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To be clear, plastic bags are rightly thought of as a threat that's harmful to human health. According to the National Resources Defense Council, over a decade ago, the average American family took home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year, filling our cabinets, kitchen drawers, and landfills (垃圾填埋场). Today the numbers are slightly better: According to National Geographic, as of 2018, shoppers in the United States use almost one plastic bag per resident per day.
This is not a story on the evil of plastics, but on whether the reusable bag can justify its existence. Although more environmentally friendly than traditional single-use plastic bags, reusable bags, depending on what they are made of, are more energy-intensive (耗能) to recycle.
According to a report by the United Nations Environment Program, “depending on what they are made of, reusable bags might have to be deconstructed in a costly recycling process to separate the different materials. As a result, in many cases, reusable bags are not recycled." That means despite the best intentions, millions of reusable bags designed to replace the need for traditional plastic shopping bags, will also end up in landfills.
Another point to consider, not all reusable bags are equal in terms of their recyclability. There are a wide range of reusable bag options on the market, and reusable bags tend to be made of more than one material to give the bag added reinforcement (耐用) and added street fashion. On a life cycle basis, stronger, heavier bags-no matter what material they are made of-will have a more severe environmental effect. That's because heavier bags use more resources to produce as well as distribute.
Just like plastic bags did, reusable bags multiply rapidly. Used for promotional (促销的)purposes and marketing of all kinds, reusable bags' growing popularity means bags that have been used very little (or not at all) can be found piled in streets, in garbage cans in city parks, and basically everywhere. Therefore, consumers have come to see them as disposable, defeating their very purpose.
In the end, the best practice for reusable bags is to have no half measures: Either use them all the time or don't use them at all. Using a reusable bag once or twice, and then throwing it away, doesn't do the environment any favors.
1.What can we learn from the passage?
A.Plastic bags are refused by environmentalists.
B.Shops in America have limited the use of plastic bags.
C.The need of strong and fashionable reusable bags is more than the supply.
D.Reusable bags demand more resources to produce and recycle than expected.
2.The words “very purpose" in Paragraph 6 refer to the intention of __________.
A.being left in landfills
B.being used as much as possible
C.replacing plastic bags
D.promoting goods on the market
3.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A.How to Recycle Reusable Bags
B.Disadvantages of Plastic Bags
C.Reusable Bags? Think Twice!
D.Plastic Bags, Less Popular?
4.Which of the following shows the development of ideas in the passage?
I: Introduction CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point (次要点) C: Conclusion
A.
B.
C.
D.
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Convenient ______ plastic bags are for people, they will cause white pollution.
A. as B. although
C. since D. while
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We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away polluting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.
The 16-year-old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, has-discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair, a ＄10,000 prize, a ＄20,000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.
Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms (微生物). If those microorganisms could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.
With this goal in mind, he grounded plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control. Sure enough, the plastic exposed to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.
The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me. One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags. The answer: not much. So I decided to do something myself.” Said Daniel Burd.
1.Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair because ________.
A. he found a new kind of microorganism
B. he contributed much to environmental protection
C. he found a way to degrade plastics in shorter time
D. he could encourage microbe growth in an easier way
2. Daniel Burd exposed one plastic sample to dead bacteria to ________.
A. make the live bacteria work better B. test how effective his method was
C. know which bacteria worked faster D. control the temperature in the process
3.
Maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because ________.
A. plastics can get hot easily B. microbes can produce heat themselves
C. much carbon dioxide is produced D. the temperature can be controlled
4. Daniel Burd got his idea from ________.
A. his school textbook B. the failure of researchers
C. his everyday work D. the practice of other people
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We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away polluting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.
The 16-year-old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, has discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair, a ＄10,000 prize, a ＄20,000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.
Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms(微生物)．If those microorganisms could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.
With this goal in mind, he grounded plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth．Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months．Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control．Sure enough, the plastic exposed(暴露) to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.
The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me．One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags．The answer: not much．So I decided to do something myself.” Said Daniel Burd.
1.Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair because ________.
A. he found a way to degrade plastics in shorter time
B. he contributed much to environmental protection
C. he found a new kind of microorganism
D. he could encourage microbe growth in an easier way
2.Daniel Burd exposed one plastic sample to dead bacteria to ________.
A. make the live bacteria work better
B. know which bacteria worked faster
C. test how effective his method was
D. control the temperature in the process
3.Maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because ________.
A. plastics can get hot easily
B. microbes can produce heat themselves
C. much carbon dioxide is produced
D. the temperature can be controlled
4.Daniel Burd got his idea from ________.
A. his school textbook
B. the failure of researchers
C. his everyday work
D. the practice of other people
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In order to protect the environment，supermarkets and stores are forbidden to ______ free plastic bags to shoppers.
A．put away B．put off C．give off D．give away
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Plastic bags won't be allowed to be used for free in the supermarkets. They can't _________ easily, which does great harm to our environment.
