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【完形填空】Cloze: The Litter Project
Zhou Lan, a 41-year-old ecologist, knelt on the wet stone and examined a strip of orange plastic. "This is the third one this week," she said. Her brother, Chen Wei, a photographer, held an umbrella over her and said nothing. Above them, the mountain vanished (1) a mass of cloud. It was April 2019.
She had come back to Anhui after eleven years in Shanghai, where she had worked for a company that made processors for cameras. The salary was good. The work was monotonous. She had begun to feel that her life was a borrowed passport, stamped but never read. So she quit, rented a small house at the foot of the mountain, and started (2) survey of waste along the trails. Her aim was simple: to collect evidence and persuade the park to act. In the first year, she and six volunteers collected approximately 2,400 items across 38 kilometres of path. Most were bottles, wrappers, and the thin plastic sleeves that tourists wrap around their shoes. The volume was not the enigma. The enigma was where it came from.
Chen Wei joined her in 2020. He was jealous of her commitment, though he would not say so. He preferred to work alone, with a camera, and he had a theory that the rubbish did not fall from pockets. It was placed. "Look at the pattern," he told her one evening, spreading 60 photographs across the floor. "Same spot. Same angle. Every two weeks." Zhou Lan studied the images and felt a cold, profound confusion. Someone was returning to the same coordinates and leaving the same objects, as if (3) a private ritual. The correlation was too regular to be accidental. "A performance," she said. "Or a competition." He nodded. "Or a claim."
They set up a camouflage tent near a sandstone ledge in May 2021 and waited. On the fourth night, a man in a stylish grey jacket arrived, carrying a bag. He was not disrespectful. He was methodical. He arranged seven bottles in a line, photographed them with his phone, then walked away. Chen Wei followed him downhill. The man's name was Liu, a 29-year-old applicant for a postgraduate programme in environmental design. He explained, without shame, that he was documenting "the real condition" of the mountain for his portfolio. "The park only shows the gorgeous side," he said. "I show the interior." He had, he conceded, donated 3,000 yuan annually to a cleanup fund. He believed his images would outweigh his litter. Zhou Lan disagreed. She felt the urge to disparage him, then swallowed it.
Her report, submitted in October 2021, ran to 74 pages. The park authority was sympathetic but cautious. They could not authorise a full cleanup without a budget line. The annual maintenance fund was 1.2 million yuan for 210 square kilometres. "We are not denying the problem," an official told her. "We are delaying a decision." The phrase stayed with her. She had expected a breakthrough. Instead she got a truce. That winter, she developed an autoimmune condition, likely from prolonged damp and stress. Her doctor advised decompression. She moved to a rented flat in Hefei and took a job lecturing on environmental policy.
Chen Wei kept going. By 2023, he had documented 11,000 items and 400 photographic series. His images were exhibited in three cities and downloaded 90,000 times. Some viewers were moved. Most scrolled past. He began to wonder whether visibility was a substitute for action, whether the camera had become a channel for guilt rather than a tool for change. He did not tell his sister. He did not want to confuse her recovery.
In March 2024, Zhou Lan returned for one weekend. The trail was cleaner. A new sign, blue and glossy, read: TAKE YOUR TRASH HOME. Underneath, in smaller print: A CLEAN MOUNTAIN IS A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY. She stood there for a long time. A child ran past, dropping a wrapper. His mother picked it up, smiled at Zhou Lan, and put it in her pocket. The rain had stopped. The cloud was lifting. Zhou Lan took out her phone, opened the map, and checked the coordinates of the old ledge. Then she put the phone away and started walking uphill.
Choices
(1) A. onto B. into C. in D. at
(2) A. the B. a C. an D. some
(3) A. performed B. perform C. performing D. to perform
(4) A. disrespectful B. methodical C. stylish D. cautious
(5) A. denied B. conceded C. swallowed D. urged
(6) A. outnumber B. outlive C. outweigh D. outgrow
(7) A. sympathetic B. cautious C. authorise D. delaying
(8) A. channel B. substitute C. tool D. breakthrough
(9) A. want B. confuse C. keep D. tell
(10) A. glossy B. stopped C. lifting D. cleaner