The Truth about the Environment练习刘自知.docVIP

请选择 请填写 级 别 四级/六级 试题编号 Y U E X I E 托福 提交日期 2 0 1 2 年 0 7 月 2 0 日 雅思 Y GRE/GMAT 题 型 01 Y/N/NG √ 选 材 作者 题目 来源 “The Truth about the Environment” 02 选择题 √ 03分类题 04句子插入 05配对题 篇 幅 1003 words 06图表题 07简答题 题材 关键词 自然环境 global warming, greenhouse gases , El Nino, carbon dioxide emissions, environmental groups The Truth about the Environment 1 For many environmentalists, the world seems to be getting worse. They have developed a hit-list of our main fears: That natural resources are running out; that the population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat; that species are becoming extinct in vast numbers, and that the planet’s air and water are becoming ever more polluted. 2 But a quick look at the facts shows a different picture. First, energy and other natural resources have become more abundant, not less so, since the book ‘The Limits to Growth’ was published in 1972 by a group of scientists. Second, more food is now produced per head of the world’s population than at any time in history. Fewer people are starving. Third, although species are indeed becoming extinct, only about 0.7% of them are expected to disappear in the next 50 years, not 25-50%, as has so often been predicted. And finally, most forms of environmental pollution either appear to have been exaggerated, or are transient --- associated with the early phases of industrialization and therefore best cured not by restricting economic growth, but by accelerating it. One form of pollution - the release of greenhouse gases that causes global warming --- does appear to be a phenomenon that is going to extend well into our future, but its total impact is unlikely to pose a devastating problem. A bigger problem may well turn out to be an inappropriate response to it. 3 Yet opinion polls suggest that many people nurture the belief that environmental standards are declining and four factors seems to cause this disjunction between perception and reality.