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  3. The costs associated with natural disasters are increasing rapidly. As a result, officials in government and industry have focus

The costs associated with natural disasters are increasing rapidly. As a result, officials in government and industry have focus

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问题     The costs associated with natural disasters are increasing rapidly. As a result, officials in government and industry have focused more attention on disasters and their effects. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has estimated that disasters cost the country about 1 billion per week. Hurricane Andrew, the Midwest flood of 1993, and the Hanshin earthquake have shown that individual disasters can cost tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. This increasing cost has resulted in greater funding from government and industry for the development of technologies related to disaster prediction, and has led to more research into the effective use of predictive information.
    The insurance industry has long been aware of the dangers of natural disasters; the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, California, bankrupted scores of insurance companies. But the industry has focused particular attention on disaster prediction in recent years, as spiraling costs revealed that many companies had underestimated their financial exposure. For instance, prior to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, many insurance experts thought that the worst hurricane possible would do no more than 8 billion in damages to the industry. The damages caused by Hurricane Andrew, estimated at about 17 billion, shattered these beliefs. Today, estimates of worst-case disaster scenarios approach 100 billion.
    The insurance industry has therefore increased its support for research into disaster prediction. One such effort involves a number of companies that have joined together to support the Bermuda-based Risk Prediction Initiative, which funds disaster research. The expectation is that the resulting information will place the industry on a more solid foundation to make decisions about the risk of future disasters. The industry has also lobbied for the government to bear some of the financial burden of disaster insurance. Such a program already exists for flood insurance, set up in the late 1960s by the federal government to insure flood-prone areas. These types of programs, effectively implemented, could be increasingly necessary in the future to make insurance available in areas prone to disasters.
    Because the stakes are so high, the science of disaster prediction has a bright future. The various projects and programs illustrate that disaster prediction is a topic of concern to scientists and policy makers alike. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes all show that the effective use of disaster predictions not only requires advanced technology but also requires that society consider the entire process of prediction—forecasts, communication, and use of information. Because they cannot predict the future with certainty, and because much remains to be learned, scientists warn that society must understand the limits of scientific predictions and be prepared to employ alternatives. Wisely used, however, disaster prediction has the potential to reduce society’s vulnerability to natural disasters.
The purpose of insurance companies to support disaster prediction research is that________.
选项 A、companies want to make more money from the insured places
B、companies may thus have a better idea of the future risks
C、companies can get more sympathies from the government
D、companies intend to make use of people’s trust in the industry
答案B
解析 本题关键词是insurance companies和disaster prediction research，问题是：保险公司投资支持灾害预测研究的目的是什么?答案可以定位到第三段。由第三段第三句话可知，人们希望研究结果可以让保险业对未来的灾难风险(the risk of future disasters)做出决策时有更可靠的根据(a more solid foundation)，因此可以推断. 保险业投资灾害预测研究的目的是为了更好地预测风险，选项B中的a better idea和原文中的a more solid foundation属于相同含义，为正确答案。文中没有提到保险公司是为了从被保险地区赚更多的钱(make more money)，因此选项A属于无中生有。根据第三段第四句话，保险业游说政府(government)为灾难保险承担一部分经济负担(bear some of the financial burden)，并不是从政府那里得到更多同情 (more sympathy)，所以选项C属于无中生有。同理，文中没有提到人们对保险业的信任程度，所以选项D也属于无中生有。第三段：保险业加大了对灾难预测的支持，同时说服政府承担一部分经济负担。
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