In the 13th century, the famous Italian traveler, Marco Polo, traveled a long way to China. During his stay in China, he saw many wonderful things. One of the things he discovered was that the Chinese used paper money. In western countries, people didn’t use the paper money until 15th century. However, people in China began to use paper money in the 7th century.
A Chinese man called Cai Lun invented paper almost 2,000 years ago. He took the wood from trees and made it into paper. He then put these pieces of paper together and made them into a book.
Now paper still comes from trees. We use a lot of paper every day. If we keep on wasting so much paper, there will not be any trees left on the earth. If there are no trees, there will be no paper. Every day, people throw away about 2,800 tons of paper in our city. It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper. This means that we are cutting nearly 48,000 trees every day. Since it takes more than 10 years for a tree to grow, we must start using less paper now.
So how can we save paper? We can use both sides of every piece of paper, especially when we are making notes. We can use cotton handkerchiefs and not paper ones. When we go shopping, we can use fewer paper bags. If the shop assistant gives us a paper bag, we can save it and reuse it later.
Everyone can help to save paper. If we all think carefully, we can help protect trees. But we should do it now, before it is too late.
小题1: When he was in China, Marco Polo ____________.
A．discovered Cai Lun invented paper
B．learned to make paper
C．saw many wonderf
ul things
D．read a lot of books小题2: Which of the following is not a way of saving paper?
A．To use both sides of every piece of paper
B．To use fewer paper bags when shopping
C．To use cotton handkerchiefs instead of paper ones
D．To grow more trees小题3: Which of the following is not true?
A．If we keep on wasting paper, we will have no paper to use one day.
B．The Chinese used paper money much earlier than people in western countries.
C．About 48,000 trees can be used to make 2,800 tons of paper.
D．It is never too late to plant trees for paper.小题4: Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A．Saving Paper
B．The History of Paper
C．Cotton Handkerchiefs Back Again
D．Cai Lun, the Inventor
