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 (鎂). 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.
練習題：
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
1.[C] 推理判斷題。文章首段提到了電子產品的回收利用與紙張和塑料不同;本段最後一句中的but表明了以上不同點在於電子產品的回收不依靠消費者，而依靠生產者。結合以上兩點，可以推斷紙張和塑料的回收利用主要靠消費者，因此選項C為正確答案。
2.[B] 事實細節題。本題考査列舉處。第2段第3句列舉了塑料的特性，對照選項和該句，就能發現文中明確提到選項A、C、D,而選項B顯然與原文意思相反。
3.[B] 事實細節題。本題考査複合句的理解。第2段第4句是一個非限制性定語從句，是plastics sandwich 的定義，選項B是對該定語從句所述亊實的總結，因此選項B正確。選項A在文中沒有提及;選項C中的maximum是對原文sufficient的曲解;選項D中的100%這一數據不準確，文中只提到plastics sandwich裡層是100%的再生塑料。
4.[C] 推理判斷題。本題考査轉折處。最後一段倒數第2句中的Unfortunately一詞指出了用鎂作機殼的電視機很貴，從而暗示它們並不受消費者歡迎，所以選項C正確。選項A屬原文明確表達的意思。本段第2句只指出鎂是一種理想的再生材料(ideal for recycling),因此選項B不對;全文並未比較塑料和鎂哪個更好，因此選項D不對。
5.[A] 主旨大意題。文中作者只是客觀地描述亊實，吿知讀者日本的電子產品再循環使用的一些新變化和新技術，抓住這個主旨就能選出正確答案A。作者並未發表任何個人觀點，也未做出任何指示或預測。
（實習編輯：楊冰玉）