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  3. Americans don’t like to lose wars. Of course, a lot depends on how you define just what a war is. There are shooting wars—the ki

Americans don’t like to lose wars. Of course, a lot depends on how you define just what a war is. There are shooting wars—the ki

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问题     Americans don’t like to lose wars. Of course, a lot depends on how you define just what a war is. There are shooting wars—the kind that test patriotism and courage—and those are the kind at which the U.S. excels. But other struggles test those qualities too. What else was the Great Depression or the space race or the construction of the railroads? If American indulge in a bit of flag—when the job is done, they earned it.
    Now there is a similar challenge. Global warming. The steady deterioration(恶化)of the very climate of this very planet is becoming a war of the first order, and by any measure, the U.S. is losing. Indeed, if America is fighting at all, it’s fighting on the wrong side. The U.S. produces nearly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases each year and has stubbornly made it clear that it doesn’t intend to do a whole lot about it. Although 174 nations approved the admittedly flawed Kyoto accords to reduce carbon levels, the U.S. walked away from them. There are vague promises of manufacturing fuel from herbs or powering cars with hydrogen. But for a country that tightly cites patriotism as one of its core values, the U.S. is taking a pass on what might be the most patriotic struggle of all. It’s hard to imagine a bigger fight than one for the survival of a country’s coasts and farms, the health of its people and stability of its economy.
    The rub is, if the vast majority of people increasingly agree that climate change is a global emergency, there’s far less agreement on how to fix it. Industry offers its plans, which too often would fix little. Environmentalists offer theirs, which too often amount to native wish lists that could weaken American’s growth. But let’s assume that those interested parties and others will always bent the table and will always demand that their voices be heard and that their needs be addressed. What would an aggressive, ambitious, effective plan look like — one that would leave the U.S. both environmentally safe and economically sound ?
    Halting climate change will be far harder. One of the more conservative plans for addressing the problem calls for a reduction of 25 billion tons of carbon emissions over the next 52 year. And yet by devising a consistent strategy that mixes and blends pragmatism(实用主义)with ambition, the U.S. can, without major damage to the economy, help halt the worst effects of climate change and ensure the survival of its way of life for future generations. Money will do some of the work, but what’s needed most is will. "I’m not saying the challenge isn’t almost overwhelming," says Fred Krupp. "But this is America, and America has risen to these challenges before."
Judging from the context, the word "rub"(Line 1, Para.3)probably means______.
选项 A、friction
B、contradiction
C、conflict
D、problem
答案D
解析 要推断某个词义，我们必须借助上下文(即语境)，可以用做词义推断的上下文线索有定语、因果、举例、重述、定义等语义关系。在本文第二段第一句我们读到The rub is，显然，该句接下来的表语部分是对the rub的描述、说明或者解释。再理解本句大意为：如果绝大多数美国人越来越认同气候变化是一个全球性危机，但是如何应对这一危机却不能达成共识。也就是说，有了共识是第一步，如何解决是第二步，这是美国应对全球变暖问题的关键。因此可以本题答案为D项。
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