From raindrops in the Rockies to the very food on our plates, we’ve woven a complicated web for ourselves out of plastic. It’s strong and flexible and cheap. It’s also a great danger for the planet, though.

But new research from Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland suggests there may be a way to deal with this mess—with a little help from spiders, and our environmental heroes, trees.

In a paper published this month in Science Advances, the scientists claim to have developed a new material by sticking cellulose (纤维素) fibers from wood to the silk protein found in spider webs. The result? A strong, flexible material that could do everything plastic does better — except, of course, block up the planet. In other words, they dug into nature’s cookbook to combine just the right ingredients to create a material that does all things plastic does — but what matters most is that, since it’s entirely biodegradable (可生物降解的), it goes back to nature when its job is done.

The bio-material is so effective, researchers are consider using it as a possible replacement for plastic in everything from the medical and textile industries to packaging. Then, how many hard-working spiders would we need to increase its production to that of plastic? For their research, the Finnish scientists didn’t use a single thread of spider silk, but rather produced webbing from bacteria with synthetic (合成的) DNA.

“Because we know the structure of the DNA, we can copy it and use this to produce silk protein molecules (分子) which are chemically similar to those found in spider web threads,” lead researcher Markus Linder of Aalto University explains in the release. “The DNA has all this information contained in it.”

【小题1】Why do the researchers develop the new material?

A．To find a cheaper way to produce plastic.

B．To make the web woven out of plastic stronger.

C．To make better use of the silk protein from spiders.

D．To solve the mess caused by using too much plastic.

【小题2】What’s the advantage of the new material over plastic?

A．Highly-effective.	B．Environment friendly.
C．Low-cost.	D．Easy-to-produce.

【小题3】What makes it possible to increase the production of the new material?

A．Using synthetic DNA.	B．Raising plenty of spiders.
C．Planting lots of trees.	D．Introducing hard-working spiders.

【小题4】Which section of a website does the text probably belong to?

A．Fashion.	B．Health.
C．Science.	D．Environment.