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  3. The night is not what it was. Once, the Earth was cast perpetually (永恒地) half in shadow. Man and beast slept beneath inky skies,

The night is not what it was. Once, the Earth was cast perpetually (永恒地) half in shadow. Man and beast slept beneath inky skies,

admin2012-01-27  58
问题     The night is not what it was. Once, the Earth was cast perpetually (永恒地) half in shadow. Man and beast slept beneath inky skies, dotted with glittering stars. Then came fire, candle, and the light bulb, gradually drawing back the curtain of darkness and giving us unprecedented control over our lives.
    But a brighter world, as is becoming increasingly clear, has its drawbacks. A study released last week finding that breast cancer is nearly twice as common in brightly-lit communities as in dark ones only added to a growing body of evidence that artificial light threatens public health, wildlife, and possibly even safety.
    Those findings are all the more troubling considering that an estimated 30 percent of outdoor lighting — plus even some indoor lighting — is wasted. Ill-conceived, ineffective, inefficient lighting costs U.S. about $10.4 billion a year, according to Bob Gent of the International Dark-Sky Association, a nonprofit that aims to control light pollution, and it generates 38 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
    Motivated by such trends, more than two dozen cities worldwide will go dim on March 29 in an hour-long demonstration. According to the World Wildlife Fund, which is organizing the event, an estimated 2.2 million Australians switched off their lights or took other action during "Earth Hour" last year in Sydney, briefly reducing that city’s energy use by more than 10 percent.
    A number of groups are trying to measure light pollution and assess its detrimental (有害 的) effects on the environment in the hope that people will reduce their own contribution to the problem. Last week, as part of an annual program called GLOBE at Night, thousands of students and amateur scientists stared up at the constellation Orion (猎户座星群) from locations across the country and reported how many of its stars they could see. No data are yet available, but in dark, rural areas, says Gent, about 2,000 stars are typically visible at night, compared with "maybe five" in a bright city square — and about 5,000 in centuries past.
    People who are working while others are stargazing may face the greatest risks. Nighttime exposure to white light can fuel the growth of tumors (肿瘤), experiments show. Two decades of research indicates that women who work night shifts have usually high rates of breast cancer.
What disadvantages do people have if working at night?
选项 A、They lose the chance to gaze stars.
B、They have a higher risk of health problem.
C、They have less exposure to white light.
D、They are to blame for light pollution.
答案B
解析 根据题干中的working at night将本题出处定位到末段。该段提到，夜晚工作的人可能面临最大风险。试验显示，晚上暴露在白光下会诱发肿瘤。二十年的研究也表明，通常情况下上夜班的女性患乳腺癌的几率高。由此可知，上夜班的人健康风险更高，故答案为[B]。[A]“他们没有机会看星星”脱离主题，且不符合逻辑。[C]与原文意思相反。上夜班的人是光污染的受害者，而非光污染的制造者，故排除[D]。
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