BEIJING, China-Pollution in China remains very serious as the country's rapid economic growth brings new environmental problems, a minister said Saturday．
Vice Environment Minister Zhang Lijun said China has made progress on environmental protection, but admitted that its rapid economic growth over the past decade has had a negative effect on the environment．
"Our rapid economic development has continuously brought our country new environmental problems, particularly dangerous chemicals, electronic waste and so on．These environmental pollutants(污染物)bring new problems and affect human health, " Zhang told a news conference．
He said that emissions(排放)of traditional pollutants remain high and some areas have failed to meet government standards．
China has pledged to continue reducing emissions this year of three key air pollutants-ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide．The government has also promised to bring down demand for chemical oxygen-a measure of water pollution by l．5 percent from the 2010 levels．
In the last five years, there were 912 "environmental emergencies" involving heavy metal pollution, including several well-publicized instances of mass contamination, Zhang said．Thousands of children were affected by lead poisoning in several provinces in 2009 and 2010 because they lived near metal smelters or battery factories．
Other incidents included a diesel fuel leak in the Yellow River, chemical contamination(污染)in the northeast Songhua River following a flood, and crude oil leakage off the northeastern coastal city of Dalian after a pipeline burst．
The minister noted that rapid development in the next five years would increase the need for China to improve environmental protection and shift to a more sustainable model of economic development from its dependence on industries which consume huge quantities of energy．
China is focusing on clean energy, including solar, wind and nuclear power, as one way to reduce its dependence on coal, which generates three-quarters of its electricity and is also used for winter heating in northern cities．China also hopes the strategy will reduce its demand for oil and gas and increase economic growth and jobs．
Zhang told reporters there was no plan to adjust China's overall strategy for nuclear development but he said Beijing will learn lessons from Japan after a violent earthquake resulted in a radioactive leak(放射能泄露)．
"Some lessons we learn from Japan will be considered in the making of China's nuclear power plans, " he said．"But China will not change its determination and plan for developing nuclear power．"
(1)
According to the minister, the pollution problem requires China to ________．
[ ]
A．
slow its economic development
B．
ask industries to meet their own standards
C．
depend on industries consuming large amounts of energy
D．
transform its economic development model
(2)
From the text, we can know water pollution is partly measured by ________．
[ ]
A．
the demand for chemical oxygen
B．
the amount of waste gas emissions
C．
the degree of heavy metal pollution
D．
the number of environmental pollutants
(3)
According to the text, which of the following is TRUE?
[ ]
A．
Rapid economic growth helps to improve the environment．
B．
Dangerous chemicals are one of the traditional pollutants．
C．
Coal is used more in northern cities than in southern cities．
D．
The use of clean energy will help increase job opportunities．
(4)
The underlined word "generates" in Paragraph 9 means " ________ "．
[ ]
A．
reduces
B．
transports
C．
produces
D．
needs
(5)
What is Zhang's attitude towards what happened in Japan?
[ ]
A．
He is astonished at it and feels pity for the Japanese people
B．
He thinks China will pay more attention to nuclear safety．
C．
He thinks Japan should do something to prevent it from happening again．
D．
He doesn't think it will influence China's nuclear power plans at all．
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