泽熙美文Reading Comprehension
Before the grass has thickened on the roadside verges and leaves have started growing on the trees, it is a perfect time to look around and see just how dirty Britain has become. The pavements are stained with chewing gum that has been spat out and the gutters are full of discarded fast food cartons. I remember traveling abroad years ago and being saddened by the plastic bags, discarded bottles and soiled nappies 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 undergrowth for years; a semi-permanent reminder of what an untidy 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 ff 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 percent. When he was a minister, Michael Meacher attempted to introduce a similar arrangement in Britain. The plastics industry protested, of course.
However, they do not need to 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 initiative, both individual and collective, before it is too late. The alternative is to continue sliding downhill until we have a country that looks like a vast municipal rubbish tip. 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 squalor, they behave squalidly. Now, much of Britain looks pretty squalid. What will it look like in five years?
1. According to the passage, the perfect time to look around and see just how dirty Britain has become is ______.
A.the time when tourists are most likely to come to Britain
B.the dirtiest season of the year
C.the time when tourists can make a comparison to their own countries
D.the time when dirt is not yet covered by grass and leaves
正确答案：D
[解析] 本题问看看英国有多脏的最佳时期是哪个时候。根据第1段第1句“路边小草尚未茂盛起来，树上叶子还没发芽，趁着这个绝佳时机，环顾四周，看看英国变得多么脏乱”，可知正确答案为D项“在垃圾没有被草木覆盖之前”。
干扰项排除：A项“游客最可能来英国的时候”、B项“一年中最脏的季节”和C项“游客可以跟自己国家对比的时候”，均没在文中提及，故排除。
[参考译文]
路边小草尚未茂盛起来，树上叶子还没发芽，趁着这个绝佳时机，环顾四周，看看英国变得多么脏乱。人行道上沾满了行人乱吐的口香糖，排水沟里全是丢弃的快餐包装盒。我记得几年前出国旅行，看到路边的塑料袋，丢弃的瓶子和脏尿布时感到十分难过。如今，英国至少看起来跟国外一样脏。那么，问题出在哪里?
问题在于，我们的生活流动性增强，产生的垃圾存在的时间更长。要是垃圾没有被清理掉或者没扔在正确的地方，它会在灌木丛中停留多年，不断提醒我们这个小国多么不整洁。
首先，据估计，购物者使用了100亿个塑料袋。这些塑料袋需要100至1,000年时间才能腐烂。但是，这并不意味着没有解决方法。几年前，爱尔斗士政府对不可回收的购物袋征税，三个月内这些袋子的使用量减少了90%。当迈克尔·米彻担任环境大臣时，试图在英国实施类似措施。当然，塑料行业表示抗议。
不过他们不需要多此一举，因为这个想法很快夭折，最后超市可以随意提塑料袋。
现在明显需要趁早达成联合行动计划，无论是个人还是集体都需要行动。另一种方法是继续任其发展，直到我们国家成为一个巨大的垃圾堆。我们也许恰好正处于临界点。而我们知道人们会对周边环境作出反应。如果周围干净整洁，人们会表现得干净整洁。如果周围都是肮脏的垃圾，他们也会表现得肮脏。现在，英国许多地方非常脏乱。那么五年内它又会是什么样子?
2. From the passage we know that the speaker is ______.
A.an American
B.a British citizen
C.an Irish
D.a foreign visitor to Britain
正确答案：B
[解析] 根据第1段第3、4句“我记得几年前出国旅行，看到路边的塑料袋，丢弃的瓶子和脏尿布时感到十分难过。如今，英国至少看起来跟国外一样脏。”从关键词“出国”和“英国”可以看出作者是英国人。故选B项。
3. It seems that Britain today is ______.
A.just as polluted as it was years ago
B.less seriously polluted than other countries
C.not so seriously polluted as it was years ago
D.more seriously polluted than it was years ago
正确答案：D
[解析] 第1段倒数第2句说到，“如今，英国至少看起来跟国外一样脏”，因此B项错误。作者提出现在英国很脏，说明之前的英国情况较好，故A项和C项说法错误。故本题选D项。
4. What makes pollution more serious is that the rubbish ______.
A.has greatly increased in quantity
B.has become dirtier in nature
C.has become harder to disintegrate
D.has remained longer
正确答案：D
[解析] 题目问垃圾为什么使得污染更为严重。根据第2段“问题在于，我们的生活流动性增强，产生的垃圾存在时间更长。要是垃圾没有被清理掉或者没扔在正确的地方，它会在灌木丛中停留多年”，可以知道丢弃的垃圾没有好好处理，造成垃圾存留时间变长，故正确答案为D项。
干扰项排除：A项“垃圾数量极大增加”，文中提到塑料袋数量庞大(100亿)，但是究竟其数量是不是增加了，文章没说，数量庞大不等于数量增加，A项说法不妥，故排除。B项说垃圾本质上更脏了，在文中更是没有提及，故排除。C项说垃圾更难降解了，第3段说塑料需要100至1,000年时间才能腐烂，可看出塑料的分解时间是很长的，但这不意味着分解时间增加了，C项的错误与A项类似，故排除。
5. The author says that Britain is “an untidy little country” because ______.
A.it has been badly polluted
B.it is very small in size
C.it cannot be compared with other countries
D.it is limited by its geographical locations
正确答案：A
[解析] 根据第2段第2句“要是垃圾没有被清理掉或者没扔在正确的地方，它会在灌木丛中停留多年，不断提醒我们这个小国多么不整洁”，可推测这句话是为强凋英国的污染情况，故正确答案为A项。
干扰项排除：B项说国家面积小，虽然对应原文little一词，但这不是重点，故排除。C项“不能和其他国家对比”和D项“受到地理位置的限制”，文中均为提及，故排除。
6. The author believes that ______.
A.it is impossible to eliminate pollution because plastic bags last too long
B.plastic bags can be disintegrated in a shorter time
C.some methods can be found to solve the pollution of plastic bags
D.there are many ways to solve the problem of plastic bags
正确答案：C
[解析] 根据第3段第3句“但是，这并不意味着没有解决方法”，可知作者认为还是可以找到方法解决塑料袋问题的，故正确答案为C项。
干扰项排除：A项“因为垃圾袋存留时间久，所以污染没有办法解决”，与原文说法矛盾，故排除。B项“塑料袋能在短时间内降解”错误，其与第3段第2句的These will take anything from 100 to 1,000 years to rot矛盾，故排除。D项说有许多方法解决塑料袋问题，文中作者只提到征收塑料袋税一种，引入英国后还失败了，故D项的many ways不符合原文。
7. The Irish government succeeded in ______.
A.imposing a tax on all carrier bags
B.reducing the use of plastic bags
C.eliminating non-recyclable carrier bags
D.malting the plastic bags disintegrate faster
正确答案：B
[解析] 根据第3段第4句“几年前，爱尔兰政府对不可回收的购物袋征税，三个月内这些袋子的使用量减少了90%”，可知爱尔兰政府成功减少了塑料袋的使用量，故正确答案为B项。
干扰项排除：原文中爱尔兰政府只对不可回收的购物袋征税，故A项错误。根据原文所说这些不可回收的塑料袋使用量减少了90%可知，不可回收的塑料袋不是彻底根除了，故排除C项。D项“使塑料袋降解速度更快”，文中没有提及，故排除。
8. Similar measures as those adopted by the Irish government ______.
A.were successfully introduced into Britain
B.were only partially successful in Britain
