题目内容

Cutting global warming pollution would not only make the planet healthier, it would make people healthier too, new research suggests.

Cutting carbon dioxide emissions could save millions of lives, mostly by reducing preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases, according to studies released Wednesday and published in a special issue of The Lancet British medical journal.

“Relying on fossil fuels leads to unhealthy lifestyles, increasing our chances for getting sick and in some cases takes years from our lives,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a telecast (电视广播) briefing from her home state of Kansas. “As greenhouse gas emissions go down, so do deaths from cardiovascular (心血管的) and respiratory diseases (呼吸疾病). This is not a small effect.”

Instead of looking at the health ills caused by future global warming, as past studies have done, this research looks at the immediate benefits of doing something about the problem, said Linda Birnbaum, director of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Some possible benefits seemed highly speculative (投机的,推测的), the researchers conceded (承认,给予), based on people driving less and walking and cycling more. Other proposals studied were more concrete and achievable, such as reducing cook stoves that burn dung (粪便), charcoal and other polluting fuels in the developing world.

And cutting carbon dioxide emissions also makes the air cleaner, reducing lung damage for millions of people, doctors said.

“Here are ways you can attack major health problems at the same time as dealing with climate change," said lead author Dr. Paul Wilkinson, an environmental epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Wilkinson said the individual studies came up with numbers of premature deaths prevented or extra years of life added for certain places.

For example, switching to low-polluting cars in London and Delhi, India, would save 160 lost years of life in London and nearly 1,700 in Delhi for every million residents, one study found. But if people also drove less and walked or biked more, those extra saved years would soar (高耸,高涨) to more than 7,300 years in London and 12,500 years in Delhi because of less heart disease.

1.What does the passage mainly about?

A. How can people live longer.

B. Cutting carbon dioxide emissions saves life.

C. Global warming threatens people’s lives

D. People should stop relying on fossil fuels

2.The new research differs from past studies in that ________.

A. it focuses on the immediate benefits of cutting carbon dioxide emissions

B. it studies the bad effects arising from future global warming

C. it is believed by most people

D. it mainly targets at developing countries

3.According to Kathleen Sebelius ________.

A. sometimes it takes years to see the bad effects caused by consuming fossil fuels

B. without greenhouse gas emissions, people would not die of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases

C. the main reason why people get sick is that they rely on fossil fuels

D. death from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases are closely related to greenhouse gas emissions

4.It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A. London and Delhi have already benefited from reducing greenhouse gas emissions

B. switching to low-polluting cars would save 160 lives in London every year

C. walking and biking instead of driving will reduce the chance of heart disease

D. attacking health problems and dealing with climate change are contradictory

 

【答案】

 

1.B

2.A

3.D

4.C

【解析】

试题分析:文章主要介绍的是环境污染和疾病之间的关系。新的研究表明,减少全球温室气体污染不仅将使地球更健康,也将使人们更健康。减少温室气体的排放,能够降低心脏病和肺病的发病率。

1.根据第二段“Cutting carbon dioxide emissions could save millions of lives, mostly by reducing preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases,”可知,减少二氧化碳排放将拯救成千上万的生命。故选B。

2.根据第四段“Instead of looking at the health ills caused by future global warming, as past studies have done, this research looks at the immediate benefits of doing something about the problem”可知,新的研究关注的是减少污染带来的立竿见影的效果。故选A。

3.根据第三段““Relying on fossil fuels leads to unhealthy lifestyles, increasing our chances for getting sick and in some cases takes years from our lives,” ”依靠化石燃料导致不健康的生活方式,增加我们得病的风险,甚至会夺走几年的生命。根据“As greenhouse gas emissions go down, so do deaths from cardiovascular (心血管的) and respiratory diseases (呼吸疾病). This is not a small effect.”可知,温室气体的排放与心血管疾病和呼吸疾病密切相关。故选D。

4.根据最后一段的“But if people also drove less and walked or biked more, those extra saved years would soar (高耸,高涨) to more than 7,300 years in London and 12,500 years in Delhi because of less heart disease.”步行或骑自行车代替开车,能减少心脏病的发生率。故选C。

考点:环境保护类短文阅读

 

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How to protect children Web fans from unsuitable material on-line while encouraging them to use the Internet has long been discussed in the U.S.

