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
Commerce has long been at the mercy of the elements. The British East India Company was almost strangled at birth when it lost s
Commerce has long been at the mercy of the elements. The British East India Company was almost strangled at birth when it lost s
admin
2014-10-24
51
问题
Commerce has long been at the mercy of the elements. The British East India Company was almost strangled at birth when it lost several of its ships in a storm. But the toll is rising. The world has been so preoccupied with the man-made catastrophes of subprime mortgages and sovereign debt that it may not have noticed how much economic chaos nature has wreaked. With earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, floods in Thailand and Australia and tornadoes in America, last year was the costliest on record for natural disasters.
This trend is not, as is often thought, a result of climate change. There is little evidence that big hurricanes come ashore any more often than, say, a century ago. But disasters now extract a far higher price, for the simple reason that the world’s population and output are becoming concentrated in vulnerable cities near earthquake faults, on river deltas or along tropical coasts. Those risks will rise as the wealth of Shanghai and Kolkata comes to rival that of London and New York. Meanwhile, interconnected supply chains guarantee that when one region is knocked out by an earthquake or flood, the reverberations are global.
This may sound grim, but the truth is more encouraging. Richer societies may lose more property to disaster but they are also better able to protect their people. Indeed, although the economic toll from disasters has risen, the death toll has not, despite the world’s growing population.
The right role for government, then, is not to resist urbanization but to minimize the consequences when disaster strikes. This means, first, getting priorities right. At present, too large a slice of disaster budgets goes on rescue and repair after a tragedy, and not enough on consolidating defenses beforehand. Cyclone shelters are useless if they fall into disrepair.
Second, government should be fiercer when private individuals and firms, left to pursue their own self-interest, put all of society at risk. For example, in their quest for growth, developers and local governments have eradicated sand dunes, mangrove swamps, reefs and flood plains that formed natural buffers between people and nature. Preserving or restoring more of this natural capital would make cities more resilient, much as increased financial capital does for the banking system.
Third, governments must eliminate the perverse incentives their own policies produce. Politicians are often under pressure to limit the premiums insurance companies can charge. The result is to underprice the risk of living in dangerous areas—which is one reason that so many expensive homes await the next hurricane on Florida’s coast. When governments rebuild homes repeatedly struck by floods and wildfires, they are subsidizing people to live in hazardous places.
For their part companies need to operate on the assumption that a disaster will strike at some point. This means preparing contingency plans, reinforcing supply chains and even, costly though this might be, having reserve suppliers lined up: there is no point in having a perfectly efficient supply chain if it can be snapped whenever nature takes a turn for the worst. Disasters are inevitable; their consequences need not be.
The passage is mainly talking about______.
选项
A、how to limit the damage that natural disasters cause
B、the impact of natural disasters on economy
C、the advances made by the government in doing relief work
D、the disadvantages of urbanization and global integration
答案
A
解析
本题考查对整篇文章主旨大意的理解。文章首先探讨了自然灾害对于现代社会的影响,接着重点讨论了政府应该采取哪些措施降低自然灾害造成的损失。其中,[A]选项正确,[B]选项以偏概全,自然灾害对经济造成的影响只是作者关注的一个部分。[C]和[D]两个选项都只是文中提到的细节,并不是主旨大意。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/VkK4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
IsittruethattheAmericanintellectualisrejectedandconsideredofnoaccountinhissociety?Iamgoingtosuggestthatit
IsittruethattheAmericanintellectualisrejectedandconsideredofnoaccountinhissociety?Iamgoingtosuggestthatit
AMGEN,theworld’sbiggestbiotechnologycompany,madeitsfortunefromadrugthatfortifiesthebloodofpatientswhoareunde
Ahospitalisaninstitutionthatprovidesmedicalservicesforacommunity.Thedoctors,nurses,andotherpersonnelofahospi
Lowlevelsofliteracyandnumeracyhaveadamagingimpactonalmosteveryaspectofadults,accordingtoasurveypublishedyes
EuropeansandAmericansalikehavecertainromanticnotionsaboutSweden.Weimagineitasalandofliberal-mindedpeoplelivin
Themostexcitingkindofeducationisalsothemostpersonal.Nothingcan【C1】______thejoyofdiscoveringforyourselfsomethin
Everyonehassufferedfromheadaches,but【C1】______recentlymedicalresearcherswerenotcertainwhatcausedthem.Blewresearch
Thegovernmentistobanpaymentstowitnessesbynewspapersseekingtobuyuppeopleinvolvedinprominenteases【C1】______thet
AboutHollywoodMorethan41millionAmericanstunedinonMarch7thtowatch"TheHurtLocker"wintheawardforbestpictu
随机试题
目前美国全国性的商业广播电视公司有()
A.血间接胆红素增高、贫血、网织红细胞增高B.血间接胆红素增高、贫血、网织红细胞正常或减低C.血间接胆红素增高、无贫血、网织红细胞正常D.血间接胆红素正常、贫血、网织红细胞减低符合再生障碍性贫血的是
医师发现或怀疑胎儿异常的,应当对孕妇进行产前诊断。"产前诊断"是指
社会主义法发挥组织经济的作用,必须按照经济规律办事,并且()。
工程量清单的编制主要用于()。
根据《建设工程安全生产管理条例》第58条规定:“注册执业人员未执行法律、法规和工程建设强制性标准的,责令停止执业();情节严重的,吊销执业资格证书,5年内不予注册;造成重大安全事故的,终身不予注册;构成犯罪的,依照刑法有关规定追究刑事责任。”
弗洛伊德分析理论中将人的性心理发展分成口唇期、肛门期等( )阶段。
被誉为意大利文艺复兴“三杰”的是()。
1915年,罗曼.罗兰获诺贝尔文学奖,他也是法国第一位诺贝尔文学奖获得者,其音乐小说巨著《约翰.克利斯朵夫》中的主人公克利斯朵夫是以为原型的。
THETRANSPORTATIONREVOLUTION1Bythecloseoftheeighteenthcentury,theoutlinesofaworldeconomywereclearlyvisible.C
最新回复
(
0
)