首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
When my mother learned she was pregnant with me, my parents sat down one Sunday morning to review their finances. Turning on the
When my mother learned she was pregnant with me, my parents sat down one Sunday morning to review their finances. Turning on the
admin
2014-06-20
77
问题
When my mother learned she was pregnant with me, my parents sat down one Sunday morning to review their finances. Turning on the radio for a little light music, they penciled some calculations for the savings they would need to make to pay for my college education. The music paused for an announcement that Japanese airplanes were attacking Pearl Harbor. The notes went into the wastebasket.
【R1】______
Not so today for all the upheaval of the past half-century, this has been by far the most tranquil period ever. Unlike any of their forebears, a majority of the world’s young adults have good reason to develop plans for their old age. They know they will probably live to see the greenhouse-warmed planet of the late 21st century.
【R2】______
This is also unprecedented: never in history have people roused themselves against such a distant threat. Millions of people and whole governments are addressing the issue. Even in the US army , senior officers are studying the implications for their organization and looking for ways to reduce emissions. All this suggests that the pessimists who claim humanity is unable to rise to the challenge have got it wrong.
Of course, it is no use having a long-term perspective without the means to do something about it. Fortunately, our social and political mechanisms are progressing swiftly.
【R3】______
The past century has brought social progress as dramatic as that in industry. Economic stability, for example, is no accident: it is engineered by an international network of central banks, steadily expanding their cooperation. Non-governmental organizations provide new services, from the certification of "fair trade" coffee to secret cash transfers. In 1948, the UN formally consulted with 41 NGOs: it now consults with more than 1, 600.
【R4】______
Almost every week we see these powerful tools applied in novel ways. Consider what happened recently when Texas power company TXU revealed plans to build a dozen coal-fired plants that would emit vast amounts of carbon dioxide. An alliance of environmentalist NGOs spotlighted the development on the Internet. Meanwhile, an international financial consortium took an interest. After intense negotiations, the consortium won the environmentalists’ public blessing to buy TXU by promising to sharply reduce the planned emissions. The NGOs held no political office and wielded no investment billions: their power came from the skilful organization of a million mouse clicks.
【R5】______
These developments are nowhere near enough to guarantee we can meet the challenge of climate change. Time is short and the prospect of even partial success remains uncertain. Yet we can avoid catastrophe by mobilizing our ingenuity and community spirit. Addressing global warming will require less sacrifice than defeating Fascism, but more foresight—and that is exactly what we have been acquiring. If humanity’s track record with long-term problems shows mostly indifference and failure, that need not set precedent for our future.
A. Our civilization has grown more stable, not only because scientific advances have doubled life expectancy, but also because we have multiplied our capacity to store, transmit and analyze information. Since 1990, both the volume and speed of traffic on the Internet have doubled every two years or less. We are also much better informed than a generation ago about how society works.
B. As such, global warming poses an unprecedented problem. For the first time in history, we have learned with scientific precision of have calamities in store, and find we must change the very basis of the world economy. The remarkable thing is that our society appears to be responding.
C. There are immediate steps we can take to reduce emissions, but also, we must invest more heavily now in researching and developing new technologies to reduce emissions further in the future. We can see immediate results in lower emissions. But the real results we want— avoiding drought, sea-level rise, disease, etc. —will come much later. We have to be willing to invest now to avoid much higher costs later.
D. Such was life back then: surprised repeatedly by wars and revolutions, by the rise and collapse of ideologies like Fascism, and by periods of raging inflation and catastrophic depression , few could confidently predict what their lives would be like even a decade ahead.
E. Most unexpected of all is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC was created by conservatives to forestall "alarmist" declarations from self-appointed committees of scientists. Governments committed the IPCC to repeated rounds of study and debate, forbidding any announcement except by unanimous consensus. It seemed a sure formula for paralysis. However, the power of democratic methods, combined with rational argument, overcame all obstacles. The IPCC has evolved into a robust transnational institution that provides authoritative conclusions of grave significance. It is, again, unprecedented.
F. This growth is driven not only by better communications and new ideas, but more importantly by the spread of democracy. Half the world’s population now lives under democratic government. It is almost exclusively in these nations that the new cooperative institutions have been created.
【R5】
选项
答案
F
解析
根据下文的“These developments are nowhere near enoughto guarantee we can meet the challenge of climate change.”可推测得知上文也是在说一种进步。纵观选项,故选答案F。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/CyXd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
Answerquestionsbyreferringtothecommentson3differentcarsinthefollowingmagazinearticles.A=AudiA3B=Ho
Topreventglobaltemperaturesrisingby2℃abovepre-industriallevels,therichnationsmustcuttheircarbonemissionsby90
Whatdoesthewomansuggestthemando?
AnswerQuestionsbyreferringtothecommentson3differentgroupsofIndiansinthefollowingintroductoryarticle.A=Ca
WhyisthequestionoftradeunionpowerimportantinBritain?Whatbasicproblemsarewetoldmosttradeunionsface?
Whatshouldonedoifhewantstoworkmoreefficientlyathislowpointinthemorning?
Chocolateisnotagreatsourceofnutrients,butthere’snoharmineatingamoderateamount,especiallythedarkvariety,(31)
Inrecentyears,therehasbeenasteadyassaultonsaltfromthedoctors:Saltisbadforyou—regardlessofyourhealth.Politi
Insomesocietiesitisthecustomforparentstoarrangethemarriagesoftheirchildren.Oftenthebrideandgroomwillnotbe
Howmenfirstlearnedtoinventwordsis(31);inotherwords,theoriginoflanguageisamystery.Allwereallyknowisthatm
随机试题
A.0.5-0.75mmB.0.25-0.5mmC.1-1.5mmD.2mmE.0.5mm铸造卡环一般安放在倒凹区的深度为
A、广藿香B、金钱草C、槲寄生D、荆芥E、麻黄无臭,味微苦,嚼之有黏性
下列应计入存货成本的是()。
某32开本期刊的增刊存在下列情况,其中违规的是()。
研究表明:在教师的人格特征中,有两个重要特征对教学效果有显著影响:一是教师的热心和同情心;二是教师的____________。
事件回顾近期,曾被问责官员异地复出的情况频频发生。有媒体报道,贵州省瓮安县原县委书记王勤,在震惊全国的瓮安“628群体事件”中被撤销书记职务,之后不久又悄然复出,调任贵州黔南州财政局副局长。问题思考对于一些官员被问责之后又异地复出的现象在
某块河滩地曾属甲村所有,因洪水将该地的表层浮土卷走,只剩下裸露的石头而被甲村撂荒。乙村经多年培土,使该块地变成良田。现甲村和乙村均主张对该块地的所有权。应如何处理?()
下列属于《公民道德建设实施纲要》提出的公民基本道德规范的有()。
标志着唐朝法律基本定型化的封建成文法典是()。
Socialsciencehasweighedinonthe"tigermom"debate,anditlookslikeeveryoneisright:Bothover-protectiveandlaid-back
最新回复
(
0
)