A new set of R's are here: Recycle, Reduce and Reuse. These three “Rs”,when used every day, can reduce the amount of waste going into landfills, reduce the litter polluting the land and water, conserve (节约) energy and save your money.

Recycling is one of the easiest ways to save energy, money and time while reducing the amount of garbage going into landfills.

Most communities have roadside pick?up service to recycle common household items like glass, steel, aluminum, newspaper and cardboard. By separating out the recyclable items from normal household trash, you can reduce the amount of trash entering a landfill by more than 75 percent.

Recycling one aluminum beverage can saves enough energy to run your television for three hours. Even better, local recyclers or scrap?metal dealers may pay money for your metal recyclables.

It is estimated that the 54 billion cans recycled last year in the US saved 15 million barrels of oil. That is equivalent (相等的) to the US oil consumption for one day. Recycling other household items offers similar savings in money and energy.

Composting food waste will reduce your trash load even more. A basic compost pile built with the help of instructions from numerous resources on the web can be constructed over a weekend, using materials easily obtained from local hardware or home improvement stores. In addition to reducing your waste, this all?natural recycling provides safe, clean and organic fertilizer for your garden, eliminating the need to buy chemical?derived products.

Finally, recycling other household items like computers, televisions and monitors and household chemicals like pesticides (农药) and paints will remove dangerous chemicals like mercury (水银) and lead from the landfills.

If your community doesn't offer recycling programs, contact your local government to get one established.

1.What's NOT true about recycling in the eyes of the author?

A. It's energy?efficient.

B. It's money?saving.

C. It's time?consuming.

D. It's environmentally?friendly.

2.Recycling________aluminum beverage cans save enough energy to keep your TV on for half a day.

A. three B. four

C. five D. six

3.What's the possible meaning of the underlined word “composting” in the sixth paragraph?

A. Turning waste into fertilizer.

B. Throwing waste into dustbin.

C. Making waste clean and useful.

D. Finding new land to put the rubbish in.

4.The passage tells us the way of living a ________life.

A. happy B. rich

C. green D. economical

Almost everybody in America will spend a part of his or her life behind a shopping cart. They will, in a lifetime, push the chrome-plated contraptions many miles. But few will know—or even think to ask—who it was that invented them.

Sylvan N. Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937. At that time he was in the supermarket business.Every day he would see shoppers lugging groceries around in baskets they had to carry.

One day Goldman suddenly had the idea of putting baskets on wheels. The wheeled baskets would make shopping much easier for his customers, and would help to attract more business.

On June 4, 1937, Goldman’s first carts were ready for use in his market. He was terribly excited on the morning of that day as customers began arriving. He couldn’t wait to see them using his invention.

But Goldman was disappointed. Most shoppers gave the carts a long look, but hardly anybody would give them a try.

After a while, Goldman decided to ask customers why they weren’t using his carts. “Don’t you think this arm is strong enough to carry a shopping basket?” one shopper replied.

But Goldman wasn’t beaten yet. He knew his carts would be a great success if only he could persuade people to give them a try. To this end, Goldman hired a group of people to push carts around his market and pretend they were shopping! Seeing this, the real customers gradually began copying the phony customers.

As Goldman had hoped, the carts were soon attracting larger and larger numbers of customers to his market. But not only did more people come—those who came bought more. With larger, easier-to-handle baskets, customers unconsciously bought a greater number of items than before.

Today’s shopping carts are five times larger than Goldman’s original model. Perhaps that’s one reason Americans today spend more than five times as much money on food each year as they did before 1937—before the coming of the shopping cart.

1.What do the underlined words “ chrome-plated contraptions” in the first paragraph refer to?

A. Baskets. B. Private cars.

C. Suitcases. D. Shopping carts.

2.What was the purpose of Goldman’s invention?

A. It was to prove him to be a good inventor.

B. It was to reduce the burden of his employees' work.

C. It was to make shopping easier and attract more business.

D. It was to help the disabled make shopping easily in his market.

3.Goldman hired a group of people to push carts around his market in order to

A. attract people to buy things in his market

B. encourage people to use his shopping carts

C. make his market different from the others

D. keep the groceries from being stolen

4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A. Goldman will become very famous because of his invention.

B. Goldman's invention will be regarded as the greatest one in the world.

C. Supermarket business has benefited a lot from Goldman's invention.

D. There will be nothing that can replace Goldman's invention.

Make A Difference Day is the largest national day of community service in the USA, which takes place on the fourth Saturday of October.

Who takes part in Make A Difference Day?

Anyone! Young and old, individuals and groups, anyone can carry out a volunteer project that helps others. It might be as ambitious as collecting truckloads of clothing for the homeless, or as personal as spending an afternoon helping an elderly neighbor or relative. USA WEEKEND covers volunteers and their projects in articles and photos.

How do I get started?

Look around your community. Are people hungry, homeless or ill? Are parks or schools dirty or neglected? No matter where you live, there’s a need nearby. And on Make A Difference Day, millions of Americans are expected to roll up their sleeves to help others. You can act alone or enlist your friends, family and co-workers. You can also call the Make A Difference Day Hot Line, 1-800-416-3824, for information. Or use the ideas on this website for inspiration.

What do I do after I’ve selected a project?

Tell others what you’re doing and enlist help. Several weeks before the day, tell us about your plans in the Make A Difference DAYtaBANK, a national listing of local projects that will be viewed by interested volunteers, other people looking for good project ideas and news media looking for good stories to tell. It will only take a few minutes to post your plans in the DAYtaBANK hosted by HandsOn Network.

Do it!

Carry out your plans to help others on Make A Difference Day. Be sure to take lots of pictures and share them on the Make A Difference Day Photo Album.

1.Where does the text probably come from?

A. A magazine. B. A website.

C. A newspaper. D. A festival brochure.

2.Make A Difference Day ________.

A. is a celebration of helpful neighbors

B. is a service provided by the community

C. is a national day of doing good in America

D. is a festival celebrated every year in the world

3.It can be inferred from the text that volunteers ________.

A. are chosen carefully by USA WEEKEND

B. need to dress up on Make A Difference Day

C. can get good project ideas from HandsOn Network

D. take pictures to send them to news media for money

4.The main purpose of the text is to ________.

A. introduce the origin of Make A Difference Day

B. direct people how to select a proper project idea

C. promote Make A Difference Day to other countries

D. encourage people to join in Make A Difference Day

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网