I Am Paper

供稿：羅亞琪

紙是由含植物纖維的原材料制成的薄片，可用于寫畫、印刷、包裝等，是我們的日常物品之一。閱讀下文，一起了解紙的一些知識。

Hello,everyone! I am surely one of the most important everyday things that human society has ever invented.Look around in your room right now and see how many things are made of me:your textbooks,notebooks,a card you got for your birthday,and even those on your wall! In the classroom,you write on me to work out math problems or do a book report.You use me every day that you don’t even think about a world without me.Can you guess who I am? Yes,I am paper.Let me introduce you some knowledge about me.

1.My history

Before I was invented,people1)communicatedthrough pictures and2)symbolson stone or bone.According to many3)historians,I was first invented in the Western Han Dynasty and improved by Cai Lun.He used fishnets,old clothes and waste to make me.During the 8th century,the secret traveled to the place that is now the Middle East.Yet,by the 11th century,paper-making was brought to Europe.One of the first paper factories was built in Spain,and by the 13th,paper-making was refined with paper mills,and soon paper was being made at factories across Europe.

Today I am made mostly from two different things:4)pulpand recycled materials from paper.China and the United States are the largest pulp and paper producers in the world.

1) communicate [?k??mju?n?ke?t] v.交流

2) symbol [?s?mbl] n.象征；標志

3) historian [h??st??ri?n] n.歷史學家

4) pulp [p?lp] n.紙漿

2.Ways to Reduce My Pollution

Data shows with a great percent being used in the paper industry,about 80,000 to 160,000 trees are cut down each day around the world.The way to make me uses up lots of water.5)Environmentaliststhink the way to make me has a bad influence on the environment.

What can you do to make my pollution and waste less?

Recycle all your paper waste.It can take many years to grow another tree to make more paper.So it is important that we protect as much as we can by recycling paper.Paper can be recycled about 5 to 7 times.Using one ton of recycled paper can6)prevent17 trees from being cut down.When you recycle your used paper,paper factories will use it to make new notebook,paper bags,cardboard boxes,magazines,newspapers and other paper products.

Reuse paper.If you’ve only used one side for example,collect them instead of throwing them away.This small effort reduces paper waste by 50%.Encourage your family and friends to recycle their paper by putting them in recycling bins.

The way you use me greatly influences our daily life.These small efforts on your part will be valuable in solving our pollution problems today.

5) environmentalist [?n?va?r?n?ment?l?st] n.環保主義者

6) prevent [pr??vent] v.阻止

大家好！我無疑是人類社會發明最重要的日常事物之一。現在環顧你的房間，看看有多少東西是用我做的：你的課本、筆記本、生日賀卡，甚至墻上的那些墻紙！課堂上，你在我身上解決數學問題或做讀書報告。你每天都在使用我，你甚至沒有想過沒有我的世界。你能猜到我是誰嗎？是的，我是紙。讓我來向你介紹幾個關于我的一些知識。

1.我的歷史

在發明我之前，人們通過在石頭或骨頭上刻圖片和符號進行交流。據許多歷史學家介紹，我始于西漢并由蔡倫改進，他用漁網、舊衣服和破布來制造我。公元8 世紀，這個技術傳到了現在的中東地區。11 世紀，造紙術被帶到歐洲。最早的造紙廠之一建于西班牙，13 世紀，西班牙的造紙廠改進造紙術，很快歐洲各地的工廠都在生產紙。

如今，我主要由兩種不同的東西制成：紙漿和紙張的再生材料。中國和美國是世界上最大的紙漿和紙張生產國。

2.減少我的污染的方法

據不完全統計，由于大量的樹木被用于造紙，全世界每天約有80,000 到160,000 棵樹被砍伐。而制造我的過程也消耗了大量的水。環保主義者認為制造我的方式對環境有不良影響。

你能做些什么來減少關于我的污染和浪費呢？

回收所有的廢紙。通過重新種植來生產更多的紙可能需要很多年，所以我們應盡可能地通過回收廢紙來保護環境，這是很重要的。紙可循環使用5～7次，使用一噸再生紙可以防止17 棵樹被砍伐。廢紙被回收時，造紙廠將用它來制造新的筆記本、紙袋、紙板箱、雜志、報紙和其他紙制品。

重復使用我。例如，如果只使用了一面，請收集我而不是扔掉我，這個小小的努力可減少50%的紙張浪費。請鼓勵親朋好友將我放入回收箱。

你使用我的方式極大地影響了我們的日常生活。你這些小小的努力對于解決我們今天的污染問題將是有價值的。