GE B1+ Unit 3 Use of English 2

Carrier bags

Carrier bags are those plastic bags which you are given in the supermarket. A lot of people can’t imagine having to do ¹_______ them. Aft er all, how else are we supposed to carry our shopping home? However, carrier bags are a huge problem for the environment. In fact, they are ²_______ a big problem that some governments have decided to take serious action. The main problem is that they are very diffi cult to get rid of. After we’ve thrown them ³_______ , they can stay in the ground for up to a thousand years. The other problem is that we use so ⁴_______ of them. It is thought that around one trillion carrier bags are used every year! A lot of them can also be found in the sea and, as a result, millions of sea birds and fi sh are killed off ⁵_______ year. People started to protest about the dangers of plastic bags in the late 1990s, but it took several years to get their message ⁶_______ . A few years later, some governments made shopkeepers charge customers for their bags. They wanted people to recycle old bags or make ⁷_______ with paper ones. This did have an impact and people started using fewer carrier bags. However, the change wasn’t big ⁸_______ for some governments. In order to solve the problem, they decided to ban carrier bags altogether. Their objective is to ⁹_______ sure that carrier bags stop being a danger to life on Earth. They argue that we have to change our habits now, before it’s ¹⁰_______ late. Let’s hope more countries follow their example.