Microplastic dust flies around the world

廣西鹿寨縣鹿寨中學(xué) 梁宇耀

隨著塑料制品的大量使用，塑料垃圾也越來(lái)越多，它們常常被稱(chēng)為白色污染。此外，還有很多塑料微粒和塵土混在一起，被風(fēng)吹來(lái)吹去，已經(jīng)擴(kuò)散到了全球。

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海詞積累

1.pristine adj.處于原始狀態(tài)的；未開(kāi)發(fā)的

2.culprit n.引起問(wèn)題的事物；肇事者

3.pound v.反復(fù)擊打；搗碎

4.particle n.微粒；顆粒

5.inhale v.吸入

6.pandemic n.大流行病

7.humble adj.謙遜的；虛心的

According to the latest research, there's nowhere left to run from the suffering resulting from microplastic pollution.A small pilot study recently took microplastic samples from the French Pyrenees mountains， one of Europe's most pristine hideaways,and found as many microplastics in the soil as you might expect from a large city like Paris.

“We'd kind of expected it in a city getting blown around,”said Steve Allen from the University of Strathclyde in the UK,one member of the team.“The number is shocking.”

The culprit? The wind. Researchers now fear that our planet's winds can pick up microplastics from anywhere and transport them around the world,sometimes in alarming quantities.

The forces of nature don't distinguish between materials like stones and rocks, and plastics.Winds and waves pound plastics and break them down just the same,leaving them down into dust that can then get swept up by the breeze and into the atmosphere.It's an ongoing environmental concern as more and more microplastics find their way into our food and air.

Steve Allen and his team set up collectors 1,370 meters up in the mountains for five months to trap plastic particles as they fell to the Earth.There are only a few small villages within 100 kilometers of the test site. “We expected to find some,”he said. “We didn't expect to find quite as much as we did.”

The team found that an average of 365 plastic particles fell on their one-square-meter collector daily.This included fibers from clothing, bits from plastic bags, plastic film and packaging material,among other plastic sources.Many of these materials were small enough to be inhaled without even realizing it.They're in the air,and they're everywhere.

“We suggest that microplastics can reach and affect remote inhabited areas through atmospheric transport,”the authors conclude in their article,published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The fact that microplastics can be found in large concentrations even in remote places is an indication that this has become a global pollution pandemic.It's a humbling reminder that human pollution has no boundaries or borders.

——From Mother Nature Network

Reading Check

Who on earth do you think is to blame for microplastic pollution?

Language Study

Difficult sentence

The fact that microplastics can be found in large concentrations even in remote places is an indication that this has become a global pollution pandemic.即使是在偏遠(yuǎn)地區(qū)，也可以發(fā)現(xiàn)大量的塑料微粒，這表明這已成為一種全球性的污染流行病。

【點(diǎn)石成金】本句中第一個(gè)that和第二個(gè)that引導(dǎo)的均為同位語(yǔ)從句，分別用來(lái)解釋說(shuō)明名詞fact和indication的具體內(nèi)容。