A
Imagine being a business that regularly takes huge quantities of your own products worth millions of pounds and burns them up. Your stock literally goes up in smoke. It sounds crazy, but the practice is common for some of the world’s biggest clothing manufacturers. They argue that it is the most cost-effective way of maintaining their brand’s exclusivity(独特性).
The clothes that are burned are those that do not sell at a high enough price. Rather than watch them go on sale, the companies would set fire to them and regain a small amount of energy.
Nobody knows exactly how much unsold stock is burnt annually by those fashion houses, but burning clothes has various negative impacts on the environment. For example, burning clothes made from artificial fibers may release plastic microfibers into the atmosphere, which worsens global warming. A U. K. parliamentary committee report on sustainability and the fashion industry advises the government to ban the burning of unsold stock if it can be reused or recycled.
Actually, there are other approaches. What if those companies had a section tasked with taking back unsold clothes, redesigning them into new products, and shipping out the new products to the market once again?
There is also now an opportunity to focus on biodegradable(可生物降解的) fabrics. Clothes that break down faster might not have to be burned. They would also appeal to those who care about the environmental impact of their own wardrobes.
Additionally, we have an over-production problem. According to the World Bank, while clothing sales have risen steadily since 2000, clothing utilization has fallen at roughly the same rate. For every extra T-shirt that is sold, it will be worn roughly half as much as it would have been 20 years ago. That means better forecasting market trends would in theory result in less waste.
Burning clothes won’t happen simply through fashion firms. The scale of fashion production has to change. And it’s important to recognize that these consumer-focused brands will only go where the market takes them. If protecting the environment really matters to the public, they have to make clear that they want more sustainable clothing in the first place. Without consumers demanding that, it won’t change.
【文章大意】这是一篇说明文。烧掉未售出的衣服库存在世界上一些最大的服装制造商中很常见。他们认为, 这是保持品牌独特性的最具成本效益的方式。但是烧毁衣服对环境有各种各样的负面影响, 同时文章提到了三种处理未售出衣服库存的更好办法, 最后指出消费者在阻止衣服燃烧方面起着关键作用。
1. Paragraph 3 mainly talks about _________.
A. how important the U. K. parliamentary committee report is
B. why fashion firms should end burning unsold stock
C. why fashion firms burn unsold clothes in large numbers every year
D. how artificial fabrics will contribute to global warming
【解析】选B。段落大意题。根据第三段的第一句“Nobody knows exactly how much unsold stock is burnt annually by those fashion houses, but burning clothes has various negative impacts on the environment. ”以及下文提到燃烧人造纤维制成的衣服可能会向大气中释放塑料微纤维, 从而加剧全球变暖。由此可知, 第三段主要讨论了为什么时装公司应该停止燃烧未售出的库存。
2. The underlined expression “clothing utilization” in the 6th paragraph means “_________”.
A. how long clothing lasts
B. how well clothing sells
C. how often clothing is used
D. how clothing is designed
【解析】选C。词义猜测题。根据下文“For every extra T-shirt that is sold, it will be worn roughly half as much as it would have been 20 years ago. ”可推知, 虽然服装销量自2000年以来稳步上升, 但服装利用率却有所下降了。由此可知画线短语意思为“衣服的利用率”。
3. All the following possible solutions are mentioned in the passage to deal with unsold clothes EXCEPT _________.
A. making consumers feel better about their purchases
B. redesigning and making them into new clothes
C. conducting research on market demand before production
D. making clothes out of environmentally-friendly materials
【解析】选A。细节理解题。根据第四段的第二句、第五段的第一句以及第六段的最后一句可知, 重新设计、把它们做成新衣服、生产前对市场需求进行调研以及用环保材料做衣服都是处理未售出衣服的更好方法。只有A项文章并没有提到。故选A。
4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. Burning clothes is a better option for every fashion firm.
B. Consumers play a key role in stopping burning clothes.
C. The secret that some fashion firms burn clothes is well kept.
D. Today’s clothes are better than those two decades ago.
【解析】选B。推理判断题。根据最后一段最后两句“If protecting the environment really matters to the public, they have to make clear that they want more sustainable clothing in the first place. Without consumers demanding that, it won’t change. ”可知, 消费者在阻止衣服燃烧方面起着关键作用。
