When you go shopping，you are given at least one plastic bag to carry what you’ve bought.They are so common that we don’t often give them a second thought.But the beginning of the end may have come for the plastic bag.

A small town in Tasmania，an island off the south coast of mainland Australia，is making itself an environmental role model (模范) by becoming the country’s first plastic­bag­free town.

Since April 28，Coles Bay’s population of 175 and its tourist shoppers have been using reusable paper or cloth bags to carry their shopping.

Coles Bay sits on the edge of the beautiful Freycinet national park.Around 180,000 tourists pass through the town and the park every year.

Ben Kearney，a local businessman who supports the bag ban，said it would cut the amount of waste and prevent damage to native wildlife who try to eat the plastic.

“Most of the business here comes from the tourism and that’s all based on the environment，so people were pretty supportive.”he said.

Every year Australians use more than 6 million plastic bags.More than half of these come from supermarkets.Since_it_takes_years_for_the_bags_to_biodegrade_(生物分解)，tens_of_millions_end_up_polluting_the_environment.They kill about 100,000 seabirds and animals，which mistake the bags for food，every year.

Only in the past few months have major Australian supermarkets begun cutting down on their use of plastic bags.Environmental groups are pushing for a plastic bag fee (费) like that in Ireland.There，since plastic bags cost 10 pence (about 1 yuan) each，their use has been cut by 90 percent.

Pollution caused by plastic bags is a big headache for countries all over the world.As early as 1999，Beijing said that only plastic bags of certain thickness could be used.This was to encourage them to be used again and again.In China’s capital alone，an average of 6 million plastic bags are used every single day.

36．What’s meant by“the beginning of the end may have come for the plastic bag”in the first paragraph?

A．It’s possible for the war against plastic bag use to have been started.

B．It’s likely that plastic bag use has been stopped.

C．It won’t be long before an end is put to plastic bag use.

D．Once started，plastic bag use will never end.

37．We can know from the passage that Coles Bay________.

A．is a small coastal city

B. is a place where you can see far more visitors than natives

C. was the first to offer plastic bags to shoppers free of charge

D．is a place where reusable plastic bags are used

38．According to Ben Kearney，the natives welcome the change in bag use because they________.

A．need to make money

B．are short of energy supply

C．don’t want to waste money

D．want to do something good for mankind

39．Judging from the underlined sentence in the Paragraph 7，“end up doing sth.” means“________”．

A．stop doing sth.                                     B．begin doing sth.

C．do sth.as a result                                  D．disappear while doing sth.

40．Which country or area is more polluted by plastic bags than the others?

A．Ireland.                                              B．Mainland Australia.

C．Coles Bay.                                          D．Beijing.