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When enthusiasts talk of sustainable development, the eyes of most people glaze over. There is a whiff of sack-cloth and ashes a

admin2010-11-27  60
问题     When enthusiasts talk of sustainable development, the eyes of most people glaze over. There is a whiff of sack-cloth and ashes about their arguments, which usually depend on people giving up the comforts of a modern economy to achieve some debatable greater good. Yet there is a serious point at issue. Modern industry pollutes, and it also seems to cause significant changes to the climate. What is needed is an industry that delivers the benefits without the costs. And the glimmerings of just such an industry can now be discerned.
    That industry is based on biotechnology. At the moment, biotech’s main uses are in medicine and agriculture. But its biggest long-term impact may be industrial. Here, it will diminish demand for oil by taking the cheapest raw materials imaginable, carbon dioxide and water, and using them to make fuel and plastics.
    Plastics and fuels made in this way would have several advantages. They could accurately be called "renewables", since nothing is depleted to make them. They would be part of the natural carbon cycle, borrowing that element from the atmosphere for a few months, and returning it when they were burned or dumped. That means they could not possibly contribute to global warming. And they would be environmentally friendly in other ways. Bioplastics are biodegradable, since bacteria understand their chemistry and can therefore digest them. Biofuels, while not quite "zero emission" from the exhaust pipe (though a lot cleaner than petrol and diesel), would be cleaner overall even than the fuel-cell technology now being touted as an alternative to the internal-combustion engine. That is because making the hydrogen that fuel cells use is not an environmentally friendly process, and never will be—unless it, too, uses biotechnology.
    All this will, in the end, depend on costs. But these do not look unfavorable. Already, the price of bioplastics overlaps the top end of the petroleum-based plastics market. Bulk production should bring prices down, particularly when the raw materials are free. Meanwhile, ethanol would be a lot easier to introduce than fuel cells. Existing engines will run on it with minor tweaking, so there is no need to change the way cars are made. And since, unlike hydrogen, it is a liquid, the fuel-distribution infrastructure would not need radical change.
    The future could be green in ways that traditional environmentalists had not expected. Whether they will embrace that possibility, or stick to sack-cloth, remains to be seen.
选项 A、has brought about sustainable development.
B、proves to be nothing but an imagination.
C、will deprive most people of modern comforts.
D、contributes to the environmentally sound development.
答案D
解析 本题问作者认为将生物技术应用到工业上会怎样。首段中"What is needed is an industry that delivers the benefits without the costs．And the glimmerings of just such an industry can now be discerned"指出现在需要一种不付出环境代价又能给人们带来利益的产业，并指出现在这种产业已经隐约在望了；紧接着第二段首句"That industry is based on biotechnology"回答了刚刚提到的问题，指出这种工业就是生物技术，即生物技术能带来发展但又不会危害环境，故"有助于对环境有利的发展"正确。带来了可持续发展：文中讨论的生物技术是新兴的产业，刚刚开始发展，作者只是预测通过这种技术将来可能实现可持续发展，而不是说现在已经带来这种发展。将被证明只是个空想而已：作者在第三段和第四段分别从技术上和价格上论证了将生物技术应用到工业上的可行性，说明其并非空想。将使大多数人舍弃现代的舒适生活：首段中作者指出"…their arguments…depend on people giving up the comforts of a modern economy to achieve some debatable greater good"，这表明以前的论证都以牺牲人们的舒适为代价，但最终也没有解决问题。而生物技术是能够解决这个问题的，也就是说，生物技术是不需要"舍弃现代的舒适生活"的。
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