The energy crisis has made people aware of how the
careless use of the earth’s energy has brought the whole world to the edge of
disaster. The over-development of motor transport, with its increase of more
cars, more traveling, has contributed to the near-destruction of our cities and
the pollution not only of local air but also of the earth’s atmosphere.
Our present situation is unlike natural disasters of
the past. Worldwide energy use has brought us to a state where long-range
planning is vital. What we need is not a continuation of our present serious
state, which endangers the future of our country, our children, and our earth,
but a movement forward in order to work rapidly and effectively on planetary
problems.
This country has been failing back under the
continuing exposures of loss of morality and the revelation(揭露) that lawbreaking has reached into the highest place
in the land. There is a strong demand for morality to turn for the better and
for some devotion that is vast enough and yet personal enough to enlist the
devotion of all. In the past it has been only in a way in defense of their own
country and their own benefits that people have been able to devote themselves
wholeheartedly.
This is the first time that we have been asked to
defend ourselves and what we hold dear in cooperation with all the other people
of this planet, who share with us the same endangered air and the same
endangered oceans. There is a common need to reassess our present course, to
change that course and to employ new methods through which the world can
survive. This is a priceless opportunity.
To grasp it, we need a widespread understanding of
nature if the crisis we and the world are facing is no passing inconvenience,
no byproduct of the ambitions of the oil-producing countries, no
environmentalists’ only fears, no byproduct of any present system of
government. What we face is the result of the invention of the last four
hundred years. What we need is a transformed life style. This new life style
can flow directly from science and technology, but its acceptance depends on a
sincere devotion to finding a higher quality of life for the world’s children
and future generation.
1.Which of the following has nearly destroyed our
cities?
A. The loss of beliefs and ideas.
B. More of law-breaking.
C. Natural disasters in many areas.
D. The rapid growth of motors.
2.By comparing past problems with present ones, the
author draws our attention to the
.
A. seriousness of this crisis
B. ineffectiveness of laws
C. similarity of the past to the present
D. hopelessness of the situation
3.Which of the following is used as an example to show
the loss of morality?
A. Disregard for law. B. Lack of devotion.
C. Lack of understanding. D. Destruction of
cities.
4.The author wrote the passage in order to
.
A. make a recommendation for a transformed life style
B. limit ambitions of the people of the whole world
C. demand devotion to nature and future generation
D. encourage awareness of the decline of morality