Oceans of Garbage - Unit 11
B2 First · Gapped Text · Ready for B2 First 4th Edition, Macmillan Education Limited
You are going to read an article about plastic in the oceans. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
Oceans of Garbage
At sea and on shore, under the influence of sunlight and the action of waves, they simply break down slowly into increasingly smaller particles.
We can all contribute by avoiding plastics in the things we buy and by disposing of our waste responsibly.
Microscopic particles of plastic, known as microplastics, are consumed by humans, too.
But this is not the only threat to marine life.
They have been casually thrown away on land and at sea and carried ashore by wind and tide.
Of course, not all plastic floats.
This perhaps wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the plastic had no harmful effects.
The North Pacific Subtropical gyre is an area of twenty million square kilometres in the Pacific Ocean, in which a combination of four currents moves the water slowly round in a clockwise direction. The circular motion of the gyre pulls large quantities of marine debris, including plastics and other rubbish, into the centre, where it becomes trapped and builds up over time. This gyre is sometimes called the Trash Vortex or the Pacific Garbage Patch. Some plastics here will not break down in the lifetimes of the grandchildren of the people who threw them away. More than 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year, and 8 million tonnes of this end up in the sea. If you look around on any beach anywhere in the world, you will invariably find an assortment of disposable plastic items such as shopping bags, food wrappers, bottles and bottle caps, drinking straws, lighters and pieces of fishing net.
These larger objects are the visible signs of a much larger problem. They do not degrade like natural materials.
A single one-litre bottle could separate into enough tiny pieces to put one on every mile of beach in the entire world.
Unfortunately, however, many items are mistaken for food and swallowed by seabirds and other ocean-going creatures. A turtle found dead on one Pacific island had several hundred pieces of plastic in its stomach and intestines. It has been estimated that plastic kills over a million seabirds and one hundred thousand marine mammals and sea turtles each year.
Absorbed by fish and shellfish, they quickly work their way up to the very top of the food chain. You may not be able to see the tiny fragments hanging in the water, but they are there, nonetheless, and they may one day end up on your plate.
Ocean garbage patches, it seems, are just the tip of the iceberg and the vast majority of discarded plastic is broken down and sinks to the bottom. Here it is swept along by powerful currents and deposited in high concentrations in so-called microplastic hotspots. Researchers recently found as many as 1.9 million pieces of microplastic covering just one square metre of the ocean floor. The issue of plastic waste is one that needs to be urgently addressed.
Obviously though, there is a need to make those who earn a living from the sea, such as ship owners and fishing boat operators, more aware of the consequences of irresponsible disposal of plastic items. With so many threats to the world oceans, including pollution, overfishing and climate change, we urgently need to rescue marine biodiversity in the most effective way possible.
The North Pacific Subtropical gyre is an area of twenty million square kilometres in the Pacific Ocean, in which a combination of four currents moves the water slowly round in a clockwise direction. The circular motion of the gyre pulls large quantities of marine debris, including plastics and other rubbish, into the centre, where it becomes trapped and builds up over time. This gyre is sometimes called the Trash Vortex or the Pacific Garbage Patch. Some plastics here will not break down in the lifetimes of the grandchildren of the people who threw them away. More than 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year, and 8 million tonnes of this end up in the sea. If you look around on any beach anywhere in the world, you will invariably find an assortment of disposable plastic items such as shopping bags, food wrappers, bottles and bottle caps, drinking straws, lighters and pieces of fishing net. ___ These larger objects are the visible signs of a much larger problem. They do not degrade like natural materials. ___ A single one-litre bottle could separate into enough tiny pieces to put one on every mile of beach in the entire world. ___ Unfortunately, however, many items are mistaken for food and swallowed by seabirds and other ocean-going creatures. A turtle found dead on one Pacific island had several hundred pieces of plastic in its stomach and intestines. It has been estimated that plastic kills over a million seabirds and one hundred thousand marine mammals and sea turtles each year. ___ Absorbed by fish and shellfish, they quickly work their way up to the very top of the food chain. You may not be able to see the tiny fragments hanging in the water, but they are there, nonetheless, and they may one day end up on your plate. ___ Ocean garbage patches, it seems, are just the tip of the iceberg and the vast majority of discarded plastic is broken down and sinks to the bottom. Here it is swept along by powerful currents and deposited in high concentrations in so-called microplastic hotspots. Researchers recently found as many as 1.9 million pieces of microplastic covering just one square metre of the ocean floor. The issue of plastic waste is one that needs to be urgently addressed. ___ Obviously though, there is a need to make those who earn a living from the sea, such as ship owners and fishing boat operators, more aware of the consequences of irresponsible disposal of plastic items. With so many threats to the world oceans, including pollution, overfishing and climate change, we urgently need to rescue marine biodiversity in the most effective way possible.
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