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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  41
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 does the phrase "neutralized flights"(Line 15, Para. 4)most probably imply?
选项 A、Passengers cut down their flights to reduce airline emissions.
B、Passengers compensate for their flight carbon by joining environmental activities.
C、Carbon Neutral Company offers assessment of carbon emissions for airlines.
D、Passengers choose transportation options other than airplanes.
答案B
解析 本题考查根据上下文推测词义。由neutralized flights所在的第四段末句推断出neutralized flights可以从一定程度上补偿(compensate for)飞行所造成的污染。该段第三句指出个体旅行者通过向林业工程(可以将飞行所产生的温室气体吸收掉)捐款来使自己乘坐飞机所产生的二氧化碳变得neutral。倒数第二句指出，要求抵消(offset)飞行所产生的二氧化碳的个体旅行者迅速增多。由此推知，neutralize应该相当于offset，即，弥补、抵消，neutralized flights指旅行者通过参与一些环保活动来弥补自己乘坐飞机所造成的污染。[B]正确。该段第五句提到了碳中和公司(Carbon Neutral Company)，但是并没有介绍它的具体职能。排除[C]项。第五段承接第四段末句“neutralized flights无法解决问题”展开新的论述，[A]、[D]是第五段论述的内容。
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