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  3. British air is far cleaner than it was a few decades ago. Fewer people use coal-burning stoves: old industrial plants have been

British air is far cleaner than it was a few decades ago. Fewer people use coal-burning stoves: old industrial plants have been

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问题     British air is far cleaner than it was a few decades ago. Fewer people use coal-burning stoves: old industrial plants have been abandoned. But since 2009 levels of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, coarse or fine particles that are linked to lung cancer and asthma(哮喘), have fallen more slowly. The exact number of deaths caused by dirty air is unknown. But in 2010 a government advisory group estimated that removing man-made fine particulate matter from the atmosphere would increase life expectancy for those born in 2008 by an average of six months.
    Much of the slowdown is the result of fumes from diesel(柴油)cars, which were championed by successive governments because they use less fuel and thus produce less carbon dioxide than petrol cars. In 2001 only 14% of all cars ran on diesel: by 2013 the proportion had increased to 35% . Greener "hybrid" and electric cars have increased ninefold since 2006, but account for just 0. 5% of the entire fleet. Second-hand cars are particularly toxic, but evert newer ones have not been as clean as hoped. Many cars that let out few pollutants in tests produced more when on the roads.
    Government irresolution has not helped. Part of the problem is that several departments are responsible for air pollution. This means nobody has taken a lead on it, complains Joan Walley, a Labour MP who chairs an environmental committee that has released a series of damning reports. And few politicians are keen to criticize drivers. Talking to Britons about car ownership is " like talking to an American about hand guns" , jokes one air-pollution scientist.
    Some improvements have been made. In 2008 a " low-emission zone" was created in London, which targets large vans and coaches. A smaller "ultra low-emission zone" has been proposed for 2020, which would charge all vehicles that are not of a certain standard ￡12. 50 a day. European Commission fines for breaching limits may encourage cities to do more. But other countries are more ambitious: 60 such zones exist in Germany, targeting private cars as well as vans. In December Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, announced that she wanted to ban diesel cars by 2020. Cities in Denmark and the Netherlands do more to boost cycling.
Diesel cars are encouraged by successive governments because______.
选项 A、they use cleaner fuels than petrol cars
B、they produce less carbon dioxide than petrol cars
C、they don’t produce carbon dioxide at all
D、they account for the biggest market share
答案B
解析 事实细节题。本题考查历届政府鼓励使用柴油汽车的原因。由定位句可知，历届政府都支持柴油汽车是因为柴油汽车耗用的燃料更少，因此比汽油汽车排放的二氧化碳更少。B)与原文相符，故为答案。原文指出，鼓励使用柴油汽车的原因是：它比汽油汽车用的燃料少，因而排放的二氧化碳也少，并不是使用的燃料更干净，故排除A)；原文指出，柴油汽车排放的二氧化碳更少，并不是说不排放二氧化碳，故排除C)；柴油汽车占据35％的市场比例，并不能由此判断它占据最大的市场份额，也不是历届政府鼓励使用柴油汽车的原因，故排除D)。
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