2020-2021学年度第17期总第816期
Pollution reaches new height (P6)
山东省烟台第二中学 赵娜娜

Lead-in
What’s your impression of Mount Qomolangma?
pure and sacred

What’s your impression of plastics?
environmentally harmful

Microplastics have been found on Mount Qomolangma as high as 8,440 meters above sea level, just 408.86 meters below the peak of the mountain.

Microplastics refers to plastic fragments (碎片) and particles (微粒) less than 5 millimeters in diameter (直径).

While-reading
Read the text carefully and answer the following questions.

1. What was the procedure of the study and what are the findings?
2. What is the cause of the pollution?
3. What are other examples of plastic pollution reaching remote places on Earth?
4. What can we do?

Reading for details
1. What was the procedure of the study and what are the findings?

Scientists collected snow and water samples (样本) from 19 different locations from 4,200 meters above sea level all the way up to the summit (顶峰) of Mount Qomolangma.

They found microplastics in all the water samples and part of the snow samples. The most polluted sample was from the Base Camp in Nepal, where most human activity on the mountain is concentrated. It had 79 particles of microplastics per liter (升) of snow.

2. What is the cause of the pollution?

It is climbers who bring plastic products to the mountain. Even if they don’t litter, just walking for 20 minutes or opening a bottle of water can release microplastics into the environment.

3. What are other examples of plastic pollution reaching remote places on Earth?

Researchers even found a plastic bag at the deepest point in the world’s oceans – in the Mariana Trench, located in the Pacific Ocean. The bag is the same as the ones commonly used in grocery stores.

A 2020 report published in Nature suggests that there are 2,000 to 17,000 plastic particles per cubic meter (立方米) in Arctic ice cores, and between 0 to 18 microplastic particles per cubic meter from the water beneath ice floes (浮冰).

4. What can we do?

We need to start focusing on deeper technological solutions that focus on microplastics, like changing fabric (织物) design and incorporating (加入) natural fibers instead of plastic when possible.

Post-reading
Plastics are entering our body.

We are actually taking in plastics every day, the biggest source being drinking water.

When a plastic teabag is at 95℃, it can release billions of microplastics and nanoplastics into water.

What can we do to tackle this problem?
use reusable shopping bags
promote the use of biodegradable plastic bags

Language study
1.指的是                     refer to
2.海平面以上                above sea level
3.水样本                    water samples
4.成功                      make it
5.大量地                    in great abundance
6.······的受害者              a victim of
7.潜在问题                    potential problems
8.科技措施                    technological solutions
9.改变织物设计                change fabric design

Homework
Introduce the current problems with plastics and share your solutions with your partners.