Vamos a prácticar juntos:

Os dejamos una actividad de examen del nivel b2, donde el alumno tiene que poner las palabras que faltan (máximo de tres palabras). Las respuestas están al final.

• Paragraph 1

When Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin invented the lightweight plastic shopping bag in the 1960s, he probably had no idea how controversial they would become, nor for how long the controversy would last. The fact that the bags proved so useful due to their low weight and resistance to degrading biologically made them widespread by the 1980s, but also led to environmental challenges. Millions of shopping bags end up as litter every year. This has resulted in land pollution, blocking of waterways and also to areas of sea being clogged up with plastic, harming wildlife.

• Paragraph 2

Different measures have been carried out. A total ban was placed on non-biodegradable plastic bags in China, to save oil, and in some African countries like Rwanda, to reduce litter. In China this is said to have saved 4.8 million tonnes of oil and in Rwanda the ban has had a visible effect. As one visitor commented: ‘The country is so much cleaner than it used to be.’ The United Arab Emirates also banned all single-use bags in 2013, based on pollution caused — and danger to camels, who were eating them.

• Paragraph 3

Other countries have introduced a ‘bag tax’, with supermarkets charging customers a small amount for each plastic bag they use. For example, Ireland introduced such a charge in 2002.  Jill Burns of Plastic Bag Aware said ‘Ireland’s bag tax has been incredibly successful, mainly because the charge is quite high, and is increased the more plastic bags are used.’ Despite fears to the contrary, customers accepted the charge, but in other countries this measure has been blocked, not by customers, but by manufacturers of plastic bags.

• Paragraph 4

What’s the alternative to the traditional plastic bag? I thought the answer was the bio-degradable plastic bag, but it seems not to be the case. Manufacturers and the major supermarkets claim that such bags degrade completely in under three years. However, research has shown that they do not degrade as efficiently as has been claimed. I was really taken aback by this! They need light and oxygen for the material to degrade, but in landfills both are in short supply. Another criticism has been that it is environmental madness to produce something requiring a lot of oil  to make, only so that it can ‘self-destruct’.

•  Paragraph 5

 I’d always considered paper and cloth bags as an ethical alternative to plastic bags. Again, my ideas have been challenged. Both paper and cloth bags require much more energy to make, and are said to pollute air and water more in manufacture. I’ve used a cloth bag several times for shopping, and prided myself on protecting the environment. It seems I’m wrong. A cloth bag would have to be used 130 times before its ecological impact was as low as a plastic bag in terms of energy. I guess I have no choice but to do another 90 shopping trips or more with my cloth bag!  One packaging manufacturer said ‘Plastic bags are more environmentally friendly than cotton bags,’ but I’m not convinced. How can something that causes so much damage be acceptable?

Questions 11–15

Complete sentences 11–15 with an exact number, word, phrase (maximum three words) from the text. Write the exact number, word or phrase on the lines below.

11. The lightness and durability of plastic bags meant that their use was___________________ twenty years after their invention.
12. Some countries responded directly to excessive oil use and rubbish caused by plastic bags with a___________________ on them.
13. Instead of objecting to paying for plastic bags, Irish shoppers________________________ .
14. The researchers questioned the idea that bio-degradable bags take less than three years to_____________________
15. The writer did not believe the claim made by a___________________________________ that plastic bags are more ecological than cloth bags.

Answers:

11. widespread
12. (total) ban
13. accepted the charge
14. degrade (completely)
15. (packaging) manufacturer

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