《step_by_step_3000》_第二册_unit_8_原文及答案
Unit 8 Everybody Can Help the Environment
Part 1 A
1. Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes
and behavior, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.
2. WWF World Wildlife Foundation was born into the world in 1961. Its ultimate goal is to build
a future where people live in harmony with nature.
3. SOS is the ongoing messaging campaign and larger movement behind Live Earth. The
message of SOS is that everyone, everywhere can must Answer the Call to solve the climate
crisis.
4. Green School Project is an organization that helps schools across the US with their budgets in
order to reduce the amount of waste that goes to the landfill.
5. On December 10, 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore Jr. were
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater
knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that
are needed to counteract such change.”
6. Friends of the Earth International is the world’s largest grassroots environmental network,
uniting 70 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. It
campaigns on today’s most urgent environmental and social issues.
7. EEB European Environmental Bureau is a non-governmental organization with 143 member
organizations in 31 countries. Its specific mission is to promote environmental policies and
sustainable policies on the European Union level.
8. The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection
and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Founded in 1984 in California, it
now maintains over 50,000 members worldwide.
9. USGBC The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit organization committed to
transforming the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling
and environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that
improves the quality of life.
10. Founded in 1977, the Alliance to Save Energy is a non-profit organization that supports
energy efficiency and advocates energy-efficiency policies that minimize costs to society and
individual consumers, and that lessen greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the global
climate.
11. The Earth Organization is a grassroots international non-profit, conservation and
environmental organization, with new solutions, committed to the creative, responsible
rehabilitation of Planet Earth and the plant and animal kingdoms.
12. TWP Trees, Water & People is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998, helping
communities protect, conserve, and manage the natural resources upon which their long-term
well-being depends.
13. American Forests is America’s oldest nonprofit citizens’ conservation organization founded in
1875. It works to protect, restore and enhance the natural capital of trees and forests. Healthy
forests filter water, remove air pollution, sequester carbon, and provide homes for wildlife.
14. GAA The Global Amphibian Assessment is the first-ever comprehensive assessment of the
conservation status of the world’s 5,918 known species of frogs, toads, salamanders, and
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caecilians. Almost 600 scientists from 60 countries have now contributed to the project.
15. ASES The American Solar Energy Society, founded in 1954, is a non-profit organization
dedicated to increasing the use of solar energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainable
technologies in the U.S.
B
1. Buy fresh food that doesn’t need a lot of packaging.
2. Try to buy “organic” fruit and vegetables from farmers who don‘t use chemicals.
3. Save as much water as possible.
4. Use products that won’t stay forever in the earth or sea when you throw then away.
5. Use bottles more than once or take them to a bottle bank.
6. Try to save paper. Also, buy and use recycled paper as often as possible.
7. Avoid “throw-away” products.
8. Make sure that your family and friends use unleaded petrol in their cars.
9. Don’t buy products (fur or ivory, for example) made from rare or protected species.
10. Use public transportation as often as possible.
11. If you’re buying wood, don’t choose hardwood form tropical rainforests.
12. Look for aerosols which haven’t got any CFCs in them.
13. Don’t buy hamburgers or pizzas in plastic boxes which contain CFCs.
14. Use batteries as little as possible. It takes 50 times more energy to make them than they
produce.
15. Don’t leave on electric lights, TV, hi-fi, etc., if you’re not using them.
16. Find out more about conservation issues in your area. Are there any woods or fields in danger,
for example?
17. Try to throw away at least 25% less rubbish.
18. Help old people in your area to insulate their homes. This saves energy and helps to keep
them warm in winter.
19. Visit any local nature reserves or zoos and talk to the people who run them.
Part ?
Campaign California Re-Leaf as in L-E-A-F was kicked off recently with a party in San Francisco’s Washington Square Park thrown by a coalition of seven urban forestry groups. The focus of the party was the planting of a single tree, the first of 20 million to be planted in 40 Californian cities over the next decade. The tree planting campaign is an attempt to deflate what’s
been called the Greenhouse Effect. Scientists believe that the earth is getting
warmer because of an accumulation of carbon dioxide in the air. Trees take carbon dioxide out of the air.
Martin Rosen is the director of the Trust for Public Land, the organization that is coordination the stat-wide tree plating effort. “Time is not neutral. We are so rapidly depleting the atmosphere, we are so rapidly changing the climate, that unless we start now the situation may well become irreversible.”
