Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its imp

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问题     Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.
    In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires—nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency’ s other work—such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep—that affect the lives of all Americans.
    Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?
    " It’ s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country," he says. We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, "Wait a minute, is this OK?" "Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?"
    Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.
    For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change—how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.
    While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’ t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.
    "The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways," he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to "an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited".
    At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire’ s inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.
    "We’ ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire," Balch says. "It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today. "
More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015 they______.

选项 A、exhausted unprecedented management efforts
B、consumed a record-high percentage of budget
C、severely damaged the ecology of western states
D、caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure

答案B

解析 原因细节题。根据题干的关键词wildfires和national concern,以及时间词2015,定位到第二段首句。本句提到US花费了大量的budget,与选项B中的budget原词复现,high是原文more than的同义转化,consume同义替换原文spent。故选B。干扰项A的manage—ment是首段末句的人物Max Moritz的职位;选项C的western states是首段首句的though从句内容,和题干无关,属于答非所问;选项D的infrastructure是原文末尾的破折号里such as的内容,两个破折号里面一定不选。
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