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  3. Green Power You’ve insulated the attic, installed triple-glazed windows, and bought high-efficiency appliances. Can you make you

Green Power You’ve insulated the attic, installed triple-glazed windows, and bought high-efficiency appliances. Can you make you

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问题                             Green Power
You’ve insulated the attic, installed triple-glazed windows, and bought high-efficiency appliances. Can you make your home any more eco-friendly? For an increasing number of Americans, the answer is yes. You can let nature help cut your utility bill. It may be as simple as replacing outdoor lights with solar-powered fixtures or signing up for your utility’s "green power" program. Thanks to rapid improving technology and government subsidies, thousands of Americans living in remote locations are finding it can be cheaper to use the sun and wind than fossil fuels.
    However, don’t cut your ties to the local utility just yet.(A)While renewable energy won’t replace coal and natural gas soon(or ever, critics contend), consumers have more choices in their energy mix than ever before.(B)And they’re not at all whole-bran environmentalists: Roldan Montalvo runs a gas station here in Hebbronville, Texas.(C)But when he wanted to bring electricity to his cabin eight miles out of town, he went solar. The reason was simple. The utility company wanted $ 100 000 to extend its electric line to his cabin.(D)Mr. Montalvo paid less than $ 8 000 for his solar system, "It’s all right so far," he says, looking up at the three solar panels that run a few lights, a fan, and a TV inside. "I can run power tools. "
    Others, of course, take a more enthusiastic line. "There is a new focus on renewable. " says Thomas White, chairman and chief executive of Enron Renewable Energy Corporation, which has completed the world’s largest wind farm in Minnesota. "My feeling is that we are at the point in time where the personal computer was in the late 70s," adds Mac Moore, Director of Business Development for BP Solar, one of the largest manufacturers and marketers of solar electric systems in the world. "Over the next 10 years, if things go well, there’s going to be a revolutionary change in the way that we obtain power. "
    Wind power represents an even more compelling argument for remote homeowners. Turbines have become so much more efficient over the past decades that homeowners a quarter mile from a utility line may find it cheaper to put up a wind turbine than to pay the utility to extend its service. But for most consumers, barriers remain. For one thing, renewable energy systems are expensive to install and require more than a decade before consumers see a payback.
    Even a good deal on solar panels in a high-sun area would still cost a typical homeowner 30 cents a kilowatt hour, explains the CEO of Strategy Unlimited, a technology-research firm in Mountain View, Calif. That’s far above the 6 to 15 cents that Americans typically pay their local utility, he adds. Small-scale wind turbines are much more competitive—anywhere from 8 to 15 cents a kilowatt-hour, says Mike Bergey, President of Bergey Windpower in Norman, Oklahoma. But they still require a $ 30 000 to $ 35 000 investment up front and it would take most homeowners 15 to 20 years before they’d see any payback.
    There are other drawbacks. Since these systems only produce energy intermittently, there’s no guarantee homeowners can store enough energy to run their homes when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Then there’s . Will the neighbor accept those solar panels on your roof? Do you want a 100-foot-high wind turbine humming in your backyard like a muffled helicopter? That’s why companies like Bergey Windpower are targeting rural residents in the United States—especially those in states such as California, where the government will pay up to half the cost of installing renewable-energy systems.
An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
People began to use green energy, such as solar and wind power.

                        Answer Choices
(A)Thanks to the rapid improvement of technology and government subsidies, people living in remote locations find it relatively cheap to use the sun and wind power.
(B)All the consumers find it cheap and convenient to use the green power.
(C)For the overexploitation of fossil fuels, it is urgent for people to find new energies to replace fossil fuels.
(D)Drawbacks also exist, for it will take decades for consumers to see the payback.
(E)Consumers have more choices among coal, natural gas, wind and solar power.
(F)Wind and solar power are so widely used that in recent years they will replace the fossil fuel.
选项
答案A. Thanks to the rapid improvement of technology and government subsidies, people living in remote locations find it relatively cheap to use the sun and wind power. D. Drawbacks also exist, for it will take decades for consumers to see the payback. E. Consumers have more choices among coal, natural gas, wind and solar power.
解析 本题为篇章总结题，考查考生理解全篇中心思想和相关重要信息的能力，考生通过区分主要观点和次要观点以及文章中没有提及的观点达到总结全篇的目的。这三句代表了文章的重点：由于科技的快速发展和政府的补贴，居住在偏远地区的人们发现使用太阳能和风能相对便宜，消费者在传统能源和新能源之间有了更多的选择。但是新能源的缺点是，建造一些设施很昂贵，而且短期内无法收回成本。选项B太绝对化，选项C文章中没有提到，选项F与原文意思有出入，所以选A、D、E。
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