首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
As machines go, the car is not terribly noisy, nor terribly polluting, nor terribly dangerous; and on all those dimensions it ha
As machines go, the car is not terribly noisy, nor terribly polluting, nor terribly dangerous; and on all those dimensions it ha
admin
2019-06-20
32
问题
As machines go, the car is not terribly noisy, nor terribly polluting, nor terribly dangerous; and on all those dimensions it has become better as the century has grown older. The main problem is its prevalence, and the social costs that ensue from the use by everyone of something that would be fairly harmless if, say, only the rich were to use it. It is a price we pay for equality.
Before becoming too gloomy, it is worth recalling why the car has been arguably the most successful and popular product of the whole of the past 100 years—and remains so. The story begins with the environmental improvement it brought in the 1900s. In New York City in 1900, according to The Car Culture, a 1975 book by J. Flink, a historian, horses deposited 2. 5 million pounds of manure and 60,000 gallons of urine every day. Every year, the city authorities had to remove an average of 15 ,000 dead horses from the streets. It made cars smell of roses.
Cars were also wonderfully flexible. The main earlier solution to horse pollution and traffic jams was the electric trolley bus. But that required fixed overhead wires, and rails and platforms, which were expensive, ugly , and inflexible. The car could go from any A to any B, and allowed towns to develop in all directions with low-density housing, rather than just being concentrated along the trolley or rail lines. Rural areas benefited too, for they became less remote.
However, since pollution became a concern in the 1950s, experts have predicted—wrongly—that the car boom was about to end. In his book Mr. Flink argued that by 1973 the American market had become saturated, at one car for every 2. 25 people, and so had the markets of Japan and Western Europe (because of land shortages). Environmental worries and diminishing oil reserves would prohibit mass car use anywhere else.
He was wrong. Between 1970 and 1990, whereas America’s population grew by 23% , the number of cars on its roads grew by 60%. There is now one car for every 1. 7 people there, one for every 2. 1 in Japan, one for every 5. 3 in Britain. Around 550 million cars are already on the roads, not to mention all the trucks and motorcycles, and about 50 million new ones are made each year worldwide. Will it go on? Undoubtedly, because people want it to.
According to the passage, the car started to gain popularity because______.
选项
A、it didn’t break down as easily as a horse
B、it had a comparatively pleasant odor
C、it caused less pollution than horses
D、it brightened up the gloomy streets
答案
C
解析
事实细节题。第二段第二句指出,汽车受欢迎起初是因为它改善了当时的环境;之后列举了《汽车文化》这本书记载的内容,即马每天产生的大量粪便和尿液,以及路中间的死马问题。故[C]项的表述符合文义,故为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/NPra777K
本试题收录于:
翻译硕士(翻译硕士英语)题库专业硕士分类
0
翻译硕士(翻译硕士英语)
专业硕士
相关试题推荐
Overall,itisgoingtobecomemucheasierforpeopletocommunicate______theNetCommunicatingwithothersinrealtimewill
Fortheexecutiveproducerofanetworknightlynewsprogramme,theworkdayoftenbeginsatmidnightasminedidduringsevenye
PetroleumPetroleum,likecoal,isfoundinsedimentaryrocks,andwasprobablyformedfromlong-deadlivingorganisms.Ther
Weareonthe______ofanewerainEuropeanrelations.
Themaintroubleis______enoughknowledge.
Americansnolongerexpectpublicfigures,whetherinspeechorinwriting,tocommandtheEnglishlanguagewithskillandgift.
Computerprogrammersoftenremarkthatcomputingmachines,withaperfectlackofdiscrimination,willdoanyfoolishthingthey
Itisuniversallyacknowledgedthatheis______amusicianthanhistutor.
Asmachinesgo,thecarisnotterriblynoisy,norterriblypolluting,norterriblydangerous;andonallthosedimensionsitha
Iwasonly8yearsoldonJuly20,1969,whenNeilArmstrong,38-year-oldcommanderofApollo11,descendedthecrampedlunarmo
随机试题
新时代需要继承发扬以国家民族命运为己任的爱国主义精神,更需要继承发扬以爱国主义为底色的科学家精神。在中华民族伟大复兴的征程上,一代又一代的科学家不畏艰难,勇攀高峰,无私奉献,为国家和人民做出了彪炳史册的重大贡献。下列科学家与其成就对应关系正确的是(
当债务人不履行或者不完全履行公证机构赋予强制执行效力的债权文书时,债权人可以
A.离断部位位于升主动脉起始段B.离断部位位于左锁骨下动脉起始段远端C.离断部位位于左颈总动脉与左锁骨下动脉之间D.离断部位位于头臂干与左颈总动起始部之间E.离断部位位于降主动脉起始处C型主动脉弓离断是指
下列关于颈内动脉海绵窦瘘叙述错误的是
腹部中寒腹痛的临床特点是
某建设项目业主与甲施工单位签订了FIDIC条件下的施工承包合同,合同中保函手续费为40万元,合同工期为500d。合同履行过程中,因不可抗力事件发生致使开工日期推迟50d,因不可预见的外界条件停工20d,因异常不利的气候条件停工15d,因季节性大雨停
在传统的培训与开发运行模式中,持续发展型模式活动领域不包括()。
2018年12月8日,我国在()卫星发射中心用长征三号乙运载火箭成功发射“嫦娥四号”探测器,开启了月球探测的新旅程。
Amongtheraftofbooks,articles,jokes,romanticcomedies,self-helpguidesandotherwritingsdiscussingmarriage,somefamil
Pub-talk,themostpopularactivityinallpubs,isanativedialectwithitsowndistinctivegrammar.Thereareveryfewrestr
最新回复
(
0
)