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
Passage Four Now elsewhere in the world, Iceland may be spoken of, somewhat breathlessly, as western Europe’s last pristine
Passage Four Now elsewhere in the world, Iceland may be spoken of, somewhat breathlessly, as western Europe’s last pristine
admin
2022-10-07
41
问题
Passage Four
Now elsewhere in the world, Iceland may be spoken of, somewhat breathlessly, as western Europe’s last pristine wilderness. But the environmental awareness that is sweeping the world had bypassed the majority of Icelanders. Certainly they were connected to their land, the way one is complicatedly connected to, or encumbered by, family one can’t do anything about. But the truth is, once you’re off the beaten paths of the low-lying coastal areas where everyone lives, the roads are few, and they’re all bad, so Iceland’s natural wonders have been out of reach and unknown even to its own inhabitants. For them the land has always just been there, something that had to be dealt with and, if possible, exploited—the mind-set being one of land as commodity rather than land as, well, priceless art on the scale of the " Mona Lisa".
When the opportunity arose in 2003 for the national power company to enter into a 40-year contract with the American aluminum company Alcoa to supply hydroelectric power for a new smelter (冶炼厂), those who had been dreaming of something like this for decades jumped at it and never looked back. Iceland may at the moment be one of the world’s richest countries, with a 99 percent literacy rate and long life expectancy. But the project’s advocates, some of them getting on in years, were more emotionally attuned to the country’s century upon century of want, hardship, and colonial servitude to Denmark, which officially ended only in 1944 and whose psychological imprint remained relatively fresh. For the longest time, life here had meant little more than a hut, dark all winter, cold, no hope, children dying left and right, earthquakes, plagues, starvation, volcanoes erupting and destroying all vegetation and livestock, all spirit—a world revolving almost entirely around the welfare of one’s sheep and, later, on how good the cod catch was. In the outlying regions, it still largely does.
Ostensibly, the Alcoa project was intended to save one of these dying regions—the remote and sparsely populated east—where the way of life had steadily declined to a point of desperation and gloom. After fishing quotas were imposed in the early 1980s to protect fish stocks, many individual boat owners sold their allotments or gave them away, fishing rights ended up mostly in the hands of a few companies and small fishermen were virtually wiped out. Technological advances drained away even more jobs previously done by human hands, and the people were seeing everything they had worked for all their lives turn up worthless and their children move away. With the old way of life doomed, aluminum projects like this one had come to be perceived, wisely or not, as a last chance. ’’Smelter or death. "
The contract with Alcoa would infuse the region with foreign capital, an estimated 400 jobs, and spin-off service industries. It also was a way for Iceland to develop expertise that potentially could be sold to the rest of the world; diversify an economy historically dependent on fish; and, in an appealing display of Icelandic can-do verve, perhaps even protect all of Iceland, once and for all, from the unpredictability of life itself.
"We have to live," Halldor Asgrimsson said. Halldor, a former prime minister and longtime member of parliament from the region, was a driving force behind the project. "We have a right to live. "
According to the passage, most Icelanders view land as something of________.
选项
A、environmental value
B、commercial value
C、potential value for tourism
D、great value for livelihood
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hTBK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
A、Togainworldwidefameandearnalotofmoney.B、Tofollowherheartanddowhatshewantsto.C、Tofullytapherpotentiala
Itisgenerallyacceptedthatpeopleshouldvisittheiragedparentsregularlyiftheyliveseparately.Butwhetherthisrequire
A、Theytakeexamsinthesameweeks.B、Theyhavesimilarlecturenotes.C、Theyapplyforthesameinternship.D、Theyfollowthe
(1)ThismonthSingaporepassedabillthatwouldgivelegalteethtothemoralobligationtosupportone’sparents.CalledtheM
(1)ThatisalessonScottSpector,15,learnedthehardway,whenhisphonestartedblastinghis"AmericanIdolTheme"ringtone
(1)KimiyukiSudashouldbeaperfectcustomerforJapan’scarmakers.He’sayoung(34),successfulexecutiveatanInternet-servi
(1)KimiyukiSudashouldbeaperfectcustomerforJapan’scarmakers.He’sayoung(34),successfulexecutiveatanInternet-servi
PASSAGETWOWhatdoes"odious"inthelastparagraphmean?
IfNajibullahZaziiseverythingtheFBIsaysheis,thentheAfghan-bornDenverairport-shuttle-busdriverrepresentsanewkin
(1)"Youarethesaltoftheearth."Thisfigureofspeechisplainandpungent.Saltissavory,purifying,preservative.Itis
随机试题
患儿女,8岁。扭伤右足3小时,行走受限。查体:右外踝部位肿胀明显,且有环行压痛,被动内翻、外翻时疼痛加重。此病例最有可能的踝部外伤姿势为
试述在SQLServer2000和VisualFoxPro中打开表设计器的步骤。
A.一级结构B.二级结构C.超二级结构D.三级结构氆E.四级结构是多肽链中氨基酸的排序顺序
一个完整的计算机系统应该指的是:
《建设工程安全生产管理条例》规定,对()达到一定规模的危险性较大的分部分项工程,施工单位应编制专项施工方案。
石油蛋白质()
学校教育对个体发展的特殊功能表现在哪些方面?
将60拆成10个质数之和,要求其中最大的质数尽可能小,那么这个最大的质数是多少?
一种错误的认识是,只有热情开朗乃至经常喋喋不休的人,才有更强的适应性,也更容易在群体中受欢迎,这种印象让那些内向的人有些自卑,甚至怀疑自己有社交障碍,转而求助于心理医生或抗抑郁药物。但大可不必如此,因为_____________。有研究显示,大约有30%的
在考生文件夹下打开Excel.xlsxX文件。将sheet1工作表的A1:E1单元格合并为一个单元格,内容水平居中;计算“销售额”列的内容(数值型,保留小数点后0位),按销售额的降序次序计算“销售排名”列的内容(利用RANK函数):利用条件格式将E3:
最新回复
(
0
)