Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will a

Ask someone what they have done to help theenvironment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling.Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced torecycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealingwith the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible,but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home inthe first place.

The total amount of packaging increased by12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’swaste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twicewith plastic and cardboard.

Too much packaging is doing serious damageto the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of areas for buryingthis unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhousegases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but theprocess itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in thefirst place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarketsencourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them arecoming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers toreuse their plastic bags, for example.

But this is not just about supermarkets. Itis about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. Wehave learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This isespecially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumerproducts, which often have far more packaging than necessary.

There are signs of hope. As more of usrecycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material arecollecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but wehave a mountain to climb.

1.What does the underlined phrase “over-consumption”refer to?

2.The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 toshow _______.

3. What can be inferred from Paragraph 4?

4. What can we learn from the lastparagraph?

试题答案

【答案】

1.D

2.D

3.C

4.A     

【解析】略