A rainbow refuse system

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Most of us need to make a better effort when it comes to caring for creation, and it is always great to see how different countries are playing their part. One town in Sweden is leading the way by showing us how garbage can be put to good use.

Eskilstuna, a town with nearly 68,000 residents (居民), thanks to a rainbow refuse system, is sending zero rubbish to landfill.Because nearly all of the Swedish town's residents signed up to a sevencolor-coded recycling system, over half of the town's waste is being recycled—already ahead of the EU's 50% target for 2020.

The system means that homes have six colorful bags that separate metal, food, plastics, textiles(紡織品), cartons, and newspapers, and then a white bag for rubbish, such as items that can't be recycled. At the recycling plant, the bags are automatically sorted into different metal containers thanks to their vivid colors. The green bags containing food waste are converted into slurry (漿) that creates biogas used to fuel the town's buses.

The other bags are compacted (壓緊) and recycled according to their materials and the plastic bags themselves are also recycled. There are further benefits, too. This kind of recycling necessitates just one garbage collection every few days, which means fewer traffic jams and less pollution and noise.

The only downside of the system is that rubbish that can't be recycled is burned, and although this is used to create energy, it does mean that further greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.The overall benefits of the rainbow recycling, however, are proof that with a little effort—and some impressive engineering—we can all do our part in caring for our Earth.

閱讀檢測

1. What does the author think of Eskilstuna according to the text?

A. It has a small population.

B. It is a town full of garbage.

C. It is clever at handling garbage.

D. It keeps producing little rubbish.

2. What is the third paragraph intended to show?

A. How the system works.

B. How the system is created.

C. Why the system is accepted.

D. What is needed for the system.

3. Which is the benefit of the rainbow refuse system?

A. It ensures the town's buses run quicker.

B. It reduces the use of colorful bags.

C. It makes industrial wastes easier to recycle.

D. It is unnecessary for people to collect rubbish every day.

4. What is the disadvantage of the rainbow refuse system?

A. It makes the town noisy in a way.

B. It gets unrecyclable rubbish burned.

C. It doesn't recycle all family wastes.

D. It often causes traffic jams in the town.

語言學習

難句分析

The only downside of the system is that rubbish that can't be recycled is burned, and although this is used to create energy, it does mean that further greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. 這個系統唯一的缺點是對不可回收的垃圾進行焚燒,雖然這是為了產生能量，但這確實意味著更多的溫室氣體會被排放到大氣中。

該句為并列式主從復合句，句中and連接兩個并列分句，在前一個分句中that引導表語從句，在后一個分句中although引導讓步狀語從句，that引導賓語從句。