1、专业英语四级（环境类阅读理解）模拟试卷 1及答案与解析 0 The London 2012 sustainability watchdog embroiled in a row over the sponsorship of the Olympic Stadium by Dow Chemical is to push the International Olympic Committee to appoint an “ethics champion“ for future Games. The Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 has been
2、bruised by criticism over Dows sponsorship of the wrap that will surround the Olympic stadium, particularly since commissioner Meredith Alexander last month resigned in protest. Campaigners believe that Dow has ongoing liabilities relating to the 1984 Bhopal disaster that resulted in the deaths of a
3、n estimated 20,000 people and the serious injury of tens of thousands more. Dow, which bought the owner of the plant in 2001, insists that all liabilities have been settled in full. Commission chairman Shaun McCarthy said that its tight sustainability remit did not extend to acting as moral guardian
4、s of the Olympic movement but that it would press for such a role to be created when evaluating sponsors for future Games. In addition to sponsoring the 7m wrap that will surround the Olympic Stadium, Dow has a separate $100m sponsorship deal with the IOC that was signed in 2010. But McCarthy also d
5、efended the commissions role in evaluating the Dow deal, after Amnesty International wrote to London 2012 chairman Lord Coe to raise the issue. “What has been lost in all of this story is that a really excellent, sustainable product has been procured. We looked at Locogs examination of Dow Chemicals
6、 current corporate responsibility policies and, again, Dow achieved the highest score in that evaluation. We verified that,“ said McCarthy. “As far as the history is concerned and issues around Bhopal, there is no doubt Bhopal was a terrible disaster and some injustice was done to the victims. Who i
7、s responsible for that injustice is a matter for the courts and a matter for others. We have a specific remit and terms of reference that we operate under and we have operated diligently under those terms.“ The commission will on Thursday release its annual review. It finds that “good progress“ has
8、been made towards many of Locogs sustainability targets, but that “major challenges“ remain. In particular, the commission found that there was no coherent strategy to achieve a 20% reduction in carbon emissions after an earlier scheme to use renewable energy fell through when a wind turbine on the
9、site proved impractical. “We had conversations with Locog over a year ago about this and said they had to demonstrate how they were going to achieve at least 20% carbon reductions through energy conservation if theyre not going to do it through renewable energy,“ said McCarthy. “There are some good
10、initiatives, but quite frankly they just havent done it.“ From The Guardian, February 9, 2012 1 Why was Dows sponsorship criticized according to the passage? （ A） The products are not sustainable. （ B） It was related to Bhopal disaster. （ C） It bribed the London Olympic committee. （ D） It cant reduc
11、e 20% of the carbon emission. 2 What is Paragraph Four mainly about? （ A） commissions role （ B） commissions achievements （ C） commissions complaints （ D） commissions defence 3 Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word “row“ (Para 1)? （ A） line （ B） argument （ C） boating （ D）
12、course 4 What is one of the challenges of the sustainability target mentioned in the passage? （ A） Ethic champion for the games. （ B） Reduction in carbon emissions. （ C） The wind turbine proved to be impractical. （ D） Renewable energy is not available. 5 Which of the following can best summarize the
13、 passage? （ A） Commission defends its own role in evaluating controversial. （ B） Dows way to the 2012 London Olympic Games. （ C） Campaign against Dows sponsorship. （ D） IOCs review on the controversy. 5 The worlds greatest snow-capped peaks, which ran in a chain from the Himalayas to Tian Shan on th
14、e border of China and Kyrgyzstan, have lost no ice over the last decade, new research shows. The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50bn tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall. The study is the first to survey all the worlds i
15、cecaps and glaciers and was made possible by the use of satellite data. Overall, the contribution of melting ice outside the two largest caps Greenland and Antarctica is much less than previously estimated, with the lack of ice loss in the Himalayas and the other high peaks of Asia responsible for m
16、ost of the discrepancy. Bristol University glaciologist Prof Jonathan Bamber, who was not part of the research team, said: “The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia, which is not significantly different from zero.“ The melting of Himalayan glaciers caused contr
17、oversy in 2009 when a report from the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change mistakenly stated that they would disappear by 2035, instead of 2350. However, the scientist who led the new work is clear that while greater uncertainty has been discovered in Asias highest mountains, the melting of
18、 ice caps and glaciers around the world remains a serious concern. “Our results and those of everyone else show we are losing a huge amount of water into the oceans every year,“ said Prof John Wahr of the University of Colorado. “People should be just as worried about the melting of the worlds ice a
19、s they were before.“ His teams study, published in the journal Nature, concludes that between 443-629bn tonnes of meltwater overall are added to the worlds oceans each year. This is raising sea level by about 1.5mm a year, the team reports, in addition to the 2mm a year caused by expansion of the wa
20、rming ocean. The scientists are careful to point out that lower-altitude glaciers in the Asian mountain ranges sometimes dubbed the “third pole“ are definitely melting. Satellite images and reports confirm this. But over the study period from 2003-10 enough ice was added to the peaks to compensate.
