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  3. So massive was the undersea earthquake that struck near the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Monday December 26th that the

So massive was the undersea earthquake that struck near the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Monday December 26th that the

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问题     So massive was the undersea earthquake that struck near the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Monday December 26th that the entire planet may have moved on its axis, henceforth making each day a fraction of a second shorter than before. The quake, of magnitude 9.0, was the Earth’s biggest in 40 years, it sent tsunamis-- giant waves up 10m high-- crashing ashore in countries all around the Indian Ocean, sweeping away people and buildings. On Wednesday, as aid began to reach the stricken areas, the Red Cross put the worldwide death toll(损失 from the tsunamis at almost 78,000-- but said it could well rise above 100,000 when contact had been made with remote islands in the Bay of Bengal.
    Human beings are never prepared to natural disasters. There is a kind of optimism built into our species that seems to prefer to live in the comfortable present rather than confront the possibility of destruction. It may happen, we seem to believe, but not now, and not to us. Mount Vesuvius has been erupting since historical records began. The eruption of A.D. 79 both destroyed Pompeii and preserved it for offspring. Yet houses are still being erected today at vulnerable sites around Vesuvius, in the face of the geological inevitability of further eruptions.
    Disasters are described as "acts of God". Whenever a natural catastrophe occurs, old questions appear again. How can we reconcile tragedy with the idea of a beneficent (仁慈的) God? And with that question, the notion of punishment is never far behind. If classical religions were used to attributing disasters to the angry of the gods, even in this scientific age the old explanations still have their attractions.
    But there is another kind of disaster. Many scientists think that the Gulf Coast hurricanes may be a symptom to climate change. Carbon emissions have been accelerating more rapidly within a generation or two: this is not the result of some creeping plate (大陆漂移) indifferent to the fate of humans; this is our responsibility. However, there is still the same, almost willing blindness to the dangers of climate change; after all, the sun still rises, the crops still ripen-- why worry? Geology tells us that there have been "greenhouse worlds" in the distant past. These have been times when seas flooded over continents. Even modest sea-level rises would lead to the end of densely populated areas of the world like Bangladesh. In such a case, asking the God to look after us for the best is just pie in the sky. These are not "acts of God" but acts of man. We should be ashamed of the consequences of our own willing blindness.
The expression of "Yet houses are still being erected today at vulnerable sites around Vesuvius" is used to show ______.
选项
答案human beings don’t believe that natural disasters will happen to them
解析 本题空白处问“作者说’Yet houses are still being erected today at vulnerable sites around Vesuvius’ 意欲表达什么”。题文在短文中第二段，提到"Human beings are never prepared to natural disasters...It may happen，we seem to believe，but not now，and not to us."(人类从来就没有准备好应付自然灾害。……似乎都相信那会发生，但是不是现在，也不会发生在他们身上)。接着举了一些例子"Yet，houses are still being erected today at vulnerable sites around Vesuvius，in the face of the geological inevitability of further eruptions."(尽管从地质学角度来看火山的再次喷发是不可避免的，维苏威火山周围的危险地带上还在大面积建造房子)。显然，以上说明和例子之间存在因果关系。因此，空白处应该填"human beings don’t believe that natural disasters will happen to them"。
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