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  3. Global warming may or may not be the great environmental crisis of the 21st century, but—regardless of whether it is or isn’t—we

Global warming may or may not be the great environmental crisis of the 21st century, but—regardless of whether it is or isn’t—we

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问题     Global warming may or may not be the great environmental crisis of the 21st century, but—regardless of whether it is or isn’t—we won’t do much about it. We will argue over it and may even, as a nation, make some fairly solemn-sounding commitments to avoid it. But the more dramatic and meaningful these commitments seem, the less likely they are to be observed.
    Al Gore calls global warming an "inconvenient truth," as if merely recognizing it could put us on a path to a solution. But the real truth is that we don’t know enough to relieve global warming, and—without major technological breakthroughs—we can’t do much about it.
    From 2003 to 2050, the world’s population is projected to grow from 6.4 billion to 9.1 billion, a 42% increase. If energy use per person and technology remain the same, total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions(mainly CO2)will be 42% higher in 2050. But that’s too low, because societies that grow richer use more energy.
    We need economic growth unless we condemn the world’s poor to their present poverty and freeze everyone else’s living standards. With modest growth, energy use and greenhouse emissions more than double by 2050.
    No government will adopt rigid restrictions on economic growth and personal freedom(limits on electricity usage, driving and travel)that might cut back global warming. Still, politicians want to show they’re "doing something." Consider the Kyoto Protocol(《京都议定书》). It allowed countries that joined to punish those that didn’t. But it hasn’t reduced C02 emissions(up about 25% since 1990), and many signatories(签字国)didn’t adopt tough enough policies to hit their 2008-2012 targets.
    The practical conclusion is that if global warming is a potential disaster, the only solution is new technology. Only an aggressive research and development program might find ways of breaking our dependence on fossil fuels or dealing with it.
    The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral problem when it’s really an engineering one. The inconvenient truth is that if we don’t solve the engineering problem, we’re helpless.
What is said about global warming in the first paragraph?
选项 A、It may not prove an environmental crisis at all.
B、It is an issue requiring worldwide commitments.
C、Serious steps have been taken to avoid or stop it.
D、Very little will be done to bring it under control.
答案D
解析 本题问的是，关于全球变暖第一段讲了什么内容。当问到某一段的主要内容时，往往该段的第一句话或是最后一句话是这段的中心句。本文第一段的第一句话指出，“全球变暖可能是也可能不是21世纪重大的环境危机，但不管它是不是，我们都对它无能为力”。这正是这一段的中心，同时与D项所表达的意思一致，故D项正确。原文中的won’t do much相当于答案中的very little will be done。文中提到，“全球变暖可能是也可能不是21世纪重大的环境危机”，而选项A“最终可能发现它根本不是环境危机”与原文意思不符，过于绝对。B项错在第一段不是主要讲全球变暖问题是需要全世界关注的问题，而是说虽然人们做出了承诺，但很难履行。C项同样不正确，因为文中提到，我们做出了一些很难遵守的承诺，而没有说我们已经采取了重要措施去预防它，故排除C。
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