21、The impact on predictions for future sea level rise is yet to be fully studied but Bamber said: “The projections for sea level rise by 2100 will not change by much, say 5cm or so, so we are talking about a very small modification.“ Existing estimates range from 30cm to lm. Wahr warned that while cru
22、cial to a better understanding of ice melting, the eight years of data is a relatively short time period and that variable monsoons mean year-to-year changes in ice mass of hundreds of billions of tonnes. “It is awfully dangerous to take an eight-year record and predict even the next eight years, le
23、t alone the next century,“ he said. From The Guardian, February 8, 2012 6 Why did the new research shock some scientists? （ A） It sounds not reasonable. （ B） It lacks sound evidence. （ C） It is out of their expectation. （ D） It is exactly the same to their study. 7 Why was the melting ice much less
24、than previously estimated? （ A） Lack of loss in Asias highest mountains. （ B） No satellite data was used previously. （ C） The study doesnt include Greenland. （ D） Not mentioned. 8 Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word “dubbed“ (Para 8)? （ A） replicated （ B） named （ C） cho
25、sen （ D） entitled 9 What did Wahr view of this study according to the passage? （ A） It is dangerous for the future study. （ B） It is a significant study. （ C） It is useless for the future study. （ D） It offers a sound prediction. 10 What is the authors attitude towards this study? （ A） skeptical （ B
26、） convinced （ C） critical （ D） not clear 10 Aside from water vapour, the four principal greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and the halocarbons or CFCs (gases containing fluorine, chlorine and bromine). These gases described in more detail herecan remain in
27、the atmosphere for different amounts of time, from months to millennia, and affect the climate on very different timescales. The lifetime in the air of CO2, the most significant man-made greenhouse gas, is probably the most difficult to determine, because there are several processes that remove carb
28、on dioxide from the atmosphere. Between 65% and 80% of CO2 released into the air dissolves into the ocean over a period of 20-200 years. The rest is removed by slower processes that take up to several hundreds of thousands of years, including chemical weathering and rock formation. This means that o
29、nce in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide can continue to affect climate for thousands of years. Methane, by contrast, is mostly removed from the atmosphere by chemical reaction, persisting for about 12 years. Thus although methane is a potent greenhouse gas, its effect is relatively short-lived. Nitrou
30、s oxide is destroyed in the stratosphere and removed from the atmosphere more slowly than methane, persisting for around 114 years. Compounds containing chlorine and/or fluorine (CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, PFCs) include a huge number of different chemical species, each of which can last in the atmosphere fo
31、r a specific length of time from less than a year to many thousands of years. The IPCC has published a comprehensive list of the atmospheric lifetime of the various CFCs and other greenhouse gases. Water vapour is a very effective absorber of heat energy in the air, but it does not accumulate in the
32、 atmosphere in the same way as the other greenhouse gases. This is down to it having a very short atmospheric lifetime, of the order of hours to days, because it is rapidly removed as rain and snow. The amount of water vapour that the atmosphere can hold increases as the atmosphere gets warmer, so t
33、he greenhouse properties of water vapour are usually considered to act as part of a feedback loop, rather than a direct cause of climate change. From The Guardian, January 16, 2012 11 Why is it difficult to determine CO2s atmospheric lifetime? （ A） Because it is difficult to be destroyed in the astr
34、osphere. （ B） Because it serves as a feedback loop in the atmosphere. （ C） Because there are no effective technical devices available. （ D） Because it can be removed through several processes. 12 Which of the four greenhouse gases mentioned in the passage has the shortest atmospheric lifetime? （ A）
