Meltwater gushes from an ice cap on the island of Nordaustlandet,in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. The Arcticis warming faster than that any other place on earth. At the current pace, scientistssay, summer sea ice could vanish from the region this century.
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From 7500 feet up, the nocturnal grid of New York looks more likea circuit board than a city. The glow of LED bulbs—seen here illuminating TimesSquare and other parts of midtown Manhattan—accountsfor the blue-violet blue.
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
Lit by morning sun, smoke from burningtrees obscures the Amazon rain forest in Mato Grosso, Brazil.In recent decades nearly a quarter of the forest in Mato Grosso has beencleared for farming, releasing millions of tons of stored carbon into the air.
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THIS YEAR COULD BE THE TURNING POINT
Laurence Tubianathinks so. She’s a small, elegant, white-haired woman of 63.At a press briefingin a noisy restaurant near Washington’sCapitol Hill, she apologized for being incapable of raising her voice—which ina diplomat is no doubt an excellent quality. Tubiana is no ordinary diplomat:She’s France’s“climate ambassador,” charged with the greatest cat-herding project in history.For the past year and a half she has been traveling the world, meeting withnegotiators from 195 countries trying to ensure that the global climate confabin Paris this December will be a success—awatershed in the struggle against climate change. “This notion of a turningpoint—that’s super important，” Tubiana says.
There are at least 20 reasons to fear shewill fail. Since 1992, when the world’s nations agreed at Rio de Janeiro to avoid “dangerousanthropogenic interference with the climate system,” they’ve met 20 timeswithout moving the needle on carbon emissions. In that internal we’ve addedalmost as much carbon to the atmosphere as we did in the previous century. Lastyear and the past decade were the warmest since temperature records began.Record-breaking heat waves are now five times as likely as they once were. Alarge part of the West Atlantic Ice Sheet, scientists reported last year, isdoomed to collapse—meaning that in the coming centuries sea level will rise atleast four feet and probably much more. We’re already redrawing the map of theplanet, especially of the zones where animals, plants, and people can live.
And yet there’s also an unmistakable trace ofhope in the air. A lot of it is still just talk. Chinaand the United States,the two largest carbon emitters, have announced a deal to reduce emissions. SixEuropean oil companies say they’d welcome a carbon tax. A giant Norwegianpension fund has pledged to stop investing in coal. And the pope has broughthis immense spiritual authority to bear on the problem.
But the reasons for hope go beyond promisesand declarations. In 2014 global carbon emissions from fossil-fuel burning didn’tincrease, even though the global economy was growing. We won’t know for yearsif it’s a trend, but it was the first time that had happened. One reasonemissions were flat was that China,for the first time this century, burned less coal than the year before. And onereason for that was that the production of renewable energy—wind and solar andhydropower—is booming in China,as it is in many other countries, because the cost has plummeted. Even Saudi Arabia isbullish on solar. “The world is tipping now,” says Hans-Josef Fell, co-authorof a law that ignited Germany’srenewable energy boom. It’s the kind of tipping point we want.
We’ve seen others. In the past half centurywe’ve created a world in which people on average live two decades longer thanthey did before, in which they cross oceans in a day with barely a thought, inwhich they communicate instantaneously and globally for barely a penny and carrylibraries in the palm of their hand. Fossil fuels helped make it all possible—butby the second half of the 21st century, if a climate disaster is tobe averted, we’ll have to be moving forward without them. Anyone who thinks wecan’t complete that revolution doesn’t appreciate how utterly we’ve alreadychanged the world. Anyone who thinks we won’t choose to complete thatrevolution—or at least not fast enough—well, that may turn out to be true. We’reon an unprecedented adventure whose outcome can’t be known and whose stakescouldn’t be higher. We’ve lived through other global transformations, but forthe first time ever we’re trying to steer on, to secure a more hopeful futurefor the whole planet.
The late novelist E. L. Doctorow oncedescribed his writing process this way: “It’s like driving a car at night—younever see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip thatway.” Fixing climate change is going to require improvisation like that. We don’thave to be able to see the whole road ahead to an happy end—but we do have tobelieve that we can get there. That’s what the negotiators will be trying to doin Paris. They’vestopped thinking they can write a treaty that will bind every country to aspecific quota for reducing emissions. Instead they’re looking for a way to “senda very strong signal to the business sector,” Tubiana says, to “create aself-fulfilling prophecy that the low-carbon economy is happening.” When we lookback to 2015 from our warmer future, we’ll know if this was when the prophecystarted to come true.
Questions:
1. What is the passage mainly about?
A. renewableenergy B. climate change
C. low carboneconomy D. climate confab in Paris
2. What is theattitude of the six Europe oil companies tothe “carbon tax”?
A. positive B. negative C. furious D. neutral
3. What is themeaning of “emission” according to the text?
A. absorption B. effluence C. production D. release
4. What is theDIRECT reason why scientists predict in the coming centuries sea level willrise at least four feet and probably more?
A. Climate change.
B. Part of theWest Antarctic Ice Sheet is doomed to collapse.
C. Carbon dioxideemissions didn’t reduce as expected.
D. The world will bemuch warmer at that time.
5. What are thenegotiators will be trying to achieve in Paristhis December?
A. Write a treatythat will bind every country to a specific qupta for reducing emissions.
B. Send a strongsignal to the countries.
C. To create a self-fulfillingprophecy that the low-carbon economy is happening.
1b，2a，3d，4d，5c
竟然是英語題（躺），大學後就沒看過英語了，但還是來暖暖貼瞎寫了一通（順便試試高中的東西忘了多少），話說你好多詞之間不加空格極大的增加了閱讀難度orz，尤其是一句話中穿插幾個23333，除了空格外，“From 7500 feet up, the nocturnal。。。。。。”這一段，最後的“accounts for the blue-violet blue.”明顯有問題，blue應該是其他東西吧。
发表于 2015-11-22 22:24:41
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发表于 2015-11-22 23:53:58
（順便試試高中的東西忘了多少），話說你好多詞之間不加空格極大的增加了閱讀難度orz，尤其是一句話中穿插幾個23333，除了空格外，“From 7500 feet up, the nocturnal。。。。。。”這一段，最後的“accounts for the blue-violet blue.”明顯有問題，blue應該是其他東西吧。
