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
外语
Consumer Demand and Development of Green Cars The day automakers put the earth at the top of their agenda will go down in hi
Consumer Demand and Development of Green Cars The day automakers put the earth at the top of their agenda will go down in hi
admin
2013-04-25
50
问题
Consumer Demand and Development of Green Cars
The day automakers put the earth at the top of their agenda will go down in history. Reading this book, one gets the sense that day is coming, major automakers—still no paragons of environmentalism—have gotten the message that replacing the dirty internal-combustion engine is an urgent priority. With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans produce 14 percent of all global warming carbon-dioxide gas. And car tailpipes pump out more than 30 percent of U. S. air pollution.
In his new book, Forward Drive: The Race to Build "Clean" Cars for the Future, environmentalist Jim Motavalli concludes that capitalist competition is leading the way over government mandates to clean up that exhaust. Motavalli chronicles the movement for cleaner cars: the few visionaries and zealots building and driving home-built battery-powered cars; the divided giant automakers working tirelessly to develop clean cars while fighting regulatory efforts to require them; university researchers concluding studies; and the regulators trying to speed their adoption.
Forward Drive covers the technological advances of the hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles poised to take over from the internal-combustion engine. In some ways, Motavalli is an unlikely narrator. A self-vowed car nut who stumbled into a job editing E, the Enviromental Magazine, he seems biased on both sides of the issue. But ultimately, that’s what makes him best suited to tell this story.
Motoavalli’s concern for the environment is sincere, and his knowledge of cars is refreshingly accurate. The most interesting passages follow his transformattion from internal-combustion devotee to environmental auto cynic and battery-car zealot to hopeful future-car realist. "It was disconcerting, to say the least, to learn that my hobby of collecting classic cars and my growing concern for the environment didn’t necessarily mesh," Motavalli writes. "The car has certainly been good to me, but I’m becomin disenchanted."
In the preface, he noted that he set out to write a book critical of the auto industry for teaming up with major oil companies to block the development of clean cars. But when he dug in to do more research, he found a different story. Namely that automakers in Detroit, Japan, and Europe are in a heated race to start selling cars that are more environmentally correct.
(A)Unfortunately, Motavalli glosses over issues of consumer demand.
(B)He never mentions that today’s electric cars and gasoline-electric hybrids cost far more than internal-combustion cars of equal or greater capability.
(C)He notes their utter dedication to their electric cars and implies that the rest of the buying public should simply be as enthusiastic, without addressing issues of price or various ways families use their cars.
(D)
He strongly favors California’s mandate that 10 percent of all vehicles sold in the state be zero-emission-vehicle-battery or fuel-cell electrics, not hybrids—even though he writes, "Ultimately, vehicles halfheartedly designed to meet a mandate would fail in the marketplace." And he gives a short shift to the point that clean cars do nothing to ease congestion and sprawl.
In a telephone interview, Motavalli concedes that technology is progressing faster than the book deadline allowed him to keep up with. If anything, automakers are working harder to develop hybrid-electrics. And mass-market hybrid-drive systems will likely first show up in the big sport utility vehicles that Motavalli rails against.
Nevertheless, he now believes that the automakers with the deepest pockets have the best chance of building better cars for tomorrow. "The new, clean cars will emerge not from a tinkerer’s garage, but from the well-funded research labs of the same big auto companies that initially fought their introduction," he says.
The word disenchanted in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______.
选项
A、disillusioned
B、disadvantaged
C、disembodied
D、disheveled
答案
A
解析
本题为词汇题,主要考查考生根据上下文对单词disenchanted(醒悟的)的理解。选项A(醒悟的)与之意思相同,所以选项A为正确答案。选项B(处于不利地位的)、选项C(使脱离实体的)和选项D(散乱的,凌乱的)都与该词义不符。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/VvyO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
SECTION2Questions11-20Questions11-12Completethesentencesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.
Whatpercentageofthestudentsaremature?Arelativelyhighproportionofstudentsdecideto______inNewtownaftergraduati
Section4Questions31-40Questions31-34WriteNUMBERSAND/ORNOMORETHANFOURWORDSforeachanswer.
Whatwasthestudentsurprisedtodiscoverhehadalotof?Theprofessorsuggeststhatthestudent______.
Thingsthatseemexcitingandfascinatingcanlaterseem______accordingtoAliandJatinder.Alisuggeststhatstaying______
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.EngineeringforsustainabledevelopmentTheGreenhou
ChooseTWOletters,A-E.WhichTWOrecentdevelopmentsinroof-gardenbuildingarementioned?AwaterproofbarriermaterialsBd
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.DevelopmentStudiesDevelopmentStudiesattemptstounderstand-
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.DevelopmentStudiesDevelopmentStudiesattemptstounderstand-
A、Theshirtbelongstohersister.B、Theshirtwaspurchasedduringatrip.C、Sheboughtasimilarshirtfortheman.D、Theshir
随机试题
下列治疗方法符合“五行相生”规律的是
患者女,66岁,长期居住地势卑湿之处,渐腰酸重痛,阴雨天气前后则见酸楚不适,时轻时重,过劳加剧,舌淡红,苔白腻,脉沉细。针灸治疗选用下列哪组穴位为佳
小儿翻滚不安,呼叫哭吵,两手捧腹多为
局部治疗唇疱疹最有效的药物是
甲乙企业因一项合同履行发生争议,甲依照仲裁协议提请市仲裁委员会仲裁,在仲裁过程中,甲企业发现乙选择的仲裁员与本案有利害关系,因而申请其回避,后来该仲裁员被决定回避,那么对于已经进行的仲裁程序:()
与邀请招标相比,公开招标的特点是()。
仪器仪表使用费属于()。
固定红利模型是对被评估股票( )。
甲公司是一家零售商店,主要经营地点位于某市开发区。近年来,随着入住开发区的企业数量增加,人流量明显增多。在甲公司周围出现了若干家商店。从波特的五力模型分析,新店的开张对这家零售店的影响是()。
阅读下面的文章,完成问题:党的十七大报告提出了建设生态文明的要求,并把生态文明建设与经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设一起作为全面建设小康社会的重要任务。深入贯彻落实科学发展观,积极推进生态文明建设,需要各地区各部门结合自身实际,大胆实践、勇
最新回复
(
0
)