A great “mockumentary” about the life of a plastic bag, it’s actually trying to get people to realize that the plastic we throw on the ground never goes away and is actually destroying our Oceans.
Vocabulary Words:
Migration (n.) – 移居
Falter (v.) – 颤抖
Lurk (v.) – 潜伏
Deft (adj.) – 熟练的
Talon (n.) – 爪
Miraculous (adj.) – 奇迹般的
Literally (adv.) – 逐字地
Buoyancy (n.) – 浮力
Veritable (adj.) – 名副其实的
Biodegrading (v.) – 生物分解
Indefinite (adj.) – 无限期的
Slang Terms:
Asphalt Jungle – It’s a play on the idea of a city as a jungle. Asphalt is the material our roads and many buildings are made of. The Asphalt Jungle just means city.
Pupping Ground – A pup is a baby of some types of animals, so a pupping ground is the area where new babies are born.
Names:
Teacup Yorkie – A type of dog, teacup means that it’s very small, like the size of a teacup. Yorkie is short for Yorkshire Terrier.
California – One of the USA’s largest states, it is located on the far West coast and is famous for being the home to Holywood.
Texas – Another one of the USA’s largest states, it is famous for Cowboys and oil.
Today we explore the cycle of life for this curious creature, the plastic bag on its migration to its home, the Pacific Ocean.
Once released into the wild the plastic bag is unsure of itself. It falters at first but soon with some help from the wind, the bag will be airborne. This flight will be the first in its long journey towards its final destination, the Garbage Patch in the heart of the Pacific Ocean.
Using the wind to guide it, the plastic bag moves across the city through the air.
A city park. This park may at first seem an idyllic place for the plastic bag but danger lurks round every corner. Here it will encounter many enemies, including one of the most dangerous : park services. Poor little fellow… Looks like his journey ends here.
Meanwhile our little bag has encountered one of nature’s most deadly killers, the teacup Yorkie. Once the Yorkie has locked onto its victim, there’s very little hope of survival. But using its superior size and deft maneuvering our bag manages to escape the Yorkie’s talons and flee for its life.
Over the course of its miraculous migration the plastic bag will cover vast distances through neighborhoods, across parks and down city streets. It is now nightfall and our highly advanced night-vision cameras have managed to capture for the first time in history a plastic bag in pitch black. Phenomenal !
The vast cement river of California, home to literally dozens of animals. Many plastic bags will not make it out of here. The reeds and branches will see to that.
As at home in water as it is on land or in the air, the bag’s natural buoyancy makes it an excellent swimmer. It’s close now and it can feel it. At last the bag has reached the gateway to the open sea ! Careful to avoid the mouths of hungry sea life that feed on the helpless plastic, the bag will travel hundreds of miles to join the thriving community of plastic known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Garbage Patch is a veritable plastic oasis where millions of tons of plastic garbage remain trapped by the currents. It is said to be twice the size of Texas. Never actually biodegrading, here the plastic bag can live indefinitely, peacefully, coexisting with billions of other petroleum species before breaking into ever-tinier plastic pieces, thus completing the plastic cycle of life.
(Any words you don’t know, post in the comments below and we will translate them)
