You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
你听说过塑料污染海洋 — 每年有480至1270万吨进入海洋生态系统。但是一个塑料吸管或杯子真的会有影响吗？艺术家本杰明·冯·黄希望你知道它确实有影响。他利用塑料垃圾建造巨大的雕塑，迫使观众重新审视他们与一次性塑料制品的关系。

At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
艺术家在年初建造了一件名为“吸管末日”的作品，一对10英尺高的塑料浪，冻结在中途碰撞的状态。这座雕塑由来自几次志愿者海滩清理活动中收集到的16.8万根塑料吸管制成，首次展示在越南胡志明市的Estella Place购物中心。

Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source（来源）of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
全球仅有9%的塑料垃圾被回收。塑料吸管绝对不是塑料污染的最大源，但最近受到指责，因为大多数人在喝饮料时并不需要它们，另外，由于其轻巧和小尺寸，它们无法被回收。冯·黄的艺术作品中的每根吸管很可能来自某人仅用几分钟喝完的一杯饮料。一旦饮料喝完，这根吸管将需要数个世纪才能消失。

In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate（说明） a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped（倾倒） from a truck all at once.
在2018年的一件作品中，冯·黄想要说明一个具体的统计数据：每60秒，价值一辆卡车的塑料进入海洋。为了这件作品，题为“一车塑料”，冯·黄和一群志愿者收集了1万多个塑料碎片，然后将它们绑在一起，看起来像是一次从一辆卡车上倾倒的样子。

Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
冯·黄希望他的作品也能帮助推动大公司减少他们的塑料足迹。

1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?
   A. Beautifying the city he lives in. B. Introducing eco-friendly products.
   C. Drawing public attention to plastic waste. D. Reducing garbage on the beach.
   答案：C

2. Why does the author discuss plastic straws in paragraph 3?
   A. To show the difficulty of their recycling.
   B. To explain why they are useful.
   C. To voice his views on modern art.
   D. To find a substitute for them.
   答案：A

3. What effect would “Truckload of Plastic” have on viewers?
   A. Calming. B. Disturbing.
   C. Refreshing. D. Challenging.
   答案：C

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
   A. Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety
   B. Media Interest in Contemporary Art
   C. Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies
   D. Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures
   答案：D