For some parents, the Internet can seem like a jungle, filled with danger for their children. But jungles contain wonders as well as dangers and with good guides, some education, and a few precautions(预防措施), the wilds of the Internet can be safely navigated(航行). “Kids have to be on-line. If we tell our kids they can’t have access(机会) to the Internet, we’re cutting them off from their future,” said an expert.

Most kids have started to use search engines. Many of them are great for finding tons of interesting Internet sites, and they can also locate places where you might not want your kids to go. There are search engines designed just for kids. A certain software contains only sites that have been selected as safe. The most popular way to limit access would be to use what is known as a “content screener(过滤器)”. But this can’t be wholly reliable(可靠), and the best thing parents can do is to talk to their kids and let them know what is OK or not OK to see or do on the Internet. Another way is that mum or dad is nearby when the child is surfing(浏览) the Internet.

A few other tips

●Don’t put the PC in a child’s room but keep it in an area where mum or dad can keep an eye on things. That also makes the Internet more of a family activity.

●Ask your child what he or she has been doing and about any friends they make on-line.

●Tell your child not to give on-line strangers personal information, especially like address and phone number.

●And tell your children never to talk to anyone they meet on-line over the phone, send them anything, accept anything from them or agree to meet with them unless you go along.

The passage is mainly about the subject of _______.

A. American children going on-line             B. Internet in America

C. appreciating Internet                              D. opposing children’s on-line

The best way to protect children from improper material is _______.

A. to install(安装) a content screener on the computer

B. to buy some search engines for the children

C. to be nearby when they are surfing the Internet

D. to talk to the children and persuade them to tell right from wrong

Which of the following is right according to the passage?

A. Surfing the Internet is the best method of educating children.

B. Children’s not having access to Internet may have effect on their progress.

C. Using a content screener is most reliable for keeping children having access to Internet.

D. Searching engines can help children to select materials fit for them.

According to the passage, we can infer that _______.

A. soft wares fit for children want programming

B. a child who is on-line is in danger

C. Internet is a jungle full of danger

D. Internet contains a lot of harmful sites

If the eyes are the romantic’s window into the soul, then the teeth are an anthropologist’s ( 人类学家 ) door to the stomach.

   In a study published last month in the journal Science, Peter Ungar of the University of Arkansas and his partner, Matt Sponheimer of the University of Colorado, US, examined the teeth of our early human ancestors to find out what they were really eating.

   They already knew that different foods cause different marks on teeth. Some cause scratches, while others cause pits (坑).The carbon left on teeth by different foods is also different. Tropical grasses, for example, leave one kind of carbon, but trees leave another kind because they photosynthesized ( 光合作用 ) differently.

   Traditionally, scientists had looked at the size and shape of teeth and skulls ( 头骨 ) to figure out what early humans ate. Big flat teeth were taken to be signs that they ate nuts and seeds, while hard and sharp teeth seemed good for cutting meat and leaves. But this was proven wrong.

   The best example was the Paranthropus (傍人), one of our close cousins, some of which lived in eastern Africa. Scientists used to believe Paranthropus ate nuts and seeds because they had big crests(突起)on their skulls, suggesting they had large chewing muscles and big teeth. If this had been true, their teeth should have been covered with pits like the surface of the moon. They would also have had a particular type of carbon on their teeth that typically comes from tree products, such as nuts and seeds.

   However, when the two scientists studied the Paranthroupus, it turned out to have none of these characteristics. The teeth had a different kind of carbon, and were covered with scratches, not pits. This suggests they probably ate grass, not nuts and fruit stones. It was the exact opposite of what people had expected to find.

