A
People at an east London workshop are paying to learn how to make their own bicycle. Nothing unusual about that? But at this Bamboo Bicycle Club session, the bikes are being made with bamboo.
In all the excitement to claim bicycles the answer to crowded roads, polluted city air and our own health, the materials used to manufacture those bikes often get overlooked. Carbon fiber, for example, is increasingly popular for new bicycles, particularly racing bikes. The material, though lightweight and strong, is difficult to recycle and cannot be melted down and reused in its original form, unlike aluminum and steel. Carbon fiber is also dangerous and dirty to work with, so it's an unlikely material for encouraging people to build and repair their own bicycles. It's also incredibly wasteful. Most people replace a racing bike every three years, adding to carbon fiber waste.
Motivated to cut the waste and make bikebuilding more popular, Marr has set up a club to teach people how to make their own bikes out of bamboo. Far from just panda food, bamboo is a strong and popular building material in Asia, and it's well suited to being shaped into a bicycle frame. It can grow from seed to harvest in less than four years. Still, its sustainability relies on production standards, for example, avoiding the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and ensuring natural forest is not cleared for plantations.
The club's workshop in London makes around 500 bicycles a year, with a twoday session building your own bamboo bicycle costing around ￡600. The club has opened franchises(特许经营权) in Germany and Italy, with more in Canada and South Africa opening soon. As well as teaching people to build bikes, the club was invited by two NGOs working in Kenya last year to help teach students in Malaa near Nairobi how to repair, maintain and build bicycles. The final ambition is to help reconnect people with bikes and the materials used to build them.
In a recent interview, Marr talked about the trendy bikesharing. “While bikesharing companies have promised lots in terms of more sustainable transport, they haven't yet changed wasteful consumer attitudes，” Marr commented, adding that he was shocked by photos of thousands of unwanted bicycles abandoned in cities across China.
语篇导读 本文主要介绍的是一个自行车俱乐部为了环保教人们用竹子做自行车。
1．What makes the bicycles of Bamboo Bicycle Club special?
A．The payment. B．The material.
C．The workshop. D．The function.
解析 B 细节理解题。根据第一段最后一句可知，这个俱乐部的特殊性在于这里的自行车是用竹子制作的，即原材料不同，故选B项。
2．What do we know about carbon fiber from the second paragraph?
A．It's not environmentally friendly.
B．It's unrecyclable.
C．It's flexible.
D．It's less popular.
解析 A 细节理解题。根据第二段可知，碳纤维难以回收，并且不能融化后再利用，而且有危险性，不干净，由此可知，它不环保，故选A项。
3．What is the final aim of Marr's club?
A．To double their profits.
B．To open more shops abroad.
C．To teach how to make bikes.
D．To reduce the waste and raise people's awareness of bikebuilding.
解析 D 细节理解题。根据第三段第一句可知，俱乐部的最终目的是为了减少浪费并且让自行车制造越来越普及，故选D项。motivate成为……的动机；激发。
4．What is Marr's attitude to bikesharing?
A．Positive. B．Critical.
C．Doubtful. D．Objective.
解析 B 观点态度题。根据最后一段可知，Marr认为共享单车公司并没有改变浪费的消费观念，四处是被遗弃的单车，由此可推知他对共享单车持批判态度，故选B项。
