Reading comprehension 11 form 1 term

Read the text and choose the correct variant T/F

TEXT 1: Adapted from “Fishing for Plastic is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals” by Jennifer Nalewicki; published on Smithsonian.com (Oct. 11, 2018).

Fifteen years ago, Marius Smit had an idea that was so outlandish he called it his personal “man on the moon” mission: What if he collected plastic waste polluting the canals running through Amsterdam, Netherlands, recycled it and used the materials to build a boat? Smit eventually made his idea a reality and now has a fleet of nine boats navigating the waterways of Amsterdam, along with two boats in the nearby city of Rotterdam.

Smit first came up with the idea for Plastic Whale during a visit to Borneo. After a storm, the beach where he was staying became flooded with plastic, resulting in what is known as “plastic soup,” a toxic blend of plastics in various stages of decomposition ranging from full bottles to microscopic fragments created by years of exposure to sunlight and waves.

“That opened my eyes,” Smit says. “I wanted to do something [to address] the problem of plastic pollution, but when I came back home to Amsterdam, I didn’t know how to [get my idea off the ground].”

With a background in advertising, Smit did what he does best: He shared his idea with anyone who would listen. Soon other professionals around Holland began reaching out and asking him how they could get involved. Without having any previous experience in boating or recycling, he was grateful for the help.

“Within a few weeks of traveling around Holland, people wanted to help me by offering up their own expertise, from lawyers to accountants to recycling companies to boat builders,” Smit says.

To take his company from idea to reality, Smit borrowed some boats and invited friends to go plastic fishing on the canals of Amsterdam. In 2013, Plastic Whale debuted its first boat made using recycled content collected by volunteers, bringing the project full circle.

While much of the trash collected by Plastic Whale isn’t recyclable and goes directly to the dump, Smit and his team do recycle plastic water bottles. A local company turns the plastic into foam plates that become the core of Plastic Whale’s boats.

The annual plastic haul now outpaces the company’s need for boats, so Smit started looking for new products to create. “We... started working with a company that turns the plastic bottles into fibers that are made into felt, which [a local company uses to make our] Plastic Whale Circular Furniture,” he says. “We started selling the furniture in February of this year.”

Smit says more can be done to educate the public about plastic pollution. “The world’s waters are increasingly being polluted by plastic waste,” he says. “People need to be aware of the fact that there is a problem and a need to reduce our usage of plastics. It all starts with awareness.”

Mark the sentence True or False

1. A firsthand encounter with plastic waste inspired Mr. Smit to address the problem.

TEXT 1: Adapted from “Fishing for Plastic is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals” by Jennifer Nalewicki; published on Smithsonian.com (Oct. 11, 2018).

Fifteen years ago, Marius Smit had an idea that was so outlandish he called it his personal “man on the moon” mission: What if he collected plastic waste polluting the canals running through Amsterdam, Netherlands, recycled it and used the materials to build a boat? Smit eventually made his idea a reality and now has a fleet of nine boats navigating the waterways of Amsterdam, along with two boats in the nearby city of Rotterdam.

Smit first came up with the idea for Plastic Whale during a visit to Borneo. After a storm, the beach where he was staying became flooded with plastic, resulting in what is known as “plastic soup,” a toxic blend of plastics in various stages of decomposition ranging from full bottles to microscopic fragments created by years of exposure to sunlight and waves.

“That opened my eyes,” Smit says. “I wanted to do something [to address] the problem of plastic pollution, but when I came back home to Amsterdam, I didn’t know how to [get my idea off the ground].”

With a background in advertising, Smit did what he does best: He shared his idea with anyone who would listen. Soon other professionals around Holland began reaching out and asking him how they could get involved. Without having any previous experience in boating or recycling, he was grateful for the help.

“Within a few weeks of traveling around Holland, people wanted to help me by offering up their own expertise, from lawyers to accountants to recycling companies to boat builders,” Smit says.

