Transform palm leaves into tableware 用棕榈叶制餐具

王军波

为解决日益严重的塑料垃圾问题，印度的一家公司用槟榔的落叶制造餐具。让人意想不到的是，该公司的首席执行官是一位双目失明的人。

1 It s time for lunch in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad and the locals are crowding in a popular roadside restaurant serving regional food like dosa and idli. Many customers are eating standing up， but they re perhaps unaware that the paper plates they re using are made from palm leaves.

2 The plates are produced by Bollant Industries， a local company that makes eco friendly products and packaging from the fallen leaves of areca （檳榔树） as well as recycled paper.

3 “I call myself a waste person，” CEO Srikanth Bolla says. “I want to recycle all the waste that I can in this world.” Now aged 30， Bolla， who has been blind since birth， founded the company in 2012 to pioneer sustainability and to provide jobs for people with disabilities. His company currently employs around 400 people， a quarter of whom have disabilities. Valued at $65 million， with funding from many investors， Bollant Industries operates seven manufacturing plants， producing hundreds of tons of products each month， ranging from tableware to packaging.

4 India s plastic waste problem has grown in recent times. Per capita （人均的） plastic waste generation in India has almost doubled in the last five years. According to a report， the country generates 15 million metric tons of plastic waste each year.

5 For Bolla， a complete ban on single use plastic is not the best solution. He thinks it is necessary to encourage manufacturers to develop new alternatives. “Plastic is such a useful， flexible material，” he says. “So we should shift to making plastic using biodegradable materials. This is the only way we can handle plastic pollution.”

6 To make its plastic alternative products， Bollant purchases fallen areca leaves collected by farmers and acquires used paper from local paper mills. At its manufacturing unit， staff operate hand presses to transform the leaves into tableware， and the used paper into colorful plates.

7 Bollant Industries is not the only Indian company innovating in this space. In the near future， India is expected to be the fastest growing market for biodegradable plastic， anticipated to grow to almost $9 billion globally by the end of 2025. Bollant Industries is currently expanding its range and developing a biodegradable product which can be used， instead of plastic， to coat and waterproof paper products.

Choose the best answers according to the text

Inference  1. Why does the author mention the sight of having lunch in paragraph 1？

A. To introduce the topic of the text.

B. To recommend a popular restaurant.

C. To tell the customers  foolish behavior.

D. To show the advantages of palm leaves.

Detail    2. What can we know about Bollant Industries？

A. It has been founded for a decade.

B. It mainly employs disabled people.

C. It gains great support from inventors.

D. It provides tableware for the whole country.

Detail  3. What is the best way to deal with plastic pollution according to Bolla？

A. Forbidding using single use plastic.

B. Reducing individual plastic generation.

C. Setting up more energy saving factories.

D. Making plastic from biodegradable materials.

Inference      4. What can we expect of Bollant Industries according to the last para

graph？

A. It will rank first in India.

B. It will shift to other fields.

C. It will solve the plastic waste problem.

D. It will have a promising future.

Analyze the difficult sentence in the text

Valued at $65 million， with funding from many investors， Bollant Industries operates seven manufacturing plants， producing hundreds of tons of products each month， ranging from tableware to packaging. 在許多投资者的资助下，Bollant工业公司身价6，500万美元，经营着7家制造工厂，每月生产数百吨产品，其产品类别包括餐具及包装材料等。

【点石成金】本句中，Valued at $65 million作状语，与逻辑主语Bollant Industries之间构成逻辑上的动宾关系;with funding from many investors为介词短语作状语;producing hundreds of tons of products each month为非谓语动词作伴随状语;ranging from tableware to packaging为非谓语动词作后置定语，修饰hundreds of tons of products。