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
Officials in Tampa Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state’s first ethanol * -production factory p
Officials in Tampa Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state’s first ethanol * -production factory p
admin
2016-07-10
24
问题
Officials in Tampa Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state’s first ethanol * -production factory put in a request for 400, 000 gallons a day of city water. The request by US Envirofuels would make the facility one of the city’s top ten water consumers overnight, and the company plans to double its size. Florida is suffering from a prolonged drought. Rivers and lakes are at record lows and residents wonder where the extra water will come from.
They are not alone. A backlash against the federally financed biofuels boom is growing around the country, and "water could be the Achilles heel" of ethanol, said a report by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
The number of ethanol factories has almost tripled in the past eight years from 50 to about 140. A further 60 or so are under construction. In 2007, President George Bush signed legislation requiring a fivefold increase in biofuels production, to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
This is controversial for several reasons. There are doubts about how green ethanol really is(some say the production process uses almost as much energy as it produces). Some argue that using farmland for ethanol pushes up food prices internationally(world wheat prices rose 25% recently, perhaps as a side-effect of America’s ethanol programme). But one of the least-known but biggest worries is ethanol’s extravagant use of water.
A typical ethanol factory producing 50 m gallons of biofuels a year needs about 500 gallons of water a minute. Most of that goes into the boiling and cooling process, which is similar to making beer. Some water is lost through evaporation in the cooling tower and in waste discharge. All this is putting a heavy burden on aquifers in some corn-growing areas.
Residents went to court in Missouri to halt a $ 165 m facility being built by Gulf stream Bioflex Energy LLC which was projected to draw 1. 3 m gallons of water every day from the Ozark aquifer. Projects are being challenged in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and in central Illinois, where eight ethanol facilities are situated over the Mahomet aquifer. Demand for corn is such that more land is also being ploughed up in drier regions of the Great Plains states to the west of the corn belt, where irrigation is required, increasing water demand further.
The good news is that ethanol plants are becoming more efficient. They now use about half as much water per gallon of ethanol as they did a decade ago. New technology might be able to halve the amount of water again, says Mike Fatigati, vice president of Delta-T Corp, a Virginia company which has designed a system that does not discharge any waste water. But others are sceptical. "There are things you can close loop(i. e. recycle efficiently)and things you can’t, " says Paul Greene, a senior director for biofuels with Siemens Water Technologies, designers of the water-purification technology used in ethanol factories. Perhaps ethanol just isn’t as bio-friendly as it looks. * ethanol = alcohol fuel
What is the author’s attitude towards biofuels?
选项
A、Optimistic.
B、Neutral.
C、Encouraging.
D、Doubtful.
答案
D
解析
态度题。题目问的是“作者对生物燃料的态度是怎样的?”。由文章最后一句话“Perhaps ethanol just isn’t as bio—friendlyas it looks.”可知:作者认为或许乙醇并不像看起来那样环保。其中“Perhaps”较明确地反应了作者的态度。另外,通篇都在讲生产乙醇燃料耗费大量的水和能源。由此,可以判断作者对生物燃料的态度是怀疑。故选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/nsWd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
Accordingtothepassage,ifonewantstopredictthewayconsumerswillspendtheirmoney,heshould______.Theresultsofth
Answerquestionsbyreferringtothefollowingbookreviews.Whichbook...AChangecanbeablessingoracruse,depend
It’s1997,andit’srainingandyou’llhavetowalktoworkagain.Anygivensubwaytrainbreaksdownonemorningoutoffive.T
Internationalinvestorsseemincapableofendingtheirloveaffairwiththedollar.America’seconomyhasslowedsharplythisye
Themid-19thcenturytimetravelerswouldnotbesurprisedbytoday’sInternetbecause______Theauthorseemstothinkthat____
WelearnfromthepassagethatschoolsinKalkaska,Michigan,arefunded______.Oneofthepurposesforwhichschoolofficials
WithinamonthofmovingtoLondonfromLosAngelesinSeptember2002,JacobSagerWeinsteinstartedsendinglonge-mailstofam
WorldleadersmetrecentlyatUnitedNationsheadquartersinNewYorkCitytodiscusstheenvironmentalissuesraisedattheR
InpartsofBrazil’spoornortheast,snakesandparrotsareonsalebytheroadsideforafewreais.InBrazil,aselsewherein
InpartsofBrazil’spoornortheast,snakesandparrotsareonsalebytheroadsideforafewreais.InBrazil,aselsewherein
随机试题
A.1~3个月B.3~4个月C.4~6个月D.7~9个月E.10~12个月添加肉末的月龄是
正常成年女性子宫呈
男,55岁。左下肢麻痛3年,间歇性跛行1年,左下肢疼痛逐渐加重,夜间疼痛更甚。吸烟史30年。查体:屈膝位,左小腿皮温较对侧降低,左侧足背动脉搏动消失。对该患者有助于诊断的试验是
患者,女,36岁。近期感觉眼内有摩擦感,有时发痒,畏惧强光,常流泪,眼角有黏液分泌物。结膜上出现乳头。诊断为沙眼。葡萄糖—6—磷酸脱氢酶缺乏患者禁用的药物为()。
下列关于证券投资基金的说法中,正确的有()。Ⅰ.基金管理人由依法设立的基金管理公司担任Ⅱ.我国对基金管理公司实行市场准入管理Ⅲ.基金管理人是基金的组织者和管理者Ⅳ.基金持有人是基金运营的核心
机构投资人认购大额存单起点金额不低于()万元。
计算股票价值的贴现率应当是投资者要求的收益率,可根据股票历史上长期的平均收益率来确定;也可以参照债券的收益率,加上一定的风险报酬率来确定;更常见的方法是直接使用市场利率。()
低档品价格上升导致需求下降的主要原因是()。
道德教育的_________是当代德育理论中流行最为广泛、占据主导地位的德育学说。
设f’(x)连续,f(0)=0,f’(0)≠0,F(x)=∫0xtf(t2一x2)dt,且当x→0时,F(x)~xn,求n及f’(0)。
最新回复
(
0
)