Many cities around the world today are heavily polluted. Careless manufacturing methods employed by some industries and absence of consumer demand for environmentally safe products have been behind the pollution problem. One result is that millions of tons of glass, paper, plastic and metal containers are produced, and these are difficult to dispose of.However, today more and more consumers are choosing ‘green’ and demanding that the products they buy are safe for the environment. Before they buy a product, they ask questions like these, Will this product damage the ozone layer?, Is this package of any danger to the environment? Or Can this metal container be used once? A recent study showed that two out of five adults now consider theenvironmental safety of a product before they buy it. This means that companies must now change the way they make and sell their products to make sure that they are ‘green’, that is, friendly to the environment.Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in supermarkets, but now there are hundreds. Some supermarket products have tickets on them to show that the product is green. Some companies have made the manufacturing of clean and safe products their main selling point and insist on it in their advertising. The concern of a safer and cleaner environment is making companies rethink how they do business. The public will no longer accept the old attitude of Buy it, Use it and then Throw it away.

A. Answer the questions.

  1. What are the two things that are responsible for the problem of pollution?
  2. At present, what do some consumers check before they buy any products?
  3. What shows that companies have started to take environmental safety into consideration?

B. True or false? Justify.

  1. According to a recent study, more than half of adults have started to take the environmental safety of a product into consideration before buying it.
  2. Some years ago, only a few green products could be found in supermarkets.

C. What do the underlined words in the text refer to?

  1. they (§ 3)
  2. their (§ 4)

Key

ExerciseA

  1. These are the c areless manufacturing methods employed by some industries and the absence of the consumer’s demand for environmentally safe products.
  2. They check that the products are safe for the environment.
  3. Some products have tickets on them to show that the product is green/Some companies have made the manufacturing of clean and safe products their main selling point.

ExerciseB

  1. False . Only two out of five adults now consider the environmental safety of a product …
  2. False . Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in supermarkets.

ExerciseC

  1. ‘they’ refers to products
  2. ‘their’ refers to some companies.