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
Drought is a slow emergency. It does not swoop down out of the skies like a tornado or pull the earth apart like an earthquake.
Drought is a slow emergency. It does not swoop down out of the skies like a tornado or pull the earth apart like an earthquake.
admin
2013-09-28
48
问题
Drought is a slow emergency. It does not swoop down out of the skies like a tornado or pull the earth apart like an earthquake. A drought of the kind the Eastern seaboard in the United States is suffering now, the worst of this century in at least four states, is the product not of one summer’s failed rains but of chronic dryness over several seasons—compounded by routine profligacy in our use of water. It is the result of what we have all been taught to call good weather—hot, it is true, but blue skies day after day, mild winters, and little snow. It is also the result of what we have come to call normal water use.
The drought of 1999 has become severe enough to bring about a flurry of administrative actions intended to mitigate its effects on farms, businesses and communities. On Friday, President Clinton ordered to organize timely drought relief. New Jersey’s Governor, Christine Todd Whitman, and the Governors of Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia have all imposed mandatory restrictions on water use. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman has declared West Virginia and 33 counties in 5 surrounding states a disaster area. Meanwhile, the Senate approved $7.4 billion in aid to farmers, to which a drought disaster relief package will need to be added.
This is all to the good, and it may also reconcentrate for a moment, our attention on this nation’s patterns of water usage. Drought is nothing new, and dealing with it does not require radically new ideas. Many organizations have been set up in recent years in order to monitor drought conditions and respond to them as the long-term events they are. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center nearly every encounter with water scarcity leads to a set of recommendations—essentially the ones invoked in a drought emergency—meant to discourage consumption and encourage recycling. But once the rains begin again and controls are lifted, water use tends to rebound to previous levels. Drought dramatizes an epistemological problem that has real, practical effects. There is something almost intangible about the causes of drought, something as abstract and as forceful as fate. It is hard to tie any single drought unequivocally to the solid evidence of global warming, but that too lurks in many people’s minds as the ultimate cause of this summer’s drought.
Against such a grand array of forces, it can be hard to imagine how taking a shorter shower or watering the lawn less frequently makes a difference. But individual action—conserving water—is the basis for collective action, and collectively, the residents of drought-stricken states can make an enormous difference in their own welfare, both now, when stream levels are at record lows, and in the future, when rain returns.
Farmers, of course, are forced to take the weather as it comes. Farms, like many other forms of industry, require water for economic survival, which is exactly what is at risk again this year. The reserves of water in reservoirs have been steadily diminishing. So have the economic reserves of American farmers, who find themselves bringing their products to market, if they survive this dry season at ail, at depressed prices. Neither of these problems, drought or farm income can be solved with a sudden flurry of attention.
They require long-term commitment and the changing of habits that are so persistent we have come to call them normal.
The 1999 drought takes a heavier toll on farmers principally because
选项
A、reserves of water in reservoirs have been diminishing.
B、water levels this year are at record lows.
C、farmers can’t do without water for economic survival.
D、the government imposed restrictions on water use.
答案
C
解析
细节题。第5段第2句表明农民必须依靠水赚钱生存,也就是说,没有了水,农民就不能赚钱生存,由此可见,选项C为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/7kLK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
ShoppinghabitsintheUnitedStateshavechangedgreatlyinthelastquarterofthe20thcentury.【C1】______inthe1900smostA
ShoppinghabitsintheUnitedStateshavechangedgreatlyinthelastquarterofthe20thcentury.【C1】______inthe1900smostA
ShoppinghabitsintheUnitedStateshavechangedgreatlyinthelastquarterofthe20thcentury.【C1】______inthe1900smostA
Theboyhadnointerestinanythingotherthancomputergames,whichwasgettingontheir______.
Priortotheformationofatornado,______.
Whyisthewomaninterestedintheclass?
_________exertedbytornadoesthattheyhavebeenknowntoliftrailroadlocomotivesofftheirtracks.
Priortotheformationofatornado,_________.
Itiswisetosetfoodandmoney______incaseofafutureemergency.
随机试题
桃、杏的果实的中果皮革质化,可以食用。()
A.每批1次B.每季度1次C.每月1次D.每周一次E.每日一次质量控制室对压力蒸汽灭菌器的灭菌效果应定期进行检查。运用化学指示剂法,检查频率是
门静脉高压症施行断流术的优点不包括
白术用1%香草醛硫酸溶液反应显桃红色来检查
正确地选择施工方法是确定施工方案的关键,应从若干可行的施工方法中选择()的施工方法。
依据增值税的有关规定,下列关于增值税小规模纳税人的说法正确的是()。
A、 B、 C、 D、 D两组图形的底边都是直线,选项中只有D项图形底边是直线。
脑内神经元信号传递的主要方式是()
Thinkofthosefleetingmomentswhenyoulookoutofanaeroplanewindowandrealisethatyouareflying,higherthanabird.No
I’dratherreadthanwatchtelevision:theprogramsseem__________(越来越差)allthetime.
最新回复
(
0
)