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  3. People are no longer so naive as to believe whatever vested interests say. It is only necessary to look at smoking to learn much

People are no longer so naive as to believe whatever vested interests say. It is only necessary to look at smoking to learn much

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问题     People are no longer so naive as to believe whatever vested interests say. It is only necessary to look at smoking to learn much about the current campaign of disinformation when it comes to fossil fuels and greenhouse gases. The opposition will then occupy the same place in public perception as that reserved for the early anti-smoking lobbies.
    Remember that those who warned of the health dangers of smoking have been proven prescient. Not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer or emphysema; not every exposure to second-hand smoke proves lethal. But the early warnings have been proven correct enough that smart people no longer smoke and smoking in public now has all the social acceptability of swearing in church.
    My point is simple. The analogy between the early warnings of the dangers of smoking and the early warning of the danger of global warming is apt. Both are following the same path of anger and denial from the people who benefit from lax regulations and co-operative governments.
    No, I don’t believe everyone has to bike to work, or turn down the thermostat to 15. But I do believe it would be sheer stupidity to ignore the warnings of global warming and the dangers inherent in using fossil fuel just because a coalition of automakers and vested interests characterize worries as needless and pathetic. It only makes sense to encourage the development of fuel-efficient transportation and alternative fuels to oil and gas. We can move ourselves in the direction of survival, instead of acting like the dinosaurs.
    Consider a few generations ago, the suggestion that the use of coal was polluting the air and presenting a health danger was greeted with hoots of derision from the coal companies, somewhat like the sounds coming out of governments dependent on oil and gas revenues and royalties. Rather than work toward replacement fuels, the coalmines and miners were just left to wither away and die. Government has a choice: be part of the problem, or part of the solution. In the end, only those who are part of the solution will survive, as the coalminers discovered.
The word "prescient"(line 1, para. 2)most probably means "______".
选项 A、prophetic
B、relevant
C、antiquated
D、conscious
答案A
解析 属词义推断题。可以根据后续提示做出判断。后面讲到：“早期警示被证明千真万确。”因此可知，prescient应是“有先见之明”的意思，与prophetic同义。
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