Some movie stars were on hand for the tree planting ceremony. Actor Peter Cyote served as the master of ceremonies. “Unless the environmental movement comes into everybody’s life, in
real simple activities, it’s not going to work. Planting a tree is real simple. So I wanted to participate in something that was really accessible to the citizen, just to everyday people, to
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children. So that as citizens we can do a lot.”
After Peter Cyote introduced a few speakers and a couple of songs were sung, the ceremony moved over to a corner of the park where a group of youngsters planted a Copper Beech tree.
Isobel Wade is the state coordinator for Campaign California Re-Leaf. Wade says the tree plantings are important because they will help clean up the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, improve the environment and make neighborhoods more attractive, but Isobel Wade cautions it isn’t enough. “It’s one step in a combination of things. The other kinds of things that we can all be doing are being much more conscious about how we use energy in our home, whether we’re
buying—ah—fuel efficient cars and products, whether we’re using Styrofoam when we don’t have
to be, --ah—whether we’re turning off light bulbs when we—ah—leave the room—um—and just
a variety of personal actions like recycling that we need to start thinking about and doing more.”
Isobel Wade also says she’d love to see everyone in California’s urban arrears take the time
to plant one tree and take care of the ones that are already growing.
Key B
1. planting single tree
2. deflate Greenhouse Effect/ take CO2
3. real simple activities/ accessible to people/ citizens/ do a lot
4. clean up CO2/ improve environment/ neighborhoods attractive
5. a variety of personal actions
Part III
When you go to the supermarket, can you resist using plastic bags? For lot of us, probably won’t. What you eat out? Can you guarantee not to use any plastic tableware? And how about if someone asks you; can you recommend a replacement for plastic products? Don’t say paper! Here
is a new solution; biodegradable plastic!
As everyone knows, plastic is a big environmental headache although it brings us much convenience. Like plastic bags, plastic food containers, and plastic tableware. But it is perhaps the most harmful of all our garbage because it does not easily break down in nature.
A researcher form the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ji Junhui says he and his colleagues have found a better solution.
“When the PBS in the biodegradable plastic comes in contact with microorganisms or enzymes, the plastic structure will degrade into smaller pieces, and finally it turns into water and carbon dioxide. This is how the break-down process works.”
PBS is a chemical component that is the key to this new biodegradable plastic. It can help the plastic degrade into non-polluting elements, so the broken-down plastic fragments can be absorbed by soil and water.
PBS is not an entirely new product, however, this China-made biodegradable plastic is safer and more heat-resistant. According to Ji Jun-hui, testing has shown that 90% of this new biodegradable plastic can be degraded within 90 days. And it even takes a shorter period of time if it is buried in a dump rather than exposed to the air.
Usually, biodegradable plastic food containers made in other countries will melt when the temperature reaches 60 degree Celsius, while the Chinese product can retain its shape in up to 100 degrees.
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However, Ji Junhui says his-tech products often come at a higher price.
“PBS product is a bit more expensive than ordinary plastic. Taking a plastic bowl as an example, the PBS bowl can be 20% more expensive than the current plastic bowl we use.”
Some hotels and restaurants in Shanghai have already started using the new PBS biodegradable plastic food containers, and the product will be popularized in Beijing as well as in other big cities.
It will play a role in the 2008 Olympic Games. Besides in the production of plastic food containers and tableware for the Games, PBS biodegradable plastic will also be used to make road signs, team cheering equipment like horns and mini flags, as well as trash bags, umbrellas and eyeglass frames.
Probably in the near future, we will really be able to say “farewell” to plastic pollution.
Key:
Outline
I. headache
not easily bread down
II. PBS
A: contact/ microorganisms/ enzymes/ smaller pieces/ into water & CO2
B:
1. safer
90%/ degraded/ in 90 days/ shorter/ in a dump
2. more heat resistant
a. melt at 60?
b. shape retained up to 100?
C. disadvantage
more expensive than ordinary plastic/ price 20% higher
III. Application
A. already started
B. to be popularized
C. role
plastic food containers & tableware/ road signs/ team cheering equipment (e.g. horns/ mini
flags/ trash bags/ umbrellas/ eyeglass frames)
Part ?
characteristics, its structure, the logical order
inverted pyramid, the news lead, a condensed form, further information
sum up, either inside or outside, comment, remarks, attitudes, analysis
some breakthroughs, update, vocabulary, hinders our understanding of, enhance our ability,
frequently appear, carefully studied, the experiment reports, subjects, findings or results, the
latest developments
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