Japan is getting tough about recycling—and not in the paper and plastic kind of way. Recently, the country requires that all electronic goods—TVs, VCRs, stereos, and more—be recycled. But recycling will not beleft to consumers, instead, the devices will be sent to the original manufacturer for proper disposal.

The new law poses a few challenges to manufacturers who are now rushing to set up collection networks and perfecting techniques to disassemble and recycle older products.With an eye toward the future, they are also integrating easily recycled materials into new products. Plastics, a major component of most electronicproducts,pose a particular obstacle because their quality becomes worse and worse with age,losing strengthand flexibility even if reprocessed.NEC Corp. overcomes this problem by creating a plastics sandwich, in which the filling is 100 percent recycled plastic and the outer layers a mixture of 14 percent recycled material.The resulting plastic has sufficient strength and toughness for use as a case for desktop PCs. The company, in cooperation with plastic maker Sumitomo Dow, has also developed a new plastic, which engineers claim retains its mechanical properties through repeated recycling. NEC uses the plastic, which is also flame-retardant (阻燃的) in battery cases for notebook PCs.

Meanwhile, Matsushita Electric, maker of the Panasonic brand, is avoiding plastic in favor of magnesium (镁). Magnesium, says the company, is ideal for re cycling because it retains its original strength throughrepeated reprocessing. Matsushita has developed molding techniques to form magnesium into the case for a 21-inch TV. Unfortunately, the magnesium case and energy-saving features make the TV about twice as expensive as an ordinary model.The company hopes, however, that increased use of magnesium will eventually bring prices down.

练习题：

Choose correct answers to the question:

1. According to the present regulations of Japan, the recycling of paper and plastic will be the responsibility of______.

A.. the government

B. the manufacturers

C. the consumers

D. the sellers

2. Which of the following is NOT the character of plastics?

A. Most electronic products contain plastics.

B. It retains its original strength through reprocessing.

C. Recycled plastics can be integrated into new products.

D. Plastics will lose flexibility after a certain period of time.

3.According to the passage, the term “plastic sandwich” refers to_____.

A. a kind of sandwich-shaped toy made of plastics

B. a kind of plastics with different integration in each layer

C. a kind of plastics with maximum strength and flexibility

D. a kind of plastics made of 100% recycled materials

4.In the passage, it is implied but NOT stated that_____.

A. disposing the plastics is one of NEC Corp’s businesses

B. magnesium is an ideal material for the case of TV

C.21-inch TV with magnesium case isn’t very popular so far

D. magnesium must be better than the plastics

5.The author writes this passage in order to_____.

A. inform

B. instruct

C. predict

D. persuade

参考答案及解析

1.[C] 推理判断题。文章首段提到了电子产品的回收利用与纸张和塑料不同;本段最后一句中的but表明了以上不同点在于电子产品的回收不依靠消费者，而依靠生产者。结合以上两点，可以推断纸张和塑料的回收利用主要靠消费者，因此选项C为正确答案。

2.[B] 事实细节題。本题考査列举处。第2段第3句列举了塑料的特性，对照选项和该句，就能发现文中明确提到选项A、C、D,而选项B显然与原文意思相反。

3.[B] 事实细节题。本题考査复合句的理解。第2段第4句是一个非限制性定语从句，是plastics sandwich 的定义，选项B是对该定语从句所述亊实的总结，因此选项B正确。选項A在文中没有提及;选项C中的maximum是对原文sufficient的曲解;选项D中的100%这一数据不准确，文中只提到plastics sandwich里层是100%的再生塑料。

4.[C] 推理判断题。本题考査转折处。最后一段倒数第2句中的Unfortunately一词指出了用镁作机壳的电视机很贵，从而暗示它们并不受消费者欢迎，所以选项C正确。选项A属原文明确表达的意思。本段第2句只指出镁是一种理想的再生材料(ideal for recycling),因此选项B不对;全文并未比较塑料和镁哪个更好，因此选项D不对。

5.[A] 主旨大意题。文中作者只是客观地描述亊实，吿知读者日本的电子产品再循环使用的一些新变化和新技术，抓住这个主旨就能选出正确答案A。作者并未发表任何个人观点，也未做出任何指示或預测。