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
Green Power You’ve insulated the attic, installed triple-glazed windows, and bought high-efficiency appliances. Can you make
Green Power You’ve insulated the attic, installed triple-glazed windows, and bought high-efficiency appliances. Can you make
admin
2013-04-25
48
问题
Green Power
You’ve insulated the attic, installed triple-glazed windows, and bought high-efficiency appliances. Can you make your home any more eco-friendly? For an increasing number of Americans, the answer is yes. You can let nature help cut your utility bill. It may be as simple as replacing outdoor lights with solar-powered fixtures or signing up for your utility’s "green power" program. Thanks to rapid improving technology and government subsidies, thousands of Americans living in remote locations are finding it can be cheaper to use the sun and wind than fossil fuels.
However, don’t cut your ties to the local utility just yet.
(A)While renewable energy won’t replace coal and natural gas soon (or ever, critics contend), consumers have more choices in their energy mix than ever before.
(B)And they’re not at all whole-bran environmentalists: Roldan Montalvo runs a gas station here in Hebbronville, Texas.
(C)But when he wanted to bring electricity to his cabin eight miles out of town, he went solar. The reason was simple. The utility company wanted $100000 to extend its electric line to his cabin.
(D)Mr. Montalvo paid less than $8000 for his solar system, "It’s all right so far," he says, looking up at the three solar panels that run a few lights, a fan, and a TV inside. "I can run power tools."
Others, of course, take a more enthusiastic line. "There is a new focus on renewable." says Thomas White, chairman and chief executive of Enron Renewable Energy Corporation, which has completed the world’s largest wind farm in Minnesota. "My feeling is that we are at the point in time where the personal computer was in the late 70s," adds Mac Moore, Director of Business Development for BP Solar, one of the largest manufacturers and marketers of solar electric systems in the world. "Over the next 10 years, if things go well, there’s going to be a revolutionary change in the way that we obtain power."
Wind power represents an even more compelling argument for remote homeowners. Turbines have become so much more efficient over the past decades that homeowners a quarter mile from a utility line may find it cheaper to put up a wind turbine than to pay the utility to extend its service. But for most consumers, barriers remain. For one thing, renewable energy systems are expensive to install and require more than a decade before consumers see a payback.
Even a good deal on solar panels in a high-sun area would still cost a typical homeowner 30 cents a kilowatt hour, explains the CEO of Strategy Unlimited, a technology-research firm in Mountain View, Calif. That’s far above the 6 to 15 cents that Americans typically pay their local utility, he adds. Small-scale wind turbines are much more competitive—anywhere from 8 to 15 cents a kilowatt-hour, says Mike Bergey, President of Bergey Windpower in Norman, Oklahoma. But they still require a $30000 to $35000 investment up front and it would take most homeowners 15 to 20 years before they’d see any payback.
There are other drawbacks. Since these systems only produce energy intermittently, there’s no guarantee homeowners can store enough energy to run their homes when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Then there’s aesthetics. Will the neighbor accept those solar panels on your roof? Do you want a 100-foot-high wind turbine humming in your backyard like a muffled helicopter? That’s why companies like Bergey Windpower are targeting rural residents in the United States—especially those in states such as California, where the government will pay up to half the cost of installing renewable-energy systems.
What does barrier refer to in Paragraph 4?
选项
A、Support.
B、Acceptance.
C、Resistance.
D、Bondag
答案
C
解析
本题为词汇题,主要考查考生根据上下文对单词barrier的理解。从“For one thing, renewable energy systems are expensive to install and require more than a decade before consumers see a payback”可知,人们安装可再生能源系统很昂贵,而且要10年才会有回报。选项A(支持)、选项B(接受)、选项D(束缚)都不符合题意,只有选项C(阻抗)意思较接近,所以选C。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/lvyO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
SECTION2Questions11-20Questions11-14AnswerthefollowingquestionsusingNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.
Whatpercentageofthestudentsaremature?Theuniversityaccommodationservicesofficeisinthe______.
【21】Shesaysthatnon-nativespeakerstudentsneedtoanticipateand______inordertogetinvolvedinseminardiscussions.
SECTION4Questions31-40Questions31-33CompletethefollowingsentencesusingNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.
Thingsthatseemexcitingandfascinatingcanlaterseem______accordingtoAliandJatinder.Katarinadecidestoregisterat
Theprofessorsaysthatsuperhighways______.【27】
Whichcolumnofthebarchartrepresentsthefiguresquoted?Accordingtothespeaker,themaincauseofbackpaininwomeni
TheprofessoralreadyknowssomethingaboutClarefromher______.
Thelecturersaysthatanessayislike______toaspecificquestion.Akeythingforlecturerstoconsiderwhentheymarkan
随机试题
前照灯的故障有哪些?怎样检查?
下消化管是指()
男,40岁,跑步后出现右腰疼痛1天,尿呈淡洗肉水样,首先应该做下列哪项检查
胞质内可见大量酶原颗粒的细胞是
关于竣工决算与竣工结算的说法,错误的是()。
采用定额和定率两种费用扣除办法的应税项目有( )。
投保人必须具备的条件有()。
UnmarriedWomenBecomingHomeownersAnincreasingnumberofsinglewomenarebuyingtheirownhomes,accordingtoindustrye
设3阶矩阵3维列向量已知Aα与α线性相关,则a=____________.
A、Itisahousefullofcleverly-designeddevice.B、Itcanhelppeopleliveamucheasierlife.C、Itisthemostcomfortablehou
最新回复
(
0
)