备战2023年中考英语阅读话题训练 专题07 垃圾的处理与利用

Nowadays, rubbish sorting（分类） is a big problem now because there is too much rubbish. It's bad for our soil, air and water. Actually, we can use some rubbish again. First, we need to sort our rubbish. Here are some rubbish sorting and recycling around the world.

    Taking away a city's rubbish is a big job. Every day trucks come into a city to collect it. Most rubbish is made up of things we can't eat or use. If we kept these things we would soon have a mountain of rubbish.

    In some cities the rubbish is collected and taken out- side of city to a dump. Often the city dump is placed where the ground is low or there is a big hole. The kitchen rubbish is broken into small pieces and sent into the sewage system. The sewage system takes away the used water from toilets, bathtubs and other places.

    To keep mice and flies away, some earth is used to cover the newly dumped rubbish. Later, grass may be planted on the rubbish-filled land. Finally, a house or a school may be built there, and then you'd never know that this had once been an old rubbish dump.

    In other cities the rubbish is burnt in special places. The fire burns everything but the metal. Sometimes the metal can be used again in factories where things are made of metal. The food parts of rubbish are put in special piles where they slowly change into something called humus, which looks like black earth. It is rich with kinds of things that feed plants and help make them grow.

If your pencil box is broken, the batteries(电池)in your flashlights run out, or you have some leftover food, how will you deal with these things? You will probably throw them all into one rubbish bin. But actually, we need to sort(分类)all the rubbish separately. If you don't sort your rubbish, all of it will go to a special place where it is buried(埋藏)together. As a result, it will take up some fields. Some rubbish will pollute the groundwater. Some rubbish that can be reused will be wasted.

In recent years, some Chinese cities have been working hard on rubbish sorting.

Shanghai has called on all the people living in this city to sort their rubbish into four groups: wet, recyclable, harmful and dry. Wet waste is known as household waste. They are things you don't want but pigs can eat. Paper, metal, glass, plastic and other things that can be reused are recyclable waste. Harmful waste includes thins like medicine, batteries. Finally, any waste that is not wet, recyclable or harmful will go to the “dry waste” bin.

Many other Chinese cities are also using this way to sort their rubbish. For example, Deyang has been sorting its rubbish into the same four groups since several years ago. Students in Deyang have already received waste-sorting guidebooks. They have studied these books and known how to sort the rubbish.

China is now improving its waste-sorting efforts. There is still a long way to go. But it's never too late to learn how to sort your rubbish rightly. We should take an active part in it.

    At 8, 844, 43 meters high, Mount Qomolangma is the tallest mountain on Earth. While it is famous for its beautiful views, parts of the mountain are facing a problem: rubbish. Every year, thousands of visitors throw away tons of rubbish, such as bottles and plastic bags.

    According to the UN, over 140 tons of rubbish has been left on the mountain. To reduce rubbish, China is limiting(限制) the number of people who are allowed to climb up the north side of the mountain. Only 300 people will be allowed to climb it, and only during spring.

    Local people cleaned the mountain last year, removing rubbish at a height of 5,200 meters. They collected about 8. 4 metric tons(公吨) of rubbish。

    This year, the local government plans to spend 4 million yuan on a new clean-up activity. The local government is also setting up stations to sort(分类), recycle and break down rubbish collected from the mountain. A group of artists will also try to turn the rubbish into art works. They will show these works of art to remind people not to leave rubbish when climbing the mountain.

Every day there is less and less space on the Earth for rubbish. Yet every day we make more and more rubbish. What can we do? We can recycle some of our rubbish. Recycling means that the rubbish will be made into something that can be used again.

Recycling helps Earth. And it saves space in rubbish dumps. Half of everything that we put into landfills could be recycled instead. In fact, most things made of paper, metal, glass and plastic can be recycled.

Paper can be broken into small pieces and made into new paper. Steel and aluminum cans(金属罐)can be melted down(熔化)and made into new cans. The same is true of glass bottles. This can be done over and over again. Recycling doesn't take as much energy as making these things the first time. So we can use less of Earth's fuel resources.

Plastic can be melted down, too. Then it can be formed into park benches, playgrounds and so on. Some people call plastic the "wood" of the future. Things made of plastic will last about 400 years— even if they stay outside in the weather. No wood can do that!

    A new rubbish sorting system (垃圾分类系统) has been put into use in Fangchengyuan Community in Beijing. Local people not only sort their rubbish, but also put QR codes (二维码) on it.

    "When the rubbish is collected and the codes are seen, I will get reward points to exchange for small gifts and even some money," one of the local people told reporters. "It's really creative and encouraging."

    This smart system has been carried out in 350 communities in Beijing. The capital of China has joined a list of cities in the country that take action to support rubbish sorting. For example, Shenzhen and Shanghai have made laws to punish people and organizations for not sorting rubbish correctly.

    China produces quite a lot of rubbish every year. Much of the rubbish is buried (填埋) in soil or burned without being sorted. Landfills (填埋场) take up a lot of land and have a risk of polluting the soil and water nearby. And burning rubbish can produce harmful gases. Through rubbish sorting, we can reduce the use of landfills and air pollution.

