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  • ID:9121-11823
    Global warming may or may not be the great environmental crisis of the 21st century, but—regardless of whether it is or isn’t—we won’t do much about it. We will argue over it and may even, as a nation, make some fairly solemn-sounding commitments to avoid it. But the more dramatic and meaningful these commitments seem, the less likely they are to be observed.
    Al Gore calls global warming an “inconvenient truth,” as if merely recognizing it could put us on a path to a solution. But the real truth is that we don’t know enough to relieve global warming, and—without major technological breakthroughs—we can’t do much about it.
    From 2003 to 2050, the world’s population is projected to grow from 6.4 billion to 9.1 billion, a 42% increase. If energy use per person and technology remain the same, total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (mainly, CO2) will be 42% higher in 2050. But that’s too low, because societies that grow richer use more energy. We need economic growth unless we condemn the world’s poor to their present poverty and freeze everyone else’s living standards. With modest growth, energy use and greenhouse emissions more than double by 2050.
    No government will adopt rigid restrictions on economic growth and personal freedom (limits on electricity usage, driving and travel) that might cut back global warming. Still, politicians want to show they’re “doing something.” Consider the Kyoto Protocol(京都议定书). It allowed countries that joined to punish those that didn’t. But it hasn’t reduced CO2 emissions (up about 25% since 1990), and many signatories (签字国)didn’t adopt tough enough policies to hit their 2008-2012 targets.
    The practical conclusion is that if global warming is a potential disaster, the only solution is new technology. Only an aggressive research and development program might find ways of breaking our dependence on fossil fuels or dealing with it.
    The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral problem when it’s really an engineering one. The inconvenient truth is that if we don’t solve the engineering problem, we’re helpless.

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  • ID:9121-12966
    The old farmer ________ his wife, living until 105 years of age.
    A) endured B) lasted C) survived D) passed



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  • ID:9121-12250(本题为引用材料试题,请根据材料回答以下问题)
    “poker face” (Line 3,Para. 2) refers to a face which is ________. A attentive B. emotional C. suspicious D. expressionless

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  • ID:9121-11830
    A transformation is occurring that should greatly __1__ living standards in the developing world. Places that __2__ recently were deaf and dumb are rapidly acquiring __3__ telecommunications. Many developing countries are planning to invest vast sums of money __4__ their telecommunications networks to allow them to __5__ with developed countries. They believe this will __6__ foreign and domestic investment. However, how fast these nations should push __7__ is a matter of debate. And some developing countries __8__ experience in weighing costs and choosing between technologies. Vietnam, __9__ particular, though desperate for any phones, requires that all mobile phones be expensive digital models. Still, there is __10__ dispute that communications will be a key factor __11__ the winners from the losers. Over the next decade, China plans to pour some $100 billion into telecommunications equipment. Telecommunications is also a key __12__ Shanghai’s ambition of becoming a top financial center. Shanghai plans to be as electronically advanced __13__ New York. __14__, some other developing countries and areas such as Hungary, Latin America, and Thailand are all hoping to jump into the modern world __15__ means of telecommunication revolution. For countries that have lagged __16__ for so long, the temptation to move ahead in one jump is hard to __17__. And __18__ the mistakes they’ll make, they’ll persist ―__19__ day they can cruise alongside Americans and Western Europeans __20__ the information superhighway.
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  • ID:9121-12412
    Everyone agreed that the woman in the photo was_____. It was easy to see why she had won the beauty contest.
    A. gorgeous B. spacious C. luxurious D. bossy

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  • ID:9121-12977

    Passage 5

    If you want to teach your children how to say sorry, you must be good at saying it yourself, especially to your own children. But how you say it can be quite tricky.

    If you say to your children “I’m sorry I got angry with you, but ...” what follows that “but” can render the apology ineffective: “I had a bad day” or “your noise was giving me a headache” leaves the person who has been injured feeling that he should be apologizing for his bad behavior in expecting an apology.

    Another method by which people appear to apologize without actually doing so is to say “I’m sorry you’re upset”; this suggests that you are somehow at fault for allowing yourself to get upset by what the other person has done.

    Then there is the general, all covering apology, which avoids the necessity of identifying a specific act that was particularly hurtful or insulting, and which the person who is apologizing should promise never to do again. Saying “I’m useless as a parent” does not commit a person to any specific improvement.

    These pseudo-apologies are used by people who believe saying sorry shows weakness, Parents who wish to teach their children to apologize should see it as a sign of strength, and therefore not resort to these pseudo-apologies.

    But even when presented with examples of genuine contrition, children still need help to become a ware of the complexities of saying sorry. A three-year-old might need help in understanding that other children feel pain just as he does, and that hitting a playmate over the head with a heavy toy requires an apology. A six-year-old might need reminding that spoiling other children’s expectations can require an apology. A 12-year-old might need to be shown that raiding the biscuit tin without asking permission is acceptable, but that borrowing a parent’s clothes without permission is not.

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