12月英語四級閱讀理解練習及解析4

2023-11-21 閱讀理解

　　“The world's environment is surprisingly healthy. Discuss.”If that were an examination topic, most students would tear it apart. offering a long list of complaints: from local smog (煙霧) to global climate change, from the felling(砍伐) of forests to the extinction of species. The list would largely be accurate,the concern legitimate. Yet the students who should be given the highest marks would actually be those who agreed with the statement. The surprise is how good things are, not how bad.

　　After all. the world's population has more than tripled during this century, and world output has risen hugely. so you would expect the earth itself to have been affected. Indeed, if people lived, consumed and produced things in the same way as they did in 1900 (or 1950. or indeed 1980), the world by now would be a pretty disgusting place: smelly, dirty. toxic and dangerous.

　　But they don't. The reasons why they don't. and why the environment has not been ruined. have to do with prices. technological innovation, social change and government regulation in response to popular pressure. That is why today's environmental problems in the poor countries ought. in principle, to be solvable.

　　Raw materials have not run out. and show no sign of doing so. Logically. one day they must: the planet is a finite place. Yet it is also very big. and man is very ingenious. What has happened is chat every time a material seems to be running short, the price has risen and. in response. people have looked for new sources of supply, tried to find ways to use less of the material, or looked for a new substitute. For this reason prices for energy and for minerals have fallen in real terms during the century. The same is true for food. Prices fluctuate, in response to harvests. natural disasters and political instability; and when they rise, it takes some time before new sources of supply become available. But they always do. assisted by new farming and crop technology. The long-term trend has been downwards.

　　It is where prices and markets do not operate properly that this benign (良性的) trend begins to scumble, and the genuine problems arise. Markets cannot always keep the environment healthy. If no one owns the resource concerned. no one has an interest in conserving it or fostering it: fish is the best example of this.

　　1.According to the author, most students_________________.

　　A) believe the world's environment is in an undesirable condition

　　B) agree that the environment of the world is not as bad as it is thought to be

　　C) get high marks for their good knowledge of the world's environment

　　D) appear somewhat unconcerned about the state of the world's environment

　　2.The huge increase in world production and population________________.

　　A) has made the world a worse place to live in

　　B) has had a positive influence on che environment

　　C) has not significantly affected the environment

　　D) has made the world a dangerous place to live in

　　3.One of the reasons why the long-term trend of prices bas been downwards is that__________.

　　A) technological innovation can promote social stability

　　B) political instability will cause consumption io drop

　　C) new farming and crop technology can lead to overproduction

　　D) new sources are always becoming available

　　4.Fish resources are diminishing because_________________.

　　A) no new substitutes can be found in large quantities

　　B) they are not owned by any particular entity

　　C) improper methods of fishing have ruined che fishing grounds

　　D) water pollution is extremely serious

　　5.The primary solution to environmental problems is_______________.

　　A) to allow market forces to operate properly

　　B) to curb consumption of natural resources

　　C) to limit the growth of the world population

　　D) to avoid fluctuations in prices

　　答案：

　　1.作者認為，大部分學生__________________。

　　A)相信全球環境現在是糟糕的

　　B)同意全球環境沒有人們想象的那么糟糕

　　C)在關于全球環境知識上掌握得很好，取得了很高的分數

　　D)對全球環境表現出不關心的態度

　　[A]根據文章第1段前兩句“如果以《全球環境狀況非常好》作為考試題，大多數學生會將試卷撕碎，并列出一大堆的抱怨，從煙霧到全球氣候變暖，從砍伐森林到物種滅絕”，由此可推斷，大多數學生認為全球環境并不令人滿意。因此,A正確。

　　2.世界生產力和人口的激增，_________________。

　　A)使得這個世界的居住環境更加糟糕

　　B)已經對環境造成了正面的影響

　　C)并沒有嚴重地影響環境

　　D)使得世界的居住環境更加危險

　　[C]根據文章第2段全段和第3段首句“本世紀，全球人口增加了三倍多，全球產量也有巨大的增長，因此你可能會認為地球會受到影響。的確.如果人們還像1900年或1950年甚至1980年那樣居住，消費和生產，那么到現在，地球很可能是一個令人厭惡的地方但人們沒有這樣做”，注意此處的虛擬語氣，由此可推斷產量和人口的增加并沒有對全球環境造成太大的影響，故此，應選C。

　　3.從長期來看，價格是下降的，其中的一個原因是_____________。

　　A)技術創新促進了社會穩定型

　　B)政治的不穩定性會導致消費下降

　　C)新的農耕和作物技術會導致過度生產

　　D)總能獲得新的資源

　　[D]根據文章第4段第4、5句“每次當一種資源似乎就要匱乏時，價格就會上升，相應地，人們會尋找新的資源，想方設法找到節省資源的方法或者尋找新的替代品。正因為如此，本世紀能源和礦產品的價格實質上已經下降了一，故應選D。

　　4.魚類資源在減少，因為___________________。

　　A)沒有大量的新替代品

　　B)魚類資源不屬于任何一個實體

　　C)不當的捕魚方法損壞了漁區

　　D)水質污染非常嚴重

　　[B]根據文章最后一段第2、3句“市場并不能總是保持環境的健康發展。如果相關的資源不屬于任何人，人們就沒有興趣保護它、培養它。魚類資源就是一個最好的例子”，因此，可推斷B正是魚類減少的原因。