海洋塑料構建豪華水上度假勝地

重慶 周國瑞

受太平洋垃圾帶的啟發，英國一位設計師計劃在澳大利亞科科斯群島的一個“漂浮島”上用回收的海洋塑料垃圾建造一座豪華浮島度假村。

題材體裁環保說明文358★★★文章詞數難度建議用時6分鐘

A British architecture practice has revealed its plan to build a luxury floating island resort made from recovered ocean plastic at a remote location in the Indian Ocean. According to the plan, the hotel will be built on the top of a“floating island”, which is situated in Australia's Cocos archipelago.

Inspired by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the designer decides that the “Trash Island” underneath the resort will be made up of large plastic-filled bags that are weaved together and then it will be fixed to the ocean floor. The bags will be weighed down with mud and sand to ensure the structure is stable.

Artificial roots will be positioned around the structure in order to act as a flood defense by taking in water to swell when needed. The structures will act as the island's life jacket in an emergency. The plan is at an early stage and it will take several years to build the floating resort and it is expected to open to guests in 2025.

“The inspiration came to me when I saw the Pacific Ocean's plastic, an area twice the size of France just floating in position because of the currents,” said the designer.“Plastic is pliable, so it can be reprinted, reformed or broken down and rebuilt. I personally think it is a better alternative than dumping it in landfill,” she said.

Claire Barlow, a senior lecturer in engineering from England's Cambridge University,said she welcomed all efforts to remove plastic from the ocean. However, she warned that any type of construction must be done in a balanced way so as to avoid the unexpected environmental effects.

“It looks absolutely fascinating,” Barlow said of the design.“It's really a good idea to deal with marine waste because it can help to raise people's awareness of marine waste.However, it will indeed lead to some problems environmentally with building a hotel.”“There will be construction materials and additional traffic in that area. And then once the hotel is there, there will be people being taken to and from it. Therefore, the hotel would need to carefully manage things like waste generated on the island,” she added.

Reading Check

1. Why are the plastic-filled bags weighed down with mud and sand?

A. To collect more plastic.

B. To protect the ocean floor.

C. To make the structure stable.

D. To make them easily weaved.

2. What's the effective way for the structure to fight against floods?

A. Using artificial roots to absorb water.

B. Fixing enough roots to the ocean floor.

C. Making special life jackets for protection.

D. Ensuring it is steady enough.

3. What does the underlined word “pliable” in paragraph 4 mean?

A. Cheap. B. Light. C. Common. D. Flexible.

4. What's Claire Barlow's attitude towards the luxury floating resort?

A. Positive. B. Objective. C. Negative. D. Doubtful.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Inspired by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the designer decides that the “Trash Island” underneath the resort will be made up of large plastic-filled bags that are weaved together and then it will be fixed to the ocean floor. 受太平洋垃圾帶的啟發，設計師決定度假村下面的“垃圾島”將由編織在一起的裝滿塑料的大袋子構成，這座“垃圾島”將會被固定在海底。

【點石成金】本句中Inspired by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch為過去分詞作狀語的結構，邏輯主語the designer和inspire之間構成邏輯上的動賓關系；that are weaved together為that引導的定語從句，修飾先行詞large plastic-filled bags，先行詞在從句中作主語。

Ⅱ. Text-centered chunks

act as 充當

take in 吸收

at an early stage 在早期階段

remove...from 從……中移除

raise people's awareness of 增強人們……的意識

lead to 導致