humans’ illnesses.
4.In what way are dogs like humans?
A. They dream when they sleep. B. They have good night vision.
C. They have distinct nose patterns. D. They can react to low frequencies.
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It's a(n)_________choice between taking the job and staying out of work.Better not waste more time on it!
A.straight B.flexible C.intelligent D.important
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
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Coca-Cola, which reportedly produced more than 3 million tons of plastic packaging in 2017, announced Thursday it wants to “help fix the world’s plastic waste problem one community (社区) at a time.”
The soda giant is doing so by providing $ 5.4 million for recycling programs in cities like Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Houston. In these cities, partners, like The Green Blue Institute and The Recycling Partnership, which receive the money, will work together to improve recycling rates.
“We focus on areas where we have the ability to make the biggest influence on communities through the funding and expert skills of Coca-Cola employees,” Carlos Pagoagoa, Coca-Cola’s group director of community partnerships, said in a statement. “In each city, local partners will work together to identify barriers to recycling on a local level and test a range of solutions,” he added. “We hope the learnings from these ‘model markets’ can offer solutions to other cities facing similar challenges.”
As part of the effort, The Recycling Partnership and the city of Atlanta, where the cola company’s headquarters are based, will send street teams out to open recycling carts and leave citizens cards informing them what they can and can’t recycle, and let them know how their efforts work.
“Two of the most urgent problems with recycling in the U. S. today are lack of access, followed by pollution in recycling,” Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, said in a statement. “We know from the success of Atlanta in 2017 that the citizens want to recycle, and that communicating with them in the street works.”
Last year, Coca-Cola announced its task to collect and reuse a bottle or can for each one it sells, and increase the amount of its products out of recycled materials to 50% by 2030. The brand also aims to make all its packaging fully recyclable by 2025.
1.What does Coca-Cola company intend to do in the program?
A. Produce less packaging.
B. Help deal with plastic waste.
C. Pick up waste in communities.
D. Build a plant to recycle plastic waste.
2.What’s Paragraph 2 mainly about?
A. How Coca-Cola conducts its program.
B. What organizations participate in the program.
C. How Coca-Cola chooses cities for the program.
D. What the local people do in Coca-Cola’s program.
3.What do street teams do to help?
A. Sort out various waste in the city.
B. Look into the cause of pollution.
C. Instruct local people what to recycle.
D. Hand cards to the locals in person.
4.What does Keefe Harrison think of the program?
A. Promising. B. Difficult. C. Pioneering. D. Costly.
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Scientists warn that our earth is drowning in plastic. The world’s cities produce 2 billion tons of rubbish every year. That number is expected to rise to 3 billion tons by 2050.
We often buy packaged goods but that packaging is often made of plastic. Now, it may be changing. A new environmentally friendly shopping model, called Loop, was recently launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It aims to replace throwaway containers with reusable ones. This is what some people call the zero-waste movement. The main belief driving this movement is that much of the trash we create is unnecessary.
Loop is the idea of TerraCycle, a recycling company. It first came from the “milkman model” of the 1950s in the US. Back then, someone brought milk to your doorstep in glass bottles and then left with empty bottles. These could be cleaned and used again. The result is zero-waste. Loop will work the same way. Instead of throwing away, the product comes in a reusable one. When the product is all gone, someone will collect and clean the old container, fill it up and then return it to you.
At the start, Loop will offer about 300 products. Proctor & Gamble will start by selling 10 products on Loop as a test. If the results are good, more products will be added later.
Representatives from Greenpeace also joined in the discussion about Loop at Davos. Jennifer Morgan said that “Greenpeace welcomes the aim of the Loop Alliance to move away from throwaway culture and disposability. But I doubt whether companies worldwide are ready to change their business models”.
Loop is set to launch later in three eastern U. S. states, and also in Paris, France and some of the surrounding area. Then Loop plans to expand to the U. S. West Coast, Toronto, Canada and Britain by the end of this year.
1.The purpose of Loop is to___________.
A.make packaging easier
B.reduce the plastic waste
C.lower the production cost
D.change shopping model
2.What is the third paragraph mainly about?
A.The origin of the idea of Loop.
B.The way to recycle milk bottles.
C.The future of shopping pattern.
D.The benefit of recycling containers.
3.What is Morgan’s attitude towards the current situation of loop?
A.Optimistic. B.Desperate.
C.Worried. D.Ambiguous.
4.What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A.To show scientists’ concern about plastic.
B.To present us benefits of recycling plastic.
C.To introduce the zero-waste shopping model.
D.To inform us of an environmental issue.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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The tons of plastic we’re dumping in the oceans is finding a new home—the stomachs of our beautiful marine animals. Yet another reminder of this fact washed ashore in Eastern Indonesia this week. A large amount of waste, including drinking cups and flip-flops, was found in the stomach of a whale that died off the coast near Kapota Island.
The 9.5-metre sperm whale (抹香鲸) was found by rescuers from the Wakatobi National Park. The whale had swallowed 5.9 kilograms of plastic waste containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, and more than 1,000 other kinds of pieces of plastic, park chief Heri Santoso told the reporter.
“Although we have not been able to deduce the cause of death, the facts that we see are truly awful,” said Dwi Suprapti, a marine species conservation co-ordinator at WWF Indonesia. She said it was not possible to determine if the plastic had caused the whale’s death because of the animal’s advanced state of decay (腐烂). But this is only the latest.
Four Asian nations—Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand—account for 50% of the plastic waste in the oceans, according to a report by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. The Philippines is second to Indonesia when it comes to putting away plastic waste in the oceans, according to a study published in the journal Science in January. Of the 3.2 million mismanaged waste it produces every year, 1.29 million ends up in the ocean.
A report released earlier this year stated that the amount of plastic in the ocean is likely to increase.
1.What can we know about the sperm whale?
A. Its stomach is the home of plastic waste.
B. It died of swallowing lots of plastic waste.
C. It was the first whale to eat plastic waste.
D. It had eaten much plastic waste before its death.
2.Which can best replace the underlined word “deduce” in paragraph 3?
A. confirm B. cause
C. approve D. contain
3.Which country dumps the most plastic waste into the oceans?
A. Thailand B. Indonesia
C. Vietnam D. Philippines
4.What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. Philippines puts away 1.29 million tons of plastic.
B. A sperm whale was found dead near Kapota Island.
C. Much dumped plastic waste was found in a dead whale.
D. We should take measures to reduce the waste in whales.
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