35、CO2 （ B） CH4 （ C） N2O （ D） CFCs 13 Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word “potent“ (in Para 3)? （ A） ineffective （ B） powerful （ C） poisonous （ D） invisible 14 Why is water vapour NOT considered as a direct cause of the climate change? （ A） Because it doesnt influence on c
36、limate. （ B） Because it is not a greenhouse gas. （ C） Because it can be removed by the chemical reactions. （ D） Because it increases when atmosphere goes up. 15 What section is the passage most probably selected from? （ A） environment （ B） social issues （ C） current affairs （ D） scientific revolutio
37、n 15 Damian Carringtons description of this weeks Panorama is strident, inaccurate and also reveals a big green blind spot: renewable technologies are currently expensive and demand subsidy. Present government policy will push up the amount of such energy and the resulting cost to all of us. As some
38、one who believes in the importance of tackling climate change, I fervently wish this wasnt true. But it is and, unlike some environmentalists, I am not in denial. We are all now beginning to pay the big price ticket for the scientists demands to halt climate change and the politicians consequent pro
39、mises. Our money will go where their mouths were. Unfortunately this bites just as incomes are under real pressure. The collision between the govern-merits ambition and the pain of paying for it led me to pitch the idea to Panorama. I can hardly think of a more legitimate area for Panorama investiga
40、tion, just because the main political parties and the green movement agree with each other, does not make it off limits: indeed quite the reverse. Carringtons “vast, shocking hole“ refers to figures on current costs. But the programme was clearly focused on future bills so he is highlighting one of
41、many marginal facts not included. I would point towards a gap in his own coverage: failure to mention that we interviewed Sir David King, whose climate change credentials are impeccable and Tom Delay, boss of the Carbon Trust. Panorama did not lay all the blame for likely price rises at the green do
42、or. A large chunk of the programme was spent explaining how old power stations needed replacing and pricey or volatile foreign gas is mentioned three times. But I make no apology for focusing on policy as that delivers greater certainty of what direction were going in its spelt out in the government
43、s renewable road map and, as voters, we have some control. Future international energy prices are both unknown and beyond the influence of most of the 3 million people who watched this edition. I know there is a battle being waged behind closed doors in Whitehall over the cost and direction of energ
44、y policy and the obvious anger of some environmentalists is probably stoked by a belief that we gave succor to the “enemy“. But my own view rightly not included in the Panorama is that much of the governments policy is right apart, from the pretence that it wont cost much and if you are ticked off,
45、blame the energy companies. Or, as George Monbiot said in the programme: “The government cant be passive about any of this. If its going to invest heavily in wind, its gonna have to make the political case for it. (ditto nuclear). it cant pretend that it can just drift along and expect people to acc
46、ept stuff when they are not being told why it is a good idea.“ From The Guardian, November 9, 2011 16 Whats Carringtons description like according to the passage? （ A） fairly true （ B） thorough （ C） all-sided （ D） not correct 17 Whats the authors attitude towards the climate change tackling? （ A） no
47、t vital （ B） not true （ C） important （ D） unnecessary 18 Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word “marginal“ (Line 2, Para 3)? （ A） significant （ B） minimal （ C） profitable （ D） inexistent 19 What do George Monbiotps words quoted at the end of the passage suggest? （ A） Gover
48、nment should end the nuclear program. （ B） Citizens are always cheated by the government. （ C） Wind power is preferred to the nuclear power. （ D） Government should not shrug the responsibility but to be active. 20 What topic is the passage mainly about? （ A） energy （ B） economy （ C） politics （ D） cu
49、lture 专业英语四级（环境类阅读理解）模拟试卷 1答案与解析 【知识模块】 环境 1 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 本题为细节题。文章第三段中提到 “Campaigners believe that Dow has ongoