To get a chocolate out of a box requires a considerable amount of unpacking: the box has to be taken out of the paper bag in which it arrived, the cellophane wrapper has to be torn off, the lid opened and the paper removed, the chocolate itself then has to be unwrapped from its own piece of paper. But this overuse of wrapping is not confined to luxuries. It is now becoming increasingly difficult to buy anything that is not done up in beautiful wrapping.

　　The package itself is of no interest to the shopper, who usually throws it away immediately. Useless wrapping accounts for much of the refuse put out by the average London household each week. So why is it done? Some of it, like the cellophane on meat, is necessary, but most of the rest is simply competitive selling. This is absurd. Packaging is using up scarce energy and resources and messing up the environment.

　　Recycling is already happening with milk bottles which are returned to the dairies, washed out, and refilled. But both glass and paper are being threatened by the growing use of plastic. More dairies are experimenting with plastic bottles.

　　The trouble with plastic is that it does not rot. Some environmentalists argue that the only solution to the problem of ever increasing plastic containers is to do away with plastic altogether in the shops, a suggestion unacceptable to many manufacturers who say there is no alternative to their handy plastic packs.

　　It is evident that more research is needed into the recovery and re-use of various materials and into the cost of collecting and recycling containers as opposed to producing new ones. Unnecessary packaging, intended to be used just once, and make things look better so more people will buy them, is clearly becoming increasingly absurd. But it is not so much a question of doing away with packaging as using it sensibly. What is needed now is a more advanced approach to using scarce resources for what is, after all, a relatively unimportant function.

　　1. "This overuse of wrapping is not confined to luxuries." means_____.

　　A. more wrapping is needed for ordinary products

　　B. more wrapping is used for luxuries than for ordinary products

　　C. too much wrapping is used for both luxury and ordinary products

　　D. the wrapping used for luxury products is unnecessary

　　2. Packaging is important to manufacturers because_____.

　　A. it is easy to use it again

　　B. shoppers are interested in beautiful packaging

　　C. they want to attract more shoppers

　　D. packaged things will not go rotten

　　3. According to the passage, dairies are _____.

　　A. experimenting with the use of paper bottles

　　B. giving up the use of glass bottles

　　C. increasing the use of plastic bottles

　　D. re-using their paper containers

　　4. Some environmentalists think that_____.

　　A. plastic packaging should be made more convenient

　　B. no alternative can be found to plastic packaging

　　C. too much plastic is wasted

　　D. shops should stop using plastic containers

　　5. The author thinks that_____.

　　A. packing is actually useless and could be ignored

　　B. people will soon stop using packaging altogether

　　C. enough research has been done into recycling

　　D. it is better to produce new materials than to re-use old ones

　　答案：

　　1．  C推理題。從該句的后一句“It is now becoming increasingly difficult to buy anything that is not clone up in beautiful wrapping．”可知沒有精美包裝的物品越來越少。言外之意是不僅僅奢侈品。即使普通物品都使用很多包裝。故選C。

　　2．  C推理題。從文章第二段對So why is it done?的回答 “…most of the rest is simply competitive selling…”可知大多數包裝只是為了促銷，即吸引顧客。故選C。

　　3．  C細節題。由文章第三段最后兩旬活可知塑料瓶的使用日漸增多．使玻璃紙和紙都受到了威脅，更多的乳品公司在嘗試使使用塑料瓶。故選C。

　　4．  D推理題。文章第四段第二句話說“一些環境學家說解決塑料容器使用增多這個問題的唯一途徑就是不使用商店里的塑料制品”，說明環境學家認為商店不應該使用塑料制品。故選D。

　　5．  A主旨題。由文章可知，只有少數包裝是有用的，絕大多數包裝只是為了吸引消費者，而這一想法其實是荒謬的，消費者對包裝行不感興趣；且專家認為解決污染問題的唯一途徑是商店內不再塑料包裝物，可總結得出：包裝行無多大用處，我們可以忽略它，故選A。

（責任編輯：中大編輯）

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