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  3. [A]Polite High-tech Circles [B]The European Solution [C]Recycling and Reuse [D]Disposal Crisis of E-waste [E]Public

[A]Polite High-tech Circles [B]The European Solution [C]Recycling and Reuse [D]Disposal Crisis of E-waste [E]Public

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问题    [A]Polite High-tech Circles
   [B]The European Solution
   [C]Recycling and Reuse
   [D]Disposal Crisis of E-waste
   [E]Public Health Problems
   [F]The US Is Taking Action
   [G]Going Global
   It’s long been known, but little discussed in polite high-tech circles, that information-age technology is not the clean industry it claims to be. Manufacturing a single PC can generate 139 pounds of waste and involves chemicals linked to high rates of cancer and birth defects among workers and communities.
   【R1】______
   Electronic waste (e-waste)—such as obsolete and discarded computers, monitors, printers, cell phones, and televisions—is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the developed world, thanks to the industry’s philosophy of "design for immediate obsolescence" and an anemic electronics-recycling infrastructure. An estimated 300 to 500 million computers have descended on landfills by 2007 in the US alone. Three-quarters of all computers ever sold in this country await disposal in garages and storage facilities because their owners don’t know what to do with them.
   【R2】______
   If the full force of the high-tech revolution hits the landfill, its health risks will leave no community untouched. E-waste accounts for 5 percent of all solid waste in America but approximately 40 percent of the lead, 70 percent of the heavy metals, and a significant portion of the organic chemical pollutants in America’s dumps. This e-waste can leach into the ground, as it did in the Silicon Valley. It was the widespread contamination of the valley’s aquifers in the early 1980s that initially punctured the high-tech industry’s clean image. Currently, there are more EPA Superfund clean-up sites in this valley than anywhere else in the US. The threat of soil and drinking water contamination will grow as e-waste surges into the waste stream worldwide.
   【R3】______
   The European Union is way ahead of the US in recognizing the hazards and moving towards a solution. The first European Union directive on e-waste, adopted last year, requires producers to take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products. By 2005, companies will either have to take back products directly from consumers or fund independent collectors to do so. Waste that was generated prior to the enactment date will be the responsibility of all existing companies, in proportion to their market share. Future waste is to be the individual responsibility of each company, thereby creating an incentive to redesign products for easier and safer recycling and disposal. No e-waste will be allowed in municipal waste streams.
   【R4】______
   Because the US high-tech industry and its friends in Washington represent the biggest obstacles to the globalization of take-back laws, a broad coalition of environmental, health, labor, and recycling groups and local governments has formed the Computer Take Back Campaign to support EU-style legislation in the US. Hundreds of organizations and local governments in the US have already endorsed the campaign’ s platform. The campaign advocates that the US adopt standards for electronics manufacturers at least as stringent as those adopted by the EU: hazardous materials would be phased out, and all electronics would be designed for reuse and recycling.
   【R5】______
   The European approach is more than a minor "software patch" on a fundamentally flawed program. By establishing corporate responsibility for products at the end of their useful lives, this strategy could have wide-ranging effects on the information technology industry. The EU approach spreads environmental benefits. If we can adopt the EU’s code in the US, we can do a bit of reverse engineering on globalization. By downloading Europe’s program to the US, we can finally begin to clean up the "clean industry" around the globe.
【R4】
选项
答案F
解析 第五段首句为主题句，由于美国的高科技产业以及它们在华盛顿的朋友是实施全球化回收法律的最大阻力，所以美国的一些环境、保健、劳动和回收利用等组织和团体以及地方政府组成了一个广泛的联盟，发起了一场“电脑回收运动”，支持在美国实行欧盟式的立法行动。换句话说，即美国已针对电子垃圾处理问题展开行动。所以，F选项“美国正在行动”为正确答案。
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