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 manufactures 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. According 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
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The Problems Learners of English Face The problems learners of English face can be divided into three broad categories: a) (1) problems, some of which involve fear of !he unknown, and some of which are caused by the possible homesickness of the overseas student. b) culture problems, which are bound up with the British way of life, including (2) , habits and traditions. c) (3) problems, for which there are a number of reasons: First, it seems to overseas students that English people speak very (4) . Second, they speak with a variety of (5) . Third, different styles of speech are used. What can a student do to overcome these difficulties He should attend (6) and use a language laboratory as much as possible. He should also listen to programmes in English on the radio and TV. Most important of all, he should take every opportunity to speak with (7) . Finally. I have some advice for students who have difficulty in speaking English fluently. Firstly, he must (8) what he wants to say. Secondly, he must try to (9) in English. This will only begin to take place when his use of English becomes (10) .
TEXT C The Guildford Four, freed last week after spending 15 years in prison for crimes they did not commit, would almost certainly have been executed for the pub bombing they were convicted of had the death penalty been in force at the time of their trial. There may now be a decent interval before the pro-hanging lobby, which has the support of the Prime Minister, makes another attempt to reintroduce the noose. Reflections along these lines were about the only kind of consolation to be derived from this gross miscarriage of justice which is now to be the subject of a judicial inquiry. In the meantime, defence lawyers are demanding compensation and have in mind about half a million pounds for each of their clients. The first three to be released -- Mr. Gerald Conlon, Mr. Paddy Armstrong and Ms. Carole Richardson -- left prison with the 34 pounds which is given to all departing inmates. The fourth, Mr. Paul Hill, was not released immediately but taken to Belfast, where he lodged an appeal against his conviction for the murder of a former British soldier. Since this conviction, too, was based on the now discredited statements allegedly made to the Survey policy, he was immediately let out on bail. But he left empty-handed. The immediate reaction to the scandal was renewed demand for the reexamination of the case against the Birmingham Six, who are serving life sentences for pub bombings in that city. Thus far the Home secretary, Mr, Douglas Hurd, is insisting that the two cases are not comparable; that what is now known about the Guilford investigation has no relevance to what happened in Birmingham. Mr. Hurd is right to the extent that there was a small-though flimsy and hotly-contested -- amount of forensic evidence in the Birmingham case. The disturbing similarity is that the Birmingham Six, like the Guilford Four, claim that police of- ricers lied and fabricated evidence to secure a conviction. Making scapegoats of a few rogue police officers will not be sufficient to expunge the Guildford miscarriage of justice. These are already demands that the law should be changed first to make it impossible to convict on "confessions" alone; and secondly to require that statements from accused persons should only be taken in the presence of an independent third party to ensure they are not made under coercion. It was also being noted this week that the Guilford Four owe their release more to the persistence of investigative reporters than to the diligence of either the judiciary or the police. Yet investigative reports -- particularly on television -- have recently been a particular target for the condemnation of Mrs. Thatcher and some of her ministers who seem to think that TV should be muzzled in the public interest and left to get on with soap operas and quiz shows. Why was there a renewed demand for the re-examination of the case against the Birmingham Six
A. The Birmingham Six were believed to have criminal connections with the Guildford Four.
B. The two cases were similar in that both were about pub bombings.
C. The bombings in Birmingham happened at the same time.
D. The Birmingham Six also claimed that there were police malpractices in their case.
Why is the man unhappy
A. His tape is lost.
B. His tape is damaged.
C. He failed to borrow a tape.
D. He failed to get his tape back.
TEXT E As people age, their cells become less efficient and less able replace damaged components. At the same time their tissues stiffen, For example the lungs and the heart muscle expand less successfully, the blood vessels become increasingly rigid, and the ligaments and tendons tighten. Few investigators would attribute such diverse effects to a single cause. Nevertheless, researchers have discovered that a process long known to discolor and toughen foods may also contribute to age-related impairment of both cells and tissues. That process is nonenzymatic glycosylation, whereby glucose becomes attached to proteins without the aid of enzymes. When enzymes attach glucose to proteins (enzymatic glycosylation), they do so at a specific site on a specific protein molecule for a specific purpose. In contrast, the nonenzymatic process adds glucose haphazardly to any of several sites along any available peptide chain within a protein molecule. This nonenzymatic glyeosylation of certain proteins has been understood by food chemists for decades, although few biologists recognized until recently that the same steps could take place in the body. Nonenzymatic glycosylation begins when an aldehyde group (CHO) of glucose and an amino group (HN2) of a protein are attracted to each other. The molecules combine, forming what is called a Schiff base within the protein. This combination is unstable and quickly rearranges itself into a stabler, but still reversible, substance known as an Amadori product. If a given protein persists in the body for months or years, some of its Amadori products slowly dehydrate and rearrange themselves yet again, into new glucose-derived structures. These can combine with various kinds of molecules to farm irreversible structures named advanced glycosylation end products (AGE’s). Most AGE’s are yellowish brown and fluorescent and have specific spectrographic properties. More important for the body, many are also able to cross-link adjacent proteins, particularly ones that give structure to tissues and organs. Although no one has yet satisfactorily described the origin of all such bridges between proteins, many investigators agree that extensive cross-linking of proteins probably contributes to the stiffening and loss of elasticity characteristic of aging tissues. In an attempt to link this process with the development of cataracts (the browning and clouding of the lens of the eye as people age), researchers studied the effect of glucose on solutions of purified crystallin, the major protein in the lens of the eye. Glucose-free solutions remained clear but solutions with glucose caused the proteins to form clusters, suggesting that the molecules had become cross-linked. The clusters diffracted light, making the solution opaque. The researchers also discovered that the pigmented cross-links in human cataracts have the brownish color and fluorescence characteristic of AGE’ s. These data suggest that nonenzymatic glycosylation of lens crystallins may contribute to cataract formation. Which of the following best describes the function of the third paragraph of the passage
A. It presents a specific example of the process discussed in the first two paragraphs.
B. It explains a problem that the researchers mentioned in the second paragraph has yet to solve.
C. It evaluates the research discoveries described in the previous paragraph.
D. It begins a detailed description of the process introduced in the previous two paragraphs.