   Carbon “foodprints” give us a completely new and different insight into what different species ate and the different environments they lived in. If a certain species had the kind of carbon on its teeth that came from grasses, it probably lived in a tropical grassland, for example.

1.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 probably means that _____.

A. anthropologists can study the structure of human stomachs by studying their teeth.

B. anthropologists can study the diet of early humans by studying their teeth

C. anthropologists can learn whether humans were healthy by looking at their teeth

D. anthropologists can get the most useful information about humans from their teeth

2.According to Paragraph 3 to 5, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. Scratches on teeth are caused by eating nuts or seeds.

B. Pits on teeth are caused by eating grass or leaves.

C. Early humans with hard and sharp teeth ate meat and leaves.

D. Different foods leave different marks and carbon on teeth.

3.The example of the Paranthropus was mentioned in the article in order to _____.

A. tell readers that they are one of our close cousins living in eastern Africa

B. tell readers they had different eating habits from modern humans

C. prove that size and shape of skulls does not show accurately what early humans ate

D. tell readers that living environment makes a difference to skull structure

 

Historically, the term “fair trade” has meant many things. The Fair Trade League was  1 in Britain in 1881 to restrict 2  from foreign countries. In the United States, businesses and labor unions  3  “fair trade” laws to construct what economist Joseph Stiglitz calls “barriers to imports.” These so called “anti-dumping(反倾销)” laws allow a company that  4  a foreign one of selling a product below cost to request that the government charge special taxes to protect it from “unfair”  5 .

Such dark protectionist thoughts are far from the  6  of the organizers of the United Kingdom’s annual “Fairtrade Fortnight”. Their  7 aim is to raise the price paid to developing-country farmers for their  8  by cutting out the inflated profits of the middlemen on whom they  9  for getting their goods to distant markets. Fair-trade products  10  cocoa, coffee, tea, and bananas do not compete with domestic European production, and  11  do not have a protectionist motive(动机).

This is how it works: In  12  for being paid a guaranteed price and meeting “agreed labor and environmental standards” (minimum wages, no farm chemicals ), poor-country farming cooperatives(合作社) receive a FAIRTRADE mark for their products, given 13  by the FAIRTRADE Labeling Organization. This mark  14  supermarkets and other businesses to sell the products at a higher than  15  price . Third-world farmers get their income increased , 16  first-world consumers get to feel virtuous: a marriage made in heaven.

The fair-trade movement,  17  in the 1980’s, has been growing rapidly. In a significant breakthrough in 1997, the British House of Commons  18  to serve only fair-trade coffee. By the end of 2007, more than 600 producers’ organizations,  19  1.4 million farmers in 58 countries, were selling fair-trade products. Today, a quarter of all bananas in UK supermarkets are sold under a FAIRTRADE mark. But FAIRTRADE-labeled products still represent a very  20 share – typically less than 1% – of global sales of cocoa, tea, coffee, etc.

1.                A.discovered      B.founded        C.encouraged   D.promoted

 

2.                A.imports         B.exports         C.output   D.trade

 

3.                A.disobey        B.break          C.use  D.study

 

4.                A.suspects        B.needs          C.wants    D.advertises

 

5.                A.agreement      B.contract        C.game D.competition

 

6.                A.worries         B.minds          C.comments D.projects

 

7.                A.educational     B.political         C.worthy   D.immediate

 

8.                A.favour         B.benefit         C.interest   D.produce

 

9.                A.depend        B.spend          C.look D.apply

 

10.               A.as             B.like            C.with  D.for

 

11.               A.instead         B.otherwise       C.therefore  D.anyhow

 

12.               A.fear           B.store          C.preparation    D.exchange

 

13.               A.secretly        B.publicly        C.officially   D.successfully

 

14.               A.urges          B.enables        C.orders    D.forces

 

15.               A.normal         B.potential        C.lowest D.best

 

16.               A.when          B.while          C.as    D.but

 

17.               A.launched       B.arranged       C.invented  D.developed

 

18.               A.wanted         B.refused        C.had  D.decided

 

19.               A.telling          B.representing    C.Choosing D.receiving

 

20.               A.small          B.little           C.good D.large

 

 

Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.  The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard. Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example. But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.

