题目内容
a perfect time to look around and see just how dirty Britain has become. The sidewalks are stained with
chewing gum that has been spat out and the gutters (排水沟) are full of thrown away fast food cartons. Years
ago I remember traveling abroad and being saddened by the plastic bags, waste bottles at the edge of every
road. Nowadays, Britain seems to look at least as bad. What has gone wrong?
The problem is that the rubbish created by our increasingly mobile lives lasts a lot longer than before. If it is
not cleared up and properly thrown away, it stays in the bushes for years; a semi-permanent reminder of what
a dirty little country we have now. Firstly, it is estimated that 10 billion plastic bags have been given to shoppers. These will take anything from 100 to 1,000 years to rot. However, it is not as if there is no solution to this. A
few years ago, the Irish government introduced a tax on non-recyclable carrier bags and in three months
reduced their use by 90%. When he was a minister, Michael Meacher attempted to introduce a similar
arrangement in Britain. The plastics industry was against that, of course. However, they need not have
bothered; the idea was killed before it could draw breath, leaving supermarkets free to give away plastic bags.
What is clearly necessary right now is some sort of combined action, both individual and collective, before
it is too late. The alternative is to continue going downhill until we have a country that looks like a vast rubbish
tip (废物场 ). We may well be at the tipping point. Yet we know that people respond to their environment. If
things around them are clean and tidy, people behave cleanly and tidily. If they are surrounded by dirt, they
behave dirtily. Now, much of Britain looks pretty dirty. What will it look like in five years?
B. you can see Britain at its dirtiest.
C. you can see how dirty Britain is now.
D. the grass has thickened on the roadside.
B. rubbish lasts longer than it used to
C. our society is increasingly mobile
D. people in Britain are dirty
B. He failed in his attempt to introduce a tax on plastic bags.
C. His attempt to follow the Irish example with a tax on plastic bags was welcomed.
D. He had problems with the plastics industry who weren't bothered about the tax.
B. There is more than one solution to the problem.
C. Britain will become an extremely dirty country in five years.
D. People tend to behave according to what they see around them
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