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  3. There is a new service from Expedia, Travelocity and other travel websites: environmental expiation. If you wish, when you buy a

There is a new service from Expedia, Travelocity and other travel websites: environmental expiation. If you wish, when you buy a

admin2015-04-10  51
问题     There is a new service from Expedia, Travelocity and other travel websites: environmental expiation. If you wish, when you buy a plane ticket, they will figure out how much carbon your trip will be adding to the atmosphere and charge you to make up for it. The money goes to nonprofit groups that either plant trees to absorb the carbon or produce an equal amount of energy in an eco-friendly way. You are still increasing the carbon in the air, but someone else, thanks to you, is reducing it by an equal amount. The net effect: no additional carbon in the atmosphere. Of course, this is all strictly voluntary. If you want to destroy the earth for future generations and face your kids, who’ve learned all about global warming in second grade, that’s your privilege.
    Similar deals are available for other eco-embarrassments. Some commentators have uncharitably compared carbon credits to the indulgences sold by the medieval Catholic Church. But indulgences are apparently misunderstood. The Catholic Encyclopedia, in an eye-rolling, "Here we go again" tone, scolds that an indulgence "is not a permission to commit sin, nor a pardon of future sin. " No doubt environmentalists would insist the same about carbon credits: they are not a gift certificate or get-out-of-jail-free card for would-be polluters. But they sure do play one on TV.
    Such is the magic of capitalism. The magic works best in a world of dramatic inequalities. Fortunately, that is just the world we are living in. The greater the gap between rich and poor, both domestically and globally, the more a rich person will pay and the less a poor person will require.
    The usual objections can be made to all of this: Why should rich people be able to buy their way out of environmental guilt when poor people can’t? The usual answer is that the deal doesn’t create the inequality and forbidding the deal doesn’t reduce it. If you tell a rich person this is one thing he or she cannot buy, you are also telling a poor person that this is one thing he or she cannot sell. We can argue all day about where to draw the line and say to rich and poor: You cannot make this deal, even if it benefits both of you. It is too inappropriate. Or here’s a thought: We can create a market in winning the argument. The rich person can purchase the right not to be challenged, and the poor person, for a fee, can agree to shut up. Everybody’s happy.  
The word "expiation"(Line 2, Paragraph 1)probably means
选项 A、compensation.
B、exploration.
C、protection.
D、contamination.
答案A
解析 第一段第二行中的expiation的意思可能是[A]补偿。[B]探究。[C]保护。[D]污染。可以从文章第一段第二句中的make up for推测出“环境补偿”这项服务。[C]“保护”是干扰项，从后文对这一服务的解释可以看出补偿的目的是为了环保。
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