A
(2020·湖北华师一附中4月调研，C)If plastic had been invented when the Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England, to North America—and their Mayflower had been stocked with bottled water and plasticwrapped snacks，their plastic waste would likely still be around four centuries later.Atlantic waves and sunlight would have worn all that plastic into tiny bits. And those bits might still be floating around the world's oceans today, waiting to be eaten by some fish or oysters, and finally perhaps by one of us.
Because plastic wasn't invented until the late 19th century, and its production only really took off around 1950, we have a mere 9.2 billion tons of the stuff to deal with. Of that, more than 6.9 billion tons have become waste. And of that waste，a surprising 6.3 billion tons never made it to a recycling bin—the figure that shocked the scientists who published the numbers in 2017.
No one knows how much unrecycled plastic waste ends up in the ocean, the earth's last sink. In 2015, Jenna Jambeck, an engineering professor of the University of Georgia，caught everyone's attention with a rough estimate：between 5.3 million and 14 million tons of plastic waste each year just come from coastal regions.
Meanwhile, ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine(海洋的) animals every year. Nearly 700 species，including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. Some are harmed visibly, stuck by abandoned things made of plastic.Many more are probably harmed invisibly.Marine species of all sizes, from zooplankton to whales, now eat microplastics, the bits smaller than onefifth of an inch across.
“This isn't a problem that we don't know what the solution is，” says Ted Siegler, a Vermont resource economist who has spent more than 25 years working with developing nations on garbage.“We know how to pick up garbage. Anyone can do it.We know how to deal with it. We know how to recycle. It's a matter of building the necessary institutions and systems ideally before the ocean turns into a thin soup of plastic.”
【语篇解读】 本文为说明文，主题语境是人与自然。文章主要介绍了如今塑料垃圾已经严重地污染了我们的环境，尤其是海洋环境，人类应该采取措施改变这一现状。
1．Why does the author mention the Pilgrims in Paragraph 1?
A．To prove plastic was difficult to invent.
B．To introduce what marine animals like eating.
C．To tell the Pilgrims contributed a lot to the marine protection.
D．To show plastic waste has a lasting effect on the ocean.
D [推理判断题。根据第一段中“And those bits might still be floating around the world's oceans today，waiting to be eaten by some fish or oysters，and finally perhaps by one of us.”可知，作者在第一段中提到Pilgrims是为了表明塑料垃圾对海洋有持久的影响。故选D项。]
2．What's the main trouble marine animals face according to the text?
A．Lacking protection.
B．Being stuck by plastics.
C．Being caught by humans.
D．Treating plastics as food.
D [细节理解题。根据第四段中“Marine species of all sizes，from zooplankton to whales，now eat microplastics，the bits smaller than onefifth of an inch across.”可知，海洋动物面临的主要问题是把塑料当作食物。故选D项。]
3．What does Ted Siegler want to tell us in the last paragraph?
A．Some people don't know the solution to plastic waste.
B．Plastics will turn the ocean into a soup of plastic.
C．It's time to take measures to deal with plastic waste.
D．People should avoid using plastics to protect the ocean.
C [推理判断题。根据最后一段中“It's a matter of building the necessary institutions and systems ideally before the ocean turns into a thin soup of plastic.”可知，Ted Siegler想告诉我们是采取措施处理塑料垃圾的时候了。故选C项。]
4．From which is the text probably taken?
A．A biology textbook.
B．A travel brochure.
C．An environmental report.
D．A lifestyle magazine.
C [推理判断题。文章主要是关于海洋垃圾和海洋生物保护的，由此可推知这篇文章可能来自一份环境报告。故选C项。]
