To get a chocolate out of a box requires a considerable amount of unpacking: the box has to be taken out of the paper bag in which it arrived, the cellophane wrapper has to be torn off, the lid opened and the paper removed, the chocolate itself then has to be unwrapped from its own piece of paper. But this overuse of wrapping is not confined to luxuries. It is now becoming increasingly difficult to buy anything that is not done up in beautiful wrapping.

　　The package itself is of no interest to the shopper, who usually throws it away immediately. Useless wrapping accounts for much of the refuse put out by the average London household each week. So why is it done? Some of it, like the cellophane on meat, is necessary, but most of the rest is simply competitive selling. This is absurd. Packaging is using up scarce energy and resources and messing up the environment.

　　Recycling is already happening with milk bottles which are returned to the dairies, washed out, and refilled. But both glass and paper are being threatened by the growing use of plastic. More dairies are experimenting with plastic bottles.

　　The trouble with plastic is that it does not rot. Some environmentalists argue that the only solution to the problem of ever increasing plastic containers is to do away with plastic altogether in the shops, a suggestion unacceptable to many manufacturers who say there is no alternative to their handy plastic packs.

　　It is evident that more research is needed into the recovery and re-use of various materials and into the cost of collecting and recycling containers as opposed to producing new ones. Unnecessary packaging, intended to be used just once, and make things look better so more people will buy them, is clearly becoming increasingly absurd. But it is not so much a question of doing away with packaging as using it sensibly. What is needed now is a more advanced approach to using scarce resources for what is, after all, a relatively unimportant function.

　　1. "This overuse of wrapping is not confined to luxuries." (line 4, Paragraph 1 ) means_____.

　　A. more wrapping is needed for ordinary products

　　B. more wrapping is used for luxuries than for ordinary products

　　C. too much wrapping is used for both luxury and ordinary products

　　D. the wrapping used for luxury products is unnecessary

　　2. Packaging is important to manufacturers because_____.

　　A. it is easy to use it again

　　B. shoppers are interested in beautiful packaging

　　C. they want to attract more shoppers

　　D. packaged things will not go rotten

　　3. According to the passage, dairies are _____.

　　A. experimenting with the use of paper bottles

　　B. giving up the use of glass bottles

　　C. increasing the use of plastic bottles

　　D. re-using their paper containers

　　4. Some environmentalists think that_____.

　　A. plastic packaging should be made more convenient

　　B. no alternative can be found to plastic packaging

　　C. too much plastic is wasted

　　D. shops should stop using plastic containers

　　5. The author thinks that_____.

　　A. packing is actually useless and could be ignored

　　B. people will soon stop using packaging altogether

　　C. enough research has been done into recycling

　　D. it is better to produce new materials than to re-use old ones

　　答案：

　　1．C推理题。从该句的后一句"It is now becoming increasingly difficult to buy anything that is not clone up in beautiful wrapping．"可知没有精美包装的物品越来越少。言外之意是不仅仅奢侈品。即使普通物品都使用很多包装。故选C。

　　2．C推理题。从文章第二段对So why is it done?的回答 "…most of the rest is simply competitive selling…"可知大多数包装只是为了促销，即吸引顾客。故选C。

　　3．C细节题。由文章第三段最后两旬活可知塑料瓶的使用日渐增多．使玻璃纸和纸都受到了威胁，更多的乳品公司在尝试使用塑料瓶。故选C。

　　4．D推理题。文章第四段第二句话说"一些环境学家说解决塑料容器使用增多这个问题的唯一途径就是不使用商店里的塑料制品"，说明环境学家认为商店不应该使用塑料制品。故选D。

　　5．A主旨题。由文章可知，只有少数包装是有用的，绝大多数包装只是为了吸引消费者，而这一想法其实是荒谬的，消费者对包装行不感兴趣；且专家认为解决污染问题的唯一途径是商店内不再塑料包装物，可总结得出：包装行无多大用处，我们可以忽略它，故选A。