Question

Environmentalists said our planet was bound to die. Now one man says they are wrong. “Everyone knows the planet is in bad shape,” thundered a magazine article last year. “Species 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 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 better.

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 left-wing 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 (战术) to gain donations. Lomborg’s book doesn’t deny global warming — probably the biggest environmental threat — but destroys almost every other environmental claim with many official statistics.

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

Nor are all our species dying out. Some campaigners claim that 50% of all species will have died out within 50 years. But other studies show only 0.08% 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 their campaigns. Stephen Tindale, director of Greenpeace UK, said, “There are important examples, such as acid rain and ozone, where things weren’t as bad as predicted, and that’s because our behavior changed.”

1.What is Lomborg’s main argument in The Skeptical Environmentalist?

A. Our planet is in bad shape.

B. The world’s environment is improving.

C. The total amount of forests is declining.

D. Conservation efforts have been successful.

2.What is Lomborg’s main accusation of environmentalists?

A. They changed their behavior toward the environment.

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

C. They scared people into making donations.

D. They overturned our basic assumption about the world’s environment.

3.The underlined word “depleting” is close in meaning to “_______”.

A. speeding    B. limiting

C. expanding    D. reducing

4.Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A. Are all species dying out?    B. Isn’t conservation powerful?

C. Is Our Planet Bound to Die?    D. Aren’t environmentalists wrong?

Answer

1. B

2. C

3. D

4. C

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文，介绍了在《持疑的环保主义者》一书中，统计学教授约恩隆伯格抨击了环保主义者的“星球灭亡”说，他指出世界环境正在改善。

1.推理判断题。根据第三段中的“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.”可知，统计学教授比约恩隆伯格抨击了环保组织的误导性言论以及让人们相信一切都在恶化的坏消息文化，由此可知，在《持疑的互保主义者》一书中，约恩隆伯格争论的是世界环境正在改善，故B项正确。

2.细节理解题。根据第四段中的“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 (战术) to gain donations.”可知，有人指责说，尽管环境正在改善，但每年获利数亿英镑的绿色组织正在运用恐吓战术来获得捐款，故C项正确。

3.词义猜测题。根据画线词后的“According to UN figures, the area of forests has remained almost steady”可知，森林面积已经很稳定，此处是说森林减少现象已经结束，由此可知画线词词义为“减少”，故D项正确。

4.主旨大意题。通读全文，特别是根据第一段中的“Environmentalists said our planet was bound to die. Now one man says they are wrong.”可知，本文介绍了在《持疑的环保主义者》一书中，统计学教授约恩隆伯格抨击了环保主义者的“星球灭亡”说，故C项正确。