To take his company from idea to reality, Smit borrowed some boats and invited friends to go plastic fishing on the canals of Amsterdam. In 2013, Plastic Whale debuted its first boat made using recycled content collected by volunteers, bringing the project full circle.

While much of the trash collected by Plastic Whale isn’t recyclable and goes directly to the dump, Smit and his team do recycle plastic water bottles. A local company turns the plastic into foam plates that become the core of Plastic Whale’s boats.

The annual plastic haul now outpaces the company’s need for boats, so Smit started looking for new products to create. “We... started working with a company that turns the plastic bottles into fibers that are made into felt, which [a local company uses to make our] Plastic Whale Circular Furniture,” he says. “We started selling the furniture in February of this year.”

Smit says more can be done to educate the public about plastic pollution. “The world’s waters are increasingly being polluted by plastic waste,” he says. “People need to be aware of the fact that there is a problem and a need to reduce our usage of plastics. It all starts with awareness.”

Mark the sentence True or False

2. The phrase “man on the moon mission” highlights the novelty of Mr. Smit’s idea.

TEXT 1: Adapted from “Fishing for Plastic is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals” by Jennifer Nalewicki; published on Smithsonian.com (Oct. 11, 2018).

Fifteen years ago, Marius Smit had an idea that was so outlandish he called it his personal “man on the moon” mission: What if he collected plastic waste polluting the canals running through Amsterdam, Netherlands, recycled it and used the materials to build a boat? Smit eventually made his idea a reality and now has a fleet of nine boats navigating the waterways of Amsterdam, along with two boats in the nearby city of Rotterdam.

Smit first came up with the idea for Plastic Whale during a visit to Borneo. After a storm, the beach where he was staying became flooded with plastic, resulting in what is known as “plastic soup,” a toxic blend of plastics in various stages of decomposition ranging from full bottles to microscopic fragments created by years of exposure to sunlight and waves.

“That opened my eyes,” Smit says. “I wanted to do something [to address] the problem of plastic pollution, but when I came back home to Amsterdam, I didn’t know how to [get my idea off the ground].”

With a background in advertising, Smit did what he does best: He shared his idea with anyone who would listen. Soon other professionals around Holland began reaching out and asking him how they could get involved. Without having any previous experience in boating or recycling, he was grateful for the help.

“Within a few weeks of traveling around Holland, people wanted to help me by offering up their own expertise, from lawyers to accountants to recycling companies to boat builders,” Smit says.

To take his company from idea to reality, Smit borrowed some boats and invited friends to go plastic fishing on the canals of Amsterdam. In 2013, Plastic Whale debuted its first boat made using recycled content collected by volunteers, bringing the project full circle.

While much of the trash collected by Plastic Whale isn’t recyclable and goes directly to the dump, Smit and his team do recycle plastic water bottles. A local company turns the plastic into foam plates that become the core of Plastic Whale’s boats.

The annual plastic haul now outpaces the company’s need for boats, so Smit started looking for new products to create. “We... started working with a company that turns the plastic bottles into fibers that are made into felt, which [a local company uses to make our] Plastic Whale Circular Furniture,” he says. “We started selling the furniture in February of this year.”

Smit says more can be done to educate the public about plastic pollution. “The world’s waters are increasingly being polluted by plastic waste,” he says. “People need to be aware of the fact that there is a problem and a need to reduce our usage of plastics. It all starts with awareness.”

Mark the sentence True or false

3.“Plastic soup” refers to plastics that have returned to a liquid state after years in a landfill.

TEXT 1: Adapted from “Fishing for Plastic is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals” by Jennifer Nalewicki; published on Smithsonian.com (Oct. 11, 2018).

Fifteen years ago, Marius Smit had an idea that was so outlandish he called it his personal “man on the moon” mission: What if he collected plastic waste polluting the canals running through Amsterdam, Netherlands, recycled it and used the materials to build a boat? Smit eventually made his idea a reality and now has a fleet of nine boats navigating the waterways of Amsterdam, along with two boats in the nearby city of Rotterdam.

