Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions. Today I’d like to begin a discussion on the problem of the heating up the earth. First, we’ll touch on the relationship between fluorocarbons and the ozone layer. You probably remember that the ozone layer is the protective shield around the earth. It is important to all life, because it filters out harmful ultraviolet light from the sun. Ozone ...

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Today I’d like to begin a discussion on the problem of the heating up the earth. First, we’ll touch on the relationship between fluorocarbons and the ozone layer. You probably remember that the ozone layer is the protective shield around the earth. It is important to all life, because it filters out harmful ultraviolet light from the sun. Ozone itself, a form of oxygen, is regularly made by the action of the sun in the upper atmosphere. It is also regularly destroyed by natural chemical processes.

The problem now is that too much of the ozone layer is being destroyed. Scientists suspect that certain chemicals, such as fluorocarbons, are contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer. And how do we use fluorocarbons? The most common uses are in spray cans and cooling systems. The chemical pollution from these fluorocarbons can account for some of the ozone losses that have been reported. There are, however, new studies linking the sun itself to the depletion of the ozone layer. We’ll go into that new study more next time.

What does the word “depletion” in paragraph 2 probably mean?