题型:阅读理解 题类:常考题 难易度:普通
山东省枣庄市薛城区2020-2021学年高二下学期英语期中考试试卷
Marcus Eriksen was studying Plastic pollution when he met camel expert Ulrich Wernery. They went deep into the desert and spotted a camel skeleton (骨架). Eriksen was not prepared for what he saw in the desert. "I was just appalled," he said, "because inside the dead body of a camel was a mass of plastic bags, which was as big as a medium-sized suitcase."
Wernery is a scientist working in a research lab in Dubai. Since 2008 Wernery's team has examined 30,000 dead camels. They found 300 of those dead camels had a mass of plastic bags in their bodies. As camels wander in the desert, they eat plastic bags and other rubbish that move into trees and pile up along roadsides. "To a camel, if it's not sand, it's food," explains Eriksen.
Tightly packed masses of indigestible (难消化的) things can be built up in the digestive system of people or animals. Scientists call them bezoars (胃石). Normally, these are made of vegetable fibers or hair. Werner and Eriksen call those found in the camels "polybezoars". It points to their origin: plastic polymers.
In a new study, Eriksen and Wernery report data suggesting that each year these polybezoars are killing off around 1 in every 100 camels. Of five camel bezoars analyzed for this study, the plastic content ranged from 3 to 64 kilograms. "If it is confirmed that 1 percent of camels died due to plastic by future and more detailed studies, then plastic pollution will certainly be important concern for camels," says Luca Nizzetto, an environmental scientist. "Such studies are important, because they raise social awareness about this pollution."
Banning plastic bags and single-use plastics is crucial for protecting camels and other wildlife, Eriksen says. "Plastic bags blow out of garbage cans, out of landfills, out of trucks and out of people's hands." What's more, he adds, "They travel for hundreds of miles."
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