B．require less energy to recycle

　　C．take more time to break down

　　D．have less influence on forests

　　解析：选A　细节理解题。由第三段中的"the amount of water used to make them is twenty times higher"可知，A项说法正确。

　　3．The underlined word "discarded" in Paragraph 3 probably means "________"．

　　A．shared　　　　　　　 B．given up

　　C．discussed D．put forward

　　解析：选B　词义猜测题。由该词后的"Research shows it requires about 98% less energy to recycle plastic than it does paper"可知，就回收利用而言，纸袋比塑料袋更加环保这种观念显然是错误的，应该予以抛弃，故选B项。

　　4．What does the Irish government think of plastic bags?

　　A．They are less harmful than paper bags.

　　B．They can be made environment­friendly.

　　C．Taxes probably need to be increased further.

　　D．No plastic bags should be provided in shops.

　　解析：选C　细节理解题。由倒数第二段中的"In Ireland ... a tax has been introduced to discourage the use of plastic bags"可知，爱尔兰政府可能会进一步加大对购买塑料袋者征收的税费，故选C项。

　　B

　　Abdul, who was a tailor in a village in southern India, managed to earn enough to keep himself, his wife and his children. Tailoring is a trade that depends on having a sharp eye. When Abdul was 50, his eyes began to cloud over with cataracts (白内障). A year later he was almost completely blind.

　　With no social security to fall back on, his wife and children had to somehow earn the money to support the family. However, Abdul's luck changed when he was seen by a mobile eye team supported by Sight Savers. They performed a cataract removal operation which restored (恢复) his sight.

　　Abdul is very special to us, because he was the two millionth person whose sight we restored. That was back in 1987. In 1991, Taj Eibi, a mother of two sons, became the three millionth person to receive the gift of sight from Sight Savers at a mobile eye hospital in Pakistan. Now she's running the family home again, working in the fields with her sons and helping at the local primary school.

How much did it cost to bring about this miracle (奇迹)? Just ￡8. Imagine, ￡8 will give the priceless gift of sight to a blind person. And ￡16 will restore the sight of two blind people.