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  3. It seemed so promising—mirrors sprawled across desert land in the scorching southwest delivering clean electricity and helping A

It seemed so promising—mirrors sprawled across desert land in the scorching southwest delivering clean electricity and helping A

admin2011-03-11  12
问题     It seemed so promising—mirrors sprawled across desert land in the scorching southwest delivering clean electricity and helping Americans out of the increasing fuel crisis. Some scientists and industry developers claim that Nevada’s empty and sun-drenched expanses alone could supply enough electricity to power the entire country.
    Now even the optimists fear this wonderful prospect may be a mirage. Congress cannot make up their mind to extend the tax-reducing bill for solar-energy projects, which solar advocates say is critical to the future of their industry but which is due to expire at the end of the year. The latest attempt failed in the Senate earlier this month, prospects for a deal before November’s presidential and congressional elections now look dim. Uncertainty has led some investors to delay or abandon projects in the past few months.  Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said if the tax-reducing bill is allowed to expire at the end of the year, "it will result in the loss of billions of dollars in new investments in solar. "
    Further dampening hopes for a big solar-energy boom, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has abruptly suspended new applications to put solar collectors on federal land. The agency says it has received more than 130 applications and needs to conduct a region-wide environmental impact study on the industry before it will accept any more.  The study will take 22 months to complete, however. Few argue against trying to preserve precious water sources and protect desert tortoises and other creatures that might not enjoy cohabiting with sprawling fields of mirrors. But many solar advocates wonder why the government is not acting as cautiously when it comes to drilling for oil and gas.
    Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington State, wants a congressional probe into the proposed suspension. "The fact that the BLM pops this out without people even knowing about it, especially when solar thermal looks extremely promising as a power source, is not right," she says. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is the majority leader in the Senate, also condemns the BLM’s freeze, saying that it could "slow new development to a crawl".
    The BLM is not without its supporters, however. At a public meeting on June 23rd in Golden, Colorado, Alex Daue, of the Wilderness Society, said that his organization supports renewable energy development as long as it doesn’t damage other important resources. The message is clear: no rubber stamps, even for renewable energy.
The word "mirage" (Line 1, Paragraph 2) most probably means______.
选项 A、insight
B、craze
C、vision
D、prospect
答案C
解析 考查的单词位于第二段第一句话。第二段的第一句话是对上文提到的未来场景做出评价。而本段余下的句子都在讲一件事，那就是对太阳能项目至关重要的免税法案即将过期，而该法案被批准延长的可能性又很小，因此对发展太阳能项目非常不利。也就是说，后面讲的都是对太阳能发展前景的悲观看法。因此我们可以认定第一句也是表达不乐观的态度，选项C正好符合题意。原文中的mirage一词，意思是“海市蜃楼”。其实本题还有一个非常重要的词汇线索：even。原句是：Now even the optimists fear this wonderful prospect may be a mirage(即使乐观的人也会认为这个美妙的场景是mirage)。其中even(即使)一词是让步之意，充分说明mirage要表达的意思跟optimists、wonderful是相反的。
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