A load of rubbish

In the UK, people are finally starting to listen to the message about
recycling. British families now recycle about 22% of their waste. Only five
years ago, the figure was about 10%. That’s good news for the
environment – but there’s a lot more to do. Some other European
countries, like Germany and Holland, already recycle about 60% of their
waste and that’s the goal for the UK too.
Household in England produce 25 million tonnes of waste a year. More
than half of this is garden waste, paper, cardboard and kitchen waste –
which people could recycle. They could also recycle plastic, wood, glass
and aluminium cans. In fact, if everybody in the UK recycled all of their
drinks cans, there would be 14 million fewer rubbish bins of waste each
year.
Recycling isn’t the only way to reduce the amount of rubbish we throw
away. More than 40% of the waste in our bins is packaging from shopping.
If we changed the way we shop, we could easily reduce the amount of
waste. For example, street markets and small shops often use less
packaging than supermarkets. And of course, if we grew our own fruit and
vegetables, there wouldn’t be any packaging at all!

1. Read the text. Which statement is false?

a) The UK recycles more than Germany and Holland.________

b) The UK recycles more than five years ago. ________
c) We throw away a lot of packaging from food. ________

2. Answer the questions.

1. How much of their waste do British families recycle now?

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2. How much do they recycle in Germany and Holland?
______________________________________________________________________
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3. How much waste do households in England produce?
______________________________________________________________________
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4. What eight different things could people recycle?
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5. How could we reduce the amount of packaging that we throw away?
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 Animals in danger – what can countries do?

Scientists often meet and talk about animals in danger. Politicians in many
counties are beginning to talk about this too. They ask a lot of questions,
and sometimes they listen to the scientists. Who can hunt dolphins and
whales? How many can those people kill every year? Can people
rhinoceros horns? Is it right? Which animals are disappearing fastest? How
can we protect them? Where is the money going to come from? These are
some of their questions.
So what can countries do? Here is one possible answer: they can open
national parks. These are big and usually very beautiful wild places. Here,
animals and birds can live freely, and they are also homes for trees and
flowers. Visitors can go there and watch the animals, but usually they leave
at night. They cannot hunt or take things away with them.
Politicians can find ways to stop hunting. They can stop the pollution of
the rivers, seas, sky and land too. People in every country are asking, “How
can we stop the pollution from cars, planes, and factories? Let’s think about
our lives, our work, our homes. Our world needs to be a better place for all
living things.
In China in 1990, there were only one million cars. In 2004, there were
12 million. But this only eight cars for every 1,000 people. How many cars
are going to be on China’s roads in 2050 when the people of China are
richer?

 rhinoceros - a very large thick-skinned animal from Africa or Asia, which has one
or two horns on its nose
1. Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)? Correct the false sentences.

1. Politicians always listen to the advice of scientists about animals in danger. ______
____________________________________________________________
2. The USA has more cars per person than China. ______
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3. Chinese people are not as rich as people from the USA. ______
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4. Visitors can never stay overnight in national parks. ______
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