造纸”是中国的四大发明之一，许多同学都为之自豪。可是，不少同学在平时用纸非常浪费，乱撕乱扔，还不以为然地说：“中国地大物博，造纸资源取之不尽。”真是这样吗？请同学们读读下面的文章，看看你会有什么样的感受？

In the 13th century，the famous Italian traveller，Marco Polo，travelled 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 did not use paper money until the 15th century．However，people in China began to use paper money in the 7th century．

A Chinese man called Cai Lun invented paper almost 2000years ago．He made it from wood．He took the wood from the tree 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 kept 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 2，800tons（吨）of paper in our city．It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper．This means that we are cutting nearly 48，000trees every day．

Since it takes more than 10years for a tree to grow，we must start using less paper now．If we don't，we will not have enough time to grow more trees to take the place of those we use for paper？

So how can we save paper？We can use both sides of every piece of paper，especially when we are making notes．We can choose drinks in bottles instead of those in paper pack- ets．We can also use cotton handkerchiefs（手帕）and not paper ones．When we go shopping，we can use fewer paper bags．If the shop assistant does give 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．

根据短文内容选择最佳答案。

1．Marco Polo _____ when he was in China．

   a．discovered that Cai Lun invented paper

   b．learned to make paper

   c．saw many wonderful things

   d．read a lot of books

2．People in western countries first use paper money in the _____  century．

   a．17th

   b．15th

   c．13th

   d．7th

3．About _____  tons of paper are thrown away every day in our city．

   a．1，700

   b．2，000

   c．2，800

   d．4，800

4．Which of the following is NOT a way of saving paper？

   a．To use both sides of every piece of paper．

   b．To use the paper bags from shops more than once．

   c．To use cotton handkerchiefs instead of paper ones．

   d．To grow more trees．

5．Which of the following is NOT TRUE？

   a．If we keep on wasting paper，we will have no paper to use．

   b．The Chinese people used paper money much earlier than western people．

   c．About 48，000trees can be used to make 2，800tons of paper．

   d．It's never too late to plant new trees for paper．

Key:

●Saving paper： 1．c 2．b 3．c 4．d 5．d