Smit first came up with the idea for Plastic Whale during a visit to Borneo. After a storm, the beach where he was staying became flooded with plastic, resulting in what is known as “plastic soup,” a toxic blend of plastics in various stages of decomposition ranging from full bottles to microscopic fragments created by years of exposure to sunlight and waves.

“That opened my eyes,” Smit says. “I wanted to do something [to address] the problem of plastic pollution, but when I came back home to Amsterdam, I didn’t know how to [get my idea off the ground].”

With a background in advertising, Smit did what he does best: He shared his idea with anyone who would listen. Soon other professionals around Holland began reaching out and asking him how they could get involved. Without having any previous experience in boating or recycling, he was grateful for the help.

“Within a few weeks of traveling around Holland, people wanted to help me by offering up their own expertise, from lawyers to accountants to recycling companies to boat builders,” Smit says.

To take his company from idea to reality, Smit borrowed some boats and invited friends to go plastic fishing on the canals of Amsterdam. In 2013, Plastic Whale debuted its first boat made using recycled content collected by volunteers, bringing the project full circle.

While much of the trash collected by Plastic Whale isn’t recyclable and goes directly to the dump, Smit and his team do recycle plastic water bottles. A local company turns the plastic into foam plates that become the core of Plastic Whale’s boats.

The annual plastic haul now outpaces the company’s need for boats, so Smit started looking for new products to create. “We... started working with a company that turns the plastic bottles into fibers that are made into felt, which [a local company uses to make our] Plastic Whale Circular Furniture,” he says. “We started selling the furniture in February of this year.”

Smit says more can be done to educate the public about plastic pollution. “The world’s waters are increasingly being polluted by plastic waste,” he says. “People need to be aware of the fact that there is a problem and a need to reduce our usage of plastics. It all starts with awareness.”

Mark the sentence True or False

4. Mr. Smit’s previous jobs had given him the expertise he needed to start Plastic Whale.

TEXT 1: Adapted from “Fishing for Plastic is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals” by Jennifer Nalewicki; published on Smithsonian.com (Oct. 11, 2018).

Fifteen years ago, Marius Smit had an idea that was so outlandish he called it his personal “man on the moon” mission: What if he collected plastic waste polluting the canals running through Amsterdam, Netherlands, recycled it and used the materials to build a boat? Smit eventually made his idea a reality and now has a fleet of nine boats navigating the waterways of Amsterdam, along with two boats in the nearby city of Rotterdam.

Smit first came up with the idea for Plastic Whale during a visit to Borneo. After a storm, the beach where he was staying became flooded with plastic, resulting in what is known as “plastic soup,” a toxic blend of plastics in various stages of decomposition ranging from full bottles to microscopic fragments created by years of exposure to sunlight and waves.

“That opened my eyes,” Smit says. “I wanted to do something [to address] the problem of plastic pollution, but when I came back home to Amsterdam, I didn’t know how to [get my idea off the ground].”

With a background in advertising, Smit did what he does best: He shared his idea with anyone who would listen. Soon other professionals around Holland began reaching out and asking him how they could get involved. Without having any previous experience in boating or recycling, he was grateful for the help.

“Within a few weeks of traveling around Holland, people wanted to help me by offering up their own expertise, from lawyers to accountants to recycling companies to boat builders,” Smit says.

To take his company from idea to reality, Smit borrowed some boats and invited friends to go plastic fishing on the canals of Amsterdam. In 2013, Plastic Whale debuted its first boat made using recycled content collected by volunteers, bringing the project full circle.

While much of the trash collected by Plastic Whale isn’t recyclable and goes directly to the dump, Smit and his team do recycle plastic water bottles. A local company turns the plastic into foam plates that become the core of Plastic Whale’s boats.

