Question

In 1993, New York State ordered stores to pay money for those who returned beverage(饮料)containers．Within a year, consumers(people who buy goods)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 wound 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 in the United States．The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying throw-away plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paint brushes, etc．

As the New York experience shows, recycling includes more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish．A thrown-away thing remains a thrown-away thing until somebody figures out how to give it a second life－and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value．Without enough markets to take in materials collected for recycling, throw always actually reduce prices for used materials．

Making landfill space become smaller 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 choice．For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal(action of getting rid of sth．), which, in parts of New York, amounts to savings of more than ＄100 per ton．Recycling also forces the local economy to develop quickly by providing jobs and reduces the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined(纯净的)material．

1. 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

2. The key problem in dealing with returned plastic beverage containers is ________.

A. how to reduce their recycling costs

B. to sell them at a high price

C. how to return them into useful things

D. to lower the prices for used materials

3. Recycling has 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 interest for the jobless

D. local governments find it easy to manage

4. It can be concluded from the passage that ________．

A. recycling is to be attractive both economically and environmentally(环境)

B. local governments in the U.S.can expect to earn a lot from recycling

C. rubbish is a hidden cure for the shortage of raw materials

D. landfills will still be widely used for waste disposal

Answer 1

答案：1．D;2．C;3．B;4．A;
解析：

(1)	第一段提到“许多公司不知道该怎么处理塑料瓶”。buried暗示只有D才正确。
(3)	第四段第二句明确指出很多地方认为recycling是“least expensive”的，只有B项与之相符。
(4)	第四段提到“循环再利用”除了“least expensive”外还“forces the local economy to develop quickly”，并能“reduces the pollution”有利于环保。A与之相符。

提示：

第三段指出：处理废塑料瓶的关键在于使之有利用价值，而不单是把它们挑拣出来那么简单。