阅读攻略－2001年1月CET4阅读真题解读(四)（在线收听）

Passage Four

    In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage (饮料) containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products. But because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it would end up buried in landfills (垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.

    Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled (回收利用) in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paint brushes, etc.

    As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life —— and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.

    Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.

36. What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?

    A) A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling

    B) Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling

    C) Consumers had to pay for beverage containers and could get their money back on returning them

    D) Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles

37. The returned plastic bottles in New York used to _________.

    A) be turned into raw materials     B) be separated from other rubbish

    C) have a second-life value        D) end up somewhere underground

38. The key problem in dealing with returned plastic beverage containers is ___________.

    A) how to reduce their recycling costs

    B) to sell them at a profitable price

    C) how to turn them into used things

    D) to lower the prices for used materials

39. Recycling had become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because ____________.

    A) recycling causes little pollution

    B) other methods are more expensive

    C) recycling has great appeal for the jobless

    D) local governments find it easy to manage

40. It can be concluded from passage that _________.

    A) recycling is to be recommended both economically and environmentally

    B) local governments in the U.S. can expect big profits from recycling

    C) rubbish is a potential remedy for the shortage of raw materials

    D) landfills will still be widely used for waste disposal

试题分析：

    本文讲述的是垃圾回收利用的问题，这也是热点话题。作者通过纽约州回收饮料罐的做法，进而论述垃圾回收利用的前提条件和重要意义。

36. C 细节题  从全文第一句话“New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage containers.”以及后文我们可以知道，购买饮料的顾客事先付给商店瓶罐押金，返还空瓶时再领回。

37. D 细节题  根据文章第一段中“much of it would end up buried in landfills”，D为正确选项。

38. C 推断题  文章第一段中指出塑料瓶被作为垃圾填埋的原因“few could figure out what to do with the plastic”接着在第二段又谈到部分塑料瓶被回收利用的原因“turning them into fence posts, paint brushes”，在第三段中又予以总结“A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life —— and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value.”（垃圾总是垃圾，除非有人能给它第二次生命），由此不难推断出，关键是把这些塑料瓶变成有用的东西。

39. B 细节题  综合第四段前两句话的意思，可以知道回收利用成为垃圾处理的第一选择是因为其他处理方式相对成本较高。

40. A 主旨题  文章的主题常出现在篇首或结尾。这里作者在文末提到了垃圾回收利用在经济和环保方面的两大好处stimulate the local economy and trim the pollution control，所以选项A最符合题意。

注：原文刊载于英语辅导报 大学四级版  8月8号 2005～2006学年度 第2期