The annual plastic haul now outpaces the company’s need for boats, so Smit started looking for new products to create. “We... started working with a company that turns the plastic bottles into fibers that are made into felt, which [a local company uses to make our] Plastic Whale Circular Furniture,” he says. “We started selling the furniture in February of this year.”

Smit says more can be done to educate the public about plastic pollution. “The world’s waters are increasingly being polluted by plastic waste,” he says. “People need to be aware of the fact that there is a problem and a need to reduce our usage of plastics. It all starts with awareness.”

Mark the sentence True or False

5. It took about 10 years for Mr. Smit’s idea to become reality.

TEXT 1: Adapted from “Fishing for Plastic is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals” by Jennifer Nalewicki; published on Smithsonian.com (Oct. 11, 2018).

Fifteen years ago, Marius Smit had an idea that was so outlandish he called it his personal “man on the moon” mission: What if he collected plastic waste polluting the canals running through Amsterdam, Netherlands, recycled it and used the materials to build a boat? Smit eventually made his idea a reality and now has a fleet of nine boats navigating the waterways of Amsterdam, along with two boats in the nearby city of Rotterdam.

Smit first came up with the idea for Plastic Whale during a visit to Borneo. After a storm, the beach where he was staying became flooded with plastic, resulting in what is known as “plastic soup,” a toxic blend of plastics in various stages of decomposition ranging from full bottles to microscopic fragments created by years of exposure to sunlight and waves.

“That opened my eyes,” Smit says. “I wanted to do something [to address] the problem of plastic pollution, but when I came back home to Amsterdam, I didn’t know how to [get my idea off the ground].”

With a background in advertising, Smit did what he does best: He shared his idea with anyone who would listen. Soon other professionals around Holland began reaching out and asking him how they could get involved. Without having any previous experience in boating or recycling, he was grateful for the help.

“Within a few weeks of traveling around Holland, people wanted to help me by offering up their own expertise, from lawyers to accountants to recycling companies to boat builders,” Smit says.

To take his company from idea to reality, Smit borrowed some boats and invited friends to go plastic fishing on the canals of Amsterdam. In 2013, Plastic Whale debuted its first boat made using recycled content collected by volunteers, bringing the project full circle.

While much of the trash collected by Plastic Whale isn’t recyclable and goes directly to the dump, Smit and his team do recycle plastic water bottles. A local company turns the plastic into foam plates that become the core of Plastic Whale’s boats.

The annual plastic haul now outpaces the company’s need for boats, so Smit started looking for new products to create. “We... started working with a company that turns the plastic bottles into fibers that are made into felt, which [a local company uses to make our] Plastic Whale Circular Furniture,” he says. “We started selling the furniture in February of this year.”

Smit says more can be done to educate the public about plastic pollution. “The world’s waters are increasingly being polluted by plastic waste,” he says. “People need to be aware of the fact that there is a problem and a need to reduce our usage of plastics. It all starts with awareness.”

Mark the sentence True or False

6. Mr. Smit and his team carry out the process that turns plastic bottles into boats.

For questions 7-11 choose the correct answer A, B, C or D

TEXT 2: Adapted from “Yarn Harvard Review” by K. Mori

Glossary: chartreuse – a shade of green

sturdy – strongly made

lopsided – having one side that is lower or small than the other

The yellow mittens I made in seventh-grade home economics proved that I dreamed in color. For the unit on knitting, we were supposed to turn in a pair of mittens. The two hands had to be precisely the same size so that when we held them together, palm to palm, no extra stitches would stick out from the thumb, the tip of the fingers, or the cuff. Somewhere between making the fourth and the fifth mitten to fulfill this requirement, I dreamed that the ball of yellow yarn in my bag had turned green. Chartreuse, leaf, Granny Smith, lime, neon, acid green. The brightness was electric. I woke up knowing that I was, once again, doomed for a poor mark in class. 

