Mid term exam

READING
Recycling Plastic Bottles

There is a lot of plastic in the world. We use plastic plates, containers, toys, and many more objects. But many plastic products—like water bottles and bags from the supermarket—are used only once and then thrown in the trash. A lot of plastic trash ends up in the oceans; that’s a major problem for sea animals. Scientists are doing research on how to get the plastic out of the oceans.

The good thing is that scientists discovered how plastic products can be recycled: They become new plastic products. How does that work? How do we turn, for example, old plastic bottles into new, clean plastic bottles?
• First, we need to collect the plastic. Many places have special trash containers for plastic.
• Next, machines separate the plastic from a few other recyclables like paper and metal.
• Then, machines clean the plastics and sort them by type and color. (They use infrared light to do this.)
• A different machine cuts all the plastic into “flakes”: very small pieces. The flakes are washed again.
• Then, the flakes are heated so that the plastic becomes heavy liquid soup.
• Finally, machines create new plastic products from the liquid plastic; for example, new bottles!
As you can see, there are many steps here, and we need several machines. This makes recycling plastic bottles an expensive process. Therefore, the best way to deal with plastic is: Just try to use plastic products several times. If you can avoid buying or using plastic, that’s even better! Fortunately, the number of recycled products increases every year.


A. Read the text. Find the meaning of the words
1. A research is a careful …
a) plan b) study c) exercise
2. To ­ find out something new
a) to discover b) to create c) to increase
3. To get bigger in amount or quantity
a) to discover b) to create c) to increase
4. For this reason
a) a few b) therefore c) just
5. A small number
a) a few b) therefore c) just