Question

【题目】阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。

Environmentalists said our planet was doomed to die. Now one man says they are wrong.

“Everyone knows the planet is in bad shape，”thundered a magazine article last year. Species(物种) are being driven to die out at record rates，and the rivers are so poisonous that fish are floating on the surface，dead.

But there's a growing belief that what everyone takes for granted is wrong：things are actually getting better. A new book is about to overturn our most basic assumptions about the world's environment. Rivers，seas，rain and the atmosphere are all getting cleaner. The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg，professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark，is an attack on the misleading claims of environmental groups，and the “bad news” culture that makes people believe everything is getting worse.

Now the attacks are increasingly coming from leftwing environmentalists such as Lomborg，a former member of Greenpeace. The accusation is that，although the environment is improving，green groups－with profits of hundreds of millions of pounds a year－are using scare tactics(谋略) to gain donations. Lomborg's book doesn't deny global warmingprobably the biggest environmental threat－but destroys almost every other environmental claim with many official statistics.

The Worldwatch Institute claims that “deforestation has been accelerating over the last 30 years”．But Lomborg says that is simply rubbish. Since the dawn of agriculture the world has lost about 20 per cent of its forest cover，but in recent decades the forestarea's depleting has come to a stop. According to UN figures，the area of forests has remained almost steady，at about 30 per cent of total land area，since the 1940s.Forests in countries such as the US，the UK and Canada have actually been expanding over the past 40 years. Despite all the warnings the Amazon rainforest has only shrunk(缩小) by about 15 per cent.

Nor are all our species dying out. Some campaigners claim that 50 per cent of all species will have died out within 50 years. But other studies show only 0.08 per cent of species are dying out each year. Conservation efforts have been successful. Whales are no longer threatened and the bald eagle is off the endangered list.

Environmental groups claim that many of the improvements are the results of the success of their campaigns. Stephen Tindale，director of Greenpeace UK，said，“There are important examples，such as acid rain and ozone，where things aren't as bad as predicted，and that's because behavior has changed.”

【1】In his book，The Skeptical Environmentalist，what is Lomborg's main argument?

A．Our planet is in bad shape.

B．The world's environment is improving.

C．The total amount of forests in the world is not declining.

D．Conservation efforts have been successful.

【2】What is Lomborg's main accusation of environmentalists?

A．They scared people into making donations.

B．They overturned our basic assumptions about the world's environment.

C．They changed their behavior toward the environment.

D．They only told people bad news about the environment.

【3】The underlined word “depleting” in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to “________”．

A．reducing

B．limiting

C．expanding

D．accelerating

【4】According to the passage，which of the following statements is true?

A．The total area of forests in the world has increased significantly.

B．The effects of global warming are not as bad as first expected.

C．It appears that the bald eagle will survive.

D．In the last 50 years the number of whales has increased.

Answer 1

【答案】【1】B

【2】A

【3】A

【4】C

【解析】语篇解读:“环境一直在变坏，我们的星球末日将要来临”，这是环保主义者们发出的警告，然而Lomborg的新书却提出了完全相反的观点，他批驳了环保主义者们耸人听闻的言论。

【1】 考查细节理解。根据文章第一段与第三段可知Lomborg在The Skeptical Environmentalist中的观点(argument)是环境状况正在改善，因此选项B正确，C项只是他观点的一部分，不全面，故排除。

【2】 考查细节理解。根据文章第四段中的第二句话可知Lomborg指责环保主义者们利用恐吓手段让人们捐款。

【3】 考查猜测词义。第五段Lomborg通过一些数据反驳了The Worldwatch Institute的观点“deforestation has been acceleration over the last 30 years”，Lomborg认为在最近几十年里，森林面积的缩小已经停止，因此选择reducing。

【4】 考查细节判断。根据文章倒数第二段中的“Whales are no longer threatened and the bald eagle is off the endangered list”可知秃鹰已经不属于濒危的物种了，由此可知C项正确。