I didn’t knit again until graduate school when I met a woman from Germany with a closet full of beautiful sweaters. Sabina came to our seminar wearing a soft angora cardigan one week, a sturdy fisherman’s pullover the next.

Sabina took me to a local yarn store, where I bought skeins of red cotton yarn. Following her instructions, I first knit the body of the sweater: two flat pieces, front and back, with a few simple decreases to shape the shoulders and the neck. The pieces were surprisingly easy to sew together. Sabina showed me how to pick up the stitches along the arm opening, connect the new yarn, and knit the sleeves, going from the shoulder to the wrist. I finished the sweater in a month.

The result was slightly lopsided—one sleeve was half an inch wider than the other around the elbow—but the arms looked more or less even once I put the sweater on. The small mistakes in a knitted garment disappear when the garment is on the body, where it belongs. That might have been the most important thing I learned from my first sweater.

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D

7. The first paragraph suggests that the author’s initial experience with knitting was

TEXT 2: Adapted from “Yarn Harvard Review” by K. Mori

Glossary: chartreuse – a shade of green

sturdy – strongly made

lopsided – having one side that is lower or small than the other

The yellow mittens I made in seventh-grade home economics proved that I dreamed in color. For the unit on knitting, we were supposed to turn in a pair of mittens. The two hands had to be precisely the same size so that when we held them together, palm to palm, no extra stitches would stick out from the thumb, the tip of the fingers, or the cuff. Somewhere between making the fourth and the fifth mitten to fulfill this requirement, I dreamed that the ball of yellow yarn in my bag had turned green. Chartreuse, leaf, Granny Smith, lime, neon, acid green. The brightness was electric. I woke up knowing that I was, once again, doomed for a poor mark in class. 

I didn’t knit again until graduate school when I met a woman from Germany with a closet full of beautiful sweaters. Sabina came to our seminar wearing a soft angora cardigan one week, a sturdy fisherman’s pullover the next.

Sabina took me to a local yarn store, where I bought skeins of red cotton yarn. Following her instructions, I first knit the body of the sweater: two flat pieces, front and back, with a few simple decreases to shape the shoulders and the neck. The pieces were surprisingly easy to sew together. Sabina showed me how to pick up the stitches along the arm opening, connect the new yarn, and knit the sleeves, going from the shoulder to the wrist. I finished the sweater in a month.

The result was slightly lopsided—one sleeve was half an inch wider than the other around the elbow—but the arms looked more or less even once I put the sweater on. The small mistakes in a knitted garment disappear when the garment is on the body, where it belongs. That might have been the most important thing I learned from my first sweater.

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D

8. The author was motivated to learn to knit after

TEXT 2: Adapted from “Yarn Harvard Review” by K. Mori

Glossary: chartreuse – a shade of green

sturdy – strongly made

lopsided – having one side that is lower or small than the other

The yellow mittens I made in seventh-grade home economics proved that I dreamed in color. For the unit on knitting, we were supposed to turn in a pair of mittens. The two hands had to be precisely the same size so that when we held them together, palm to palm, no extra stitches would stick out from the thumb, the tip of the fingers, or the cuff. Somewhere between making the fourth and the fifth mitten to fulfill this requirement, I dreamed that the ball of yellow yarn in my bag had turned green. Chartreuse, leaf, Granny Smith, lime, neon, acid green. The brightness was electric. I woke up knowing that I was, once again, doomed for a poor mark in class. 

I didn’t knit again until graduate school when I met a woman from Germany with a closet full of beautiful sweaters. Sabina came to our seminar wearing a soft angora cardigan one week, a sturdy fisherman’s pullover the next.

Sabina took me to a local yarn store, where I bought skeins of red cotton yarn. Following her instructions, I first knit the body of the sweater: two flat pieces, front and back, with a few simple decreases to shape the shoulders and the neck. The pieces were surprisingly easy to sew together. Sabina showed me how to pick up the stitches along the arm opening, connect the new yarn, and knit the sleeves, going from the shoulder to the wrist. I finished the sweater in a month.

