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  3. Greenhouse and Airlines British green groups spanked the Prince Charles for deciding to fly to the U. S. to pick up a presti

Greenhouse and Airlines British green groups spanked the Prince Charles for deciding to fly to the U. S. to pick up a presti

admin2013-07-11  68
问题                         Greenhouse and Airlines
    British green groups spanked the Prince Charles for deciding to fly to the U. S. to pick up a prestigious environmental award, arguing that the carbon emissions created by his travel canceled out his green credit. His critics may be onto something. Jets are uniquely polluting. On an individual level, a single long-haul flight can emit more carbon per passenger than months of SUV driving. Though air travel is responsible for only 1.6% of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to one estimate, in many countries it’s the fastest-growing single source.
    One of the biggest problems, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) points out, is that the carbon emitted by air travel currently has "no technology". As messy a source of pollution as electricity generation and ground transportation are, technologies do exist that could drastically cut carbon from power plants and cars. Not so for planes.
    Admittedly, the airline industry has improved efficiency over the past 40 years, with technological upgrades more than doubling efficiency. There are slight adjustments in aircraft operations that could cut carbon emissions even further. Virgin Atlantic airlines tycoon Richard Branson, who last year pledged $ 3 billion in the fight against climate change, advocates having planes towed on the ground rather than taxiing, which he has said could cut a yet unspecified portion of fuel on long flights. Emissions trading for the air industry could help as well, with airlines given carbon caps and then being required to purchase credits from other industries if they exceed their limits. But there’s nothing on the horizon for aircraft with the carbon-cutting potential of hydrogen engines or solar energy.
    Nor is there any replacement for long-haul air travel itself. I can take a train from Boston to Washington, but the only way I’m getting from Tokyo to New York City is in aircraft. On an individual level, you can try to make your flight carbon neutral by donating to, say, a forestry project that will soak up the greenhouse gases you have created. An increasing number of airlines and travel agents do offer such options. The London-based Carbon Neutral Company reports that requests for carbon offsetting from individual travelers have jumped over the past six months. But the still tiny number of neutralized flights can hardly compensate for the rapid increases in global air travel.
    So is grounding ourselves the only answer? That seems to be the conclusion of environmentalists in Britain, who also went after Prime Minister Tony Blair for a recent holiday trip to Miami. Though Blair finally promised to begin offsetting his leisure travel, he insisted that telling people to fly less was simply impractical—and he’s probably right. Our best bet for now may be to limit any business and leisure flights that we can and offset the rest.
What can we infer from the first two paragraphs?
选项 A、Prince Charles is blamed for his indifference towards environment.
B、Air industry is the major contributor to global greenhouse gases.
C、No technology solution can greatly reduce airline emissions presently.
D、Airline emissions haven’t aroused people’s concern.
答案C
解析 本题考查推理引申+词义理解。第二段首句指出解决飞行碳排放问题遇到的一大难题。根据构词法可猜出句中关键词technofix=technology+fix。另外，还可以判断该句应为段落主旨句。所以，从该段其他句子可以推断出该词的准确含义。第二句提到科技可以大大减少发电和陆地交通所造成的污染。紧接着第三句指出，这对飞机行不通。这两句可以概括为：科技不能大幅减少飞行产生的气体污染。我们由此可以推出technofix在文中意为technology solution(that can greatly reduce airline emissions)。[C]为正确选项。首段第一句提到的查尔斯“获得颇有声望的环保奖”，以及其“有良好的环保记录”说明他对环境问题并非漠不关心。[A]错误。该段第五句提到飞行所排放的碳仅占温室气体排放总量的1．6％。[B]项与文意相反。第一、二段分别介绍了飞机排放物的严重危害以及在减少碳排放上存在的科技难题。并没有提到人们对此事的反应。[D]项无从推知。
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