A. break off B. break in C. break down D. break out
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__________, there will be a day to let the cat out of the bag.
A.However well-kept the secret is B.As the secret is well-kept
C.However the secret is well kept D.Since the secret is well-kept
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As a senior, my future is always on my mind. To be exact, thoughts of the future have kept me up countless nights and made me worry enough to do poorly on more than one test. Because of this, words of wisdom are a source of comfort. Steve Jobs once gave a speech to Stanford’s graduating class in 2005 and his words resound repeatedly in my mind whenever I think about my future.
When I hear Jobs discuss his life as a student, some of my fears were eased. He, too, felt the need to attend college to make something of himself. He faced what many are extremely afraid of: uncertainty. His lack of understanding caused him to stop attending college and focus on what he felt was important. His story had a happy ending, of course, since he certainly turned out well. This doesn’t mean that students shouldn’t attend college, but rather that they shouldn’t worry so much.
Jobs talked about the hardships in his work. His love of his work helped him carry on and he got where he was meant to be, which restates the point: don’ t panic.
One particular part of his speech stayed with me. Steve Jobs quoted（引用）the saying “Stay hungry, stay foolish” and it has become my motto. Staying foolish is realizing that you are still a fool, no matter how much you’ve learned or experienced. There is always more to explore. Staying hungry is wanting to find those things about which you are still uneducated.
Steve Jobs’s level of success is attainable, and I aim to prove that. With the will power to go into the world living every day like it’s my last and allowing the future to take care of itself, I will do great things. In the last moments of my life, I’ll be proud of what I have done and hope to have all the wisdom a person could wish for.
1.The author felt worried when _________.
A. he had to take tests at school
B. he thought about his future
C. he had lots of sleepless nights
D. he searched for words of wisdom
2.It is suggested in first two paragraphs that _________.
A. Steve Jobs didn’t attend college at all
B. Steve Jobs failed because of his decision
C. the author once discussed life with Jobs
D. Jobs’ speech influenced the author greatly
3.What did the author gain from Jobs’s speech?
A. Courage to drop out of school.
B. Confidence in defeating Jobs.
C. Bravery to face uncertainties.
D. Interest in computer industry.
4.What did NOT Steve Jobs encourage students to do in his speech?
A. Have the desire to learn more.
B. Be content with what they know.
C. Stay calm in the face of hardships.
D. Be modest so as to learn more.
5.The passage is mainly about _________.
A. the wisdom drawn from a speech
B. the most impressive quotation in life
C. a memorable meeting with Jobs
D. an experience of a speech
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Earthquakes may rightly be ranked as one of the most destructive forces known to man: since records began to be written down, it has been estimated that earthquake-related fatalities () have numbered in the millions, and that earthquake-related destruction has been beyond calculation. The greater part of such damage and loss of life had been due to collapse of buildings and the effects of rockslides, floods, fire, disease, tsunamis, and other observable events resulting from earthquakes, rather than from quakes themselves.
The great majority of all earthquakes occur in two specific geographic areas. One such area covers the Pacific Ocean and its bordering landmasses. The other extends from the East Indians to the Atlas Mountains, including the Himalayas, Iran, Turkey and the Alpine regions. It is in these two great belts or zones that ninety percent of all earthquakes take place; they may, however, happen anywhere at any time.
This element of unknown has for centuries added greatly to the dead and horror surrounding earthquakes, but in recent times there have been indications that earthquake forecast may be possible. By analyzing changes in animal behavior, patterns of movements in the earth's shell, variations in the earth's force of attraction, and the frequency with which minor earth shakes are observed, scientists have shown increasing success in expecting when and where earthquakes will strike. As a result, a worldwide earthquake warning network is already in operation and has helped to prepare for (and thus lessen) the vast destruction that might otherwise have been totally unexpected.
It is doubtful that man will ever be able to control earthquakes and get rid of their destructiveness altogether, but as how and why earthquakes happen become better understood, man will become more and more able to deal with their possible damage before they occur.
60. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. Earthquakes destruction is declining.
B. Man is capable of conquering earthquakes.
C. Man is no longer fearful of earthquakes.
D. Earthquake forecast is improving.
61. We can infer from the passage that quakes _______ .
A. mostly strike in oceans and mountains
B. may happen anywhere at any time
C. are unperceivable in masses of land
D. are hardly the direct cause of fatalities
62. The underlined phrase "This element of unknown" in Paragraph 3 refers to__.
A. the extension of earthquake zones
B. the percentage of earthquake occurrences
C. when and where earthquakes may occur
D. what big damage earthquakes may cause
63. Man's research on earthquake forecast at present is to _________ .
A. lower the frequency of earthquakes
B. release the energy that causes earthquakes
C. reduce the loss from earthquake disasters
D. analyze the relationship between different earthquakes
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—Which city is the first ________ plastic shopping bags?
—As far as I know, it is San Francisco.
A. banned B. ban
C. banning D. to ban