The result was slightly lopsided—one sleeve was half an inch wider than the other around the elbow—but the arms looked more or less even once I put the sweater on. The small mistakes in a knitted garment disappear when the garment is on the body, where it belongs. That might have been the most important thing I learned from my first sweater.

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D

9. An important lesson learned from Sabina was

TEXT 2: Adapted from “Yarn Harvard Review” by K. Mori

Glossary: chartreuse – a shade of green

sturdy – strongly made

lopsided – having one side that is lower or small than the other

The yellow mittens I made in seventh-grade home economics proved that I dreamed in color. For the unit on knitting, we were supposed to turn in a pair of mittens. The two hands had to be precisely the same size so that when we held them together, palm to palm, no extra stitches would stick out from the thumb, the tip of the fingers, or the cuff. Somewhere between making the fourth and the fifth mitten to fulfill this requirement, I dreamed that the ball of yellow yarn in my bag had turned green. Chartreuse, leaf, Granny Smith, lime, neon, acid green. The brightness was electric. I woke up knowing that I was, once again, doomed for a poor mark in class. 

I didn’t knit again until graduate school when I met a woman from Germany with a closet full of beautiful sweaters. Sabina came to our seminar wearing a soft angora cardigan one week, a sturdy fisherman’s pullover the next.

Sabina took me to a local yarn store, where I bought skeins of red cotton yarn. Following her instructions, I first knit the body of the sweater: two flat pieces, front and back, with a few simple decreases to shape the shoulders and the neck. The pieces were surprisingly easy to sew together. Sabina showed me how to pick up the stitches along the arm opening, connect the new yarn, and knit the sleeves, going from the shoulder to the wrist. I finished the sweater in a month.

The result was slightly lopsided—one sleeve was half an inch wider than the other around the elbow—but the arms looked more or less even once I put the sweater on. The small mistakes in a knitted garment disappear when the garment is on the body, where it belongs. That might have been the most important thing I learned from my first sweater.

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D

10. Based on the author’s experience, knitting

TEXT 2: Adapted from “Yarn Harvard Review” by K. Mori

Glossary: chartreuse – a shade of green

sturdy – strongly made

lopsided – having one side that is lower or small than the other

The yellow mittens I made in seventh-grade home economics proved that I dreamed in color. For the unit on knitting, we were supposed to turn in a pair of mittens. The two hands had to be precisely the same size so that when we held them together, palm to palm, no extra stitches would stick out from the thumb, the tip of the fingers, or the cuff. Somewhere between making the fourth and the fifth mitten to fulfill this requirement, I dreamed that the ball of yellow yarn in my bag had turned green. Chartreuse, leaf, Granny Smith, lime, neon, acid green. The brightness was electric. I woke up knowing that I was, once again, doomed for a poor mark in class. 

I didn’t knit again until graduate school when I met a woman from Germany with a closet full of beautiful sweaters. Sabina came to our seminar wearing a soft angora cardigan one week, a sturdy fisherman’s pullover the next.

Sabina took me to a local yarn store, where I bought skeins of red cotton yarn. Following her instructions, I first knit the body of the sweater: two flat pieces, front and back, with a few simple decreases to shape the shoulders and the neck. The pieces were surprisingly easy to sew together. Sabina showed me how to pick up the stitches along the arm opening, connect the new yarn, and knit the sleeves, going from the shoulder to the wrist. I finished the sweater in a month.

The result was slightly lopsided—one sleeve was half an inch wider than the other around the elbow—but the arms looked more or less even once I put the sweater on. The small mistakes in a knitted garment disappear when the garment is on the body, where it belongs. That might have been the most important thing I learned from my first sweater.

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D

11. The author’s tone is