阅读理解 Consumers are being confused and misled by the hodge-podge of environmental claims made by household products, according to a "green labeling" study published by Consumers International Friday.
Among the report's more outrageous findings, a German fertilizer described itself as "earthworm friendly" a brand of flour said it was "non-polluting" and a British toilet paper claimed to be "environmentally friendlier".
The study was written and researched by Britain's National Consumer Council (NCC) for lobby group Consumer International. It was funded by the German and Dutch governments and the European Commission.
"While many good and useful claims are being made, it is clear there is a long way to go in ensuring shoppers are adequately informed about the environmental impact of products they buy," said Consumers International director Anna Fielder.
The 10-country study surveyed product packaging in Britain. Western Europe, Scandinavia and the United States. It found that products sold in Germany and the United Kingdom made the most environmental claims on average.
The report focused on claims made by specific products, such as detergent insect sprays and by some garden products. It did not test the claims, but compared them to labeling guidelines set by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in September, 1999.
Researchers documented claims of environmental friendliness made by about 2,000 products and found many too vague or too misleading to meet ISO standards.
"Many products had specially-designed labels to make them seem environmentally friendly, but in fact many of these symbols mean nothing," said report researcher Philip Page.
"Laundry detergents made the most number of claims with 158. Household cleaners were second with 145 separate claims, while paints were third on our list with 73. The high numbers show how very confusing it must be for consumers to sort the true from the misleading." he said.
The ISO labeling standards ban vague or misleading claims on product packaging, because terms such as "environmentally friendly" and "non-polluting" cannot be verified. "What we are now pushing for is to have multinational corporations meet the standards set by the ISO." said Page.
单选题 According to the passage, the NCC found it outrageous that______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。文中出现这个细节的地方是在第二段，“…a German fertilizer described itself as‘earthworm friendly’a brand of flour said it was‘non-polluting’and a British toilet paper claimed to be 'environmentally friendlier”，根据among可知前面曾经提到过这种outrageous的情况，即“Consumers are being confused and misled by the hodge-podge of environmental claims made by household products”，意为家用产品的“绿色标识”是迷惑人和误导人的。故本题选B。
单选题 As indicated in this passage, with so many good claims, the consumers______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。第一段和倒数第二段提到“Consumers are being confused and misled by the hodge-podge of environmental claims made by household products”和“how very confusing it must be for consumers to sort the true from the misleading”，即顾客依然被如此多的环保用语迷惑和误导。故本题选D。
单选题 A study was carried out by Britain's NCC to______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。文章第六段提到NCC的研究时说“It did not test the claims，but compared them to labeling guidelines set by the International Standards Organization(ISO)in September，1999”，即没有对这些产品进行检测，而是对照ISO的标签规定进行了比较。故本题选C。
单选题 What is one of the consequences caused by the many claims of household products?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推断题。文章的大意是，有很多商品的环保标识都很模糊，容易误导顾客，作者此后介绍了机构做的一项研究，并把市面上的环保标识和ISO的标准进行对比。环保标识只会让顾客觉得迷惑，而其本身不会污染环境，故A项错误。文章也没有提到顾客对此很愤怒，故C项错误。而标识的不清楚也不会让顾客不买他们的产品，故D项错误。B项就是文章的大意。故本题选B。
单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that the lobby group Consumer International wants to______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】推断题。文章的最后一段提到“What we are now pushing for is to have multinational corporations meet the standards set by the ISO．”即“我们正在推动跨国公司达到ISO的标准”。故只有A项符合题意。