contamination cannot be easily seen. A 2014 Chinese study showed that
almost 20% of soil and arable land in China is contaminated with cadmium,
nickel, and arsenic, the result of three decades of rapid economic expansion
and industrial growth. 14,000 square miles (3.5 million ha) of land is unfit for
farming and much of the rest has been stripped of its productivity by
uncontrolled pesticide and fertilizer use. The pollution is concentrated around
the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas—key sources of water in the country and
home to millions of people—as well as in parts of the south where much of
China’s rice is grown. Last year, half of all samples of rice in the Guangzhou
area, home to 40 million people, were found to have poisonous levels of
cadmium, a chemical that can cause kidney failure when ingested.
*Other estimates place the figure between 40%–70%.
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
- __ contributes to the formation of __ and thereby
compounds the problem of __.
(A) Ozone, carbon dioxide, acid rain
(B) Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone depletion
(C) Sulfur dioxide, acid deposition, global warming
(D) Nitrous oxide, ozone, industrial smog
(E) Nitric oxide, ozone, photochemical smog
- Photochemical smog does NOT require the presence of
(A) nitrogen oxides
(B) ultraviolet radiation
(C) peroxyacyl nitrates
(D) volatile organic compounds
(E) ozone
- Which of the following is generally NOT considered to be a teratogen?
(A) Ethanol or drinking alcohol