    What's more, rubbish sorting saves resources, which could bring economic benefits (经济利益). For example, a ton of waste paper can be reused to make about 850 kg of paper, saving 17 trees and 50 percent of water. Because of the benefits, some countries have developed successful sorting systems.

    Japan has a strict and detailed system. When people throw away a water bottle, the cap, the wrapper (包装纸) and the bottle itself have to go into three different bins. Every year, families receive special rubbish sorting timetables and directions from their local governments. They are advised to follow the timetables and directions when they throw away rubbish.

    In Australia, every family is provided with three rubbish bins—the red lid (盖子) bin for "general waste" like food and plastic bags, the yellow lid bin for "recycling" like steel and glass, and the green lid bin for "green waste" such as grass and leaves. On the streets, the bins are printed with pictures of the things that are allowed inside. It makes recycling quite easy.

Wang Fengqin, a 61-year-old woman in Beijing, volunteers to sort(分类)rubbish in her livingarea in Beijing Chaoyang District.

At 6: 30 every morning, while half of Beijing is still in sleeping dreams in bed or enjoying a delicious breakfast, Wang rushes through her busiest hours in the day. She gets up, gives her face a quick wash, takes a simple breakfast and rushes to the four rubbish dustbins beside the gate of her living area. There she checks the waste left by her neighbours to make sure it is sorted correctly.

"Sorting rubbish will improve the environment for all of us and it only takes a minute," Wang said. "I want to help my neighbours develop good habits."

As Wang spoke, an old man came by and threw a plastic bag full of rubbish into the dust-bin marked "recyclable".

"Hey, please there are some orange peels(皮)and fish bones in your bag, so they are supposed to be put into the dustbin marked ' kitchen waste ', " Wang told him.

Learning the old man was in a hurry, Wang let him go, opened the bag herself, picked out the kitchen waste and threw it in the right dustbin.

Wang has been doing this every day from 7∶30 a. m. to 9 a. m. and from 6 p. m. to 8 p. m. since March 10. She says people usually go downstairs and throw out rubbish at this time.

"Most people had no idea about sorting rubbish at first, but now 90 percent can put rubbish in the correct dustbin," Wang says. However, she plans to keep doing this job until all her neighbours sort correctly.

    Imagineyou are taking a walk on the beautiful beach. Just then, your feet step oversomething and you hear a crack (噼啪声) —an empty plastic bottle. Things like thisare happening more often because of sea rubbish.

    Studiesshow that 80%of all the waste is from the land. The waste is mainly plastics (塑料制品) which are really hard todegrade (降解). So the rubbish will remain there for along time. Some of the pollution is caused accidentally. For example, about10,000 product-filled boxes are lost at sea every year from business ships.Sometimes people just throw things into the water from boats or land. Manylarge rubbish areas are formed in the North Pacific Ocean.

   Thankfully, the situation isn't ignored (忽视). Groups like the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAssociation (NOAA) are taking action to help clean the sea. Since 2006, 76projects have cleared out 3,814 metric tons (公吨) ofrubbish from the sea. Methods of rubbish cleaning include using machines toremove (移除) the waste away from the surface of seawater. Besides, special nets are set by the mouths of rivers to stop therubbish before it reaches the sea. If everyone does his part, sea rubbish seemslike a problem that can be solved.

From July lst, 2019, people in Shanghai must follow a new law. They can't throw away all the rubbish together. They need to sort rubbish.

According to the law, there are four kinds of rubbish: dry rubbish, wet rubbish, recyclable rubbish and harmful rubbish. If people don't sort the rubbish, they will get a fine. For a person, the fine can be 200 yuan. For a company, the fine can be 50,000 yuan.

Recycling waste is actually a complex system where separation (分开) and collection are just the first steps. No separation equals incineration (焚烧). For many people, it's difficult to sort their rubbish. So how do we sort the rubbish? Here are some ideas about it. For example, we can use paper again. So it is recyclable rubbish. Batteries are harmful rubbish, because they are bad for people and environment. The leftover (剩下的) food, flowers, and trees are wet rubbish. Finally, if the rubbish isn't recyclable rubbish, bad rubbish or wet rubbish, it is dry rubbish.

    When throwing away rubbish, do you know which bin it should go in? Have you ever noticed the differently-colored rubbish bins (垃圾箱) on the street?

    Some of you might not be able to answer the questions. However, it's actually quite important to know how to sort (分类) your rubbish. Not knowing how to sort rubbish can make it harder to save energy and protect the environment. If you don't sort your rubbish, all of it will be buried (埋) together. It can take up large areas of ground that could have been used for planting trees. Shanghai is the first city to put rubbish-sorting into practice in China. Shanghai government has asked all the people who live there to sort rubbish into four groups: wet, recyclable (可回收的), harmful and dry.

    "Wet" rubbish is also known as "household" rubbish. It is what people produce every day after they eat or drink. "It is the thing you don't want but pigs can eat", Guangzhou Daily explained. Paper, metal, glass and other things that can be reused are recyclable rubbish. Harmful rubbish includes things like medicine, batteries and so on. Finally, any rubbish that is not wet, recyclable or harmful will go in the dry rubbish bin.

    Many other Chinese cities, including Changsha, plan to use this method to sort their rubbish. Now that you know this, perhaps you can do your part in protecting the environment.