标题: 考研英语历年真题来源报刊阅读(6) [打印本页] 作者: nicholasxw 时间: 2010-12-5 02:04 标题: 考研英语历年真题来源报刊阅读(6) Moment of truth
No sooner did James McCarthy’s name turn up in an Associated Press story on the outlook for global warming than he started getting outraged eails from colleagues. All that McCarthy, a Harvard oceanographer who studies how climate change affects marine life, told the AP last week was that “the worst stuff is not going to happen ... not that I think the projections aren’t that accurate, but because we can’t be that stupid.” The overwhelming response, he said, was, What do you mean, we can’t be that stupid? Just look around!
On that very question could hinge the fate of much of life on Earth. Last week was bracketed by two events that could make 2007 a turning point in the effort to control global warming. On Monday, by a 5 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the power under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. This victory for environmentalists was quickly snatched away by President Bush, who announced the next day that his administration had no intention of doing anything of the sort. But the ruling set an important precedent for treating carbon dioxide as a threat to human welfare, and opens the way to regulating it by tightening fuelconomy standards. On Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, marshaling the research of nearly 1,000 scientists from 74 countries, issued a longwaited report on climatehange“impacts, adaptation and vulnerability”.The study found that global warming was already affecting the Earth’s ecosystems; it predicted that continued climate change, in combination with other environmental stressors such as population increases and greater urbanization, would lead to moreevere and widespread drought, greater coastal and riverine flooding, and“increased risk of extinction”for 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species. Depending on how much temperature rises, food production in the temperate regions (including parts of the United States and Canada) could actually increase, but would probably decline in much of the tropics.
Yet at least since last year’s congressional elections it’s been clear that 2007 would be a critical year for what former vice president Al Gore has called the“planetary emergency”. A halfozen bills to control greenhouse gases have already been introduced or are being prepared for introduction to the Senate, according to the National Environmental Trust. Some version of the“cap and trade”marketased system that has already shown its value in reducing acidain pollution is virtually certain to pass this Congress.“The key question now”,says NET president Phil Clapp,“is, will President Bush sign a meaningful bill? But I don’t think there’s any question that if this Congress doesn’t produce one, the next one will and the next president will sign it. We’re in the endgame now, after 10 years on this issue.”
［真题例句］“Some of us have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally unlimited,”says Luce,“I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated (v.①) with the company have only recently come to realize this.”［1997年阅读4］
［真题例句］ Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged (vt.).［2005年阅读1］
［例句精译］ 事实上，如果他还有偷懒怠工的名声，你可能会暴怒的。
overwhelming［7EuvE5welmiN］
a.势不可挡的，压倒的
［真题例句］ The individual now has more information available than any generation, and the task of finding that one piece of information relevant to his or her specific problem is complicated, timeonsuming, and sometimes even overwhelming.［1995年阅读3］
［真题例句］ The brain finds it best to keep smell receptors (19：available) for unfamiliar and emergency signals (20：such as) the smell of smoke, which might indicate the danger of fire.［2005年完形］
James McCarthy的名字和他的一篇关于全球变暖的文章在美联社的新闻报道一出现，他就开始收到来自同行们的侮辱性的邮件。McCarthy是一名哈佛大学的海洋学研究学者，主要研究气候的变化对海洋生物的影响，上周，他在美联网表示说：“并不是预测不精确，而是情况不会那么糟。因为我们不会那么愚蠢的。”他说，铺天盖地的质问都是关于“你是什么意思？我们不可能那么愚蠢吧！你看看周围是什么样子啊。”