There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.

1.What does the underlined phrase “over-consumption” refer to?

A.Using too much packaging.

B.Recycling too many wastes.

C.Making more products than necessary.

D.Having more material than is needed.

2.The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show _______.

A.the tendency of cutting household waste

B.the increase of packaging recycling

C.the rapid growth of super markets

D.the fact of packaging overuse

3.According to the text, recycling ______.   

A.helps control the greenhouse effect

B.means burning packaging for energy

C.is the solution to gas shortage

D.leads to a waste of land

4.What can be inferred from Paragraph 4?   

A.Unpackaged products are of bad quality.

B.Supermarkets care more about packaging.

C.It is improper to judge quality by packaging.

D.Other products are better packaged than food.

5.What can we learn from the last paragraph?   

A.Fighting wastefulness is difficult.

B.Needless material is mostly recycled.

C.People like collecting recyclable waste.

D.The author is proud of their consumer culture.

 

Tony Burke, Australia’s environment minister, says he won’t decide until next year whether the koala should be protected as an endangered species. He was expected to make his decision by the end of October. But that decision has been put off. Burke said he needed more time to go over the latest information about the koala’s population.

In September, an Australian Senate committee reported that there was no question the koala’s population is on the decrease. “But they may not yet be eligible (符合条件) for listing as a threatened species,” said Senator Doug Cameron. “To have such a significant Australian icon(偶像) included on the threatened species list would be a national shame.”

The koala is found only in the eucalyptus (桉树) forests of Australia. And its population is reported to have fallen sharply for many reasons, including the cutting down of forests to make way for human beings’ development, their own illness, climate change and killings by other animals such as wild dogs. And every year many koalas are hit by cars as they are trying to cross the busy roads.

Putting off the decision on protection for the koala “is really bad news,” said Debbie Pointing, the president of the Koala Action Group. “We’ve worked tirelessly for many years to gather data on the populations,” Pointing said. “That data should be enough to make a decision.”

However, Burke pointed out that the Australian government had spent at least $6.3 million on koala conservation efforts since 1996. senators listed efforts that are already underway in Queensland – the construction of special koala bridges as well as fences along roads, to keep the animals out of harm’s way.

Some people say that is not enough. “What we’re doing at the moment is likely to drive this species to extinction,” Queensland University zoologist Bill Ellis said.

“Koalas are an iconic Australian animal,” Burke told Australians. “They hold a special place in the hearts of Australians.”

But it is a fact that if more isn’t done to protect the koala, they might soon hold a place only in Australians’ memories.

1.Tony Burke put off announcing the koala as an endangered species because        .

A.he needed more time to examine latest information

B.he doubted whether koalas’ number is decreasing

C.he was thinking about ways to protect koalas

D.he had more important issues to deal with

2.What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A.The habitat of the koala.

B.Australia’s traffic problems.

C.The importance of koalas for Australians.

D.Reasons for the decrease of the koala population.

3.According to the text, Debbie Pointing thinks that        .

A.the construction of special koala bridges is of little use

B.the government should announce the koala as an endangered species

C.the government is to blame for the decreasing koala population

D.koala are becoming less important in Australians’ hearts

4.It can be learned from the text that Tony Burke        .

A.decided to construct more fences along roads

B.called on Australians to take care of the koala

C.thought the government has done much for koalas

D.was optimistic about the koalas’ future

5.What is the main idea of the text?

A.Australia puts off the decision on whether the koala is endangered.

B.Australia is taking special measures to protect koalas.

C.The population of koalas is reducing rapidly.

D.Australians are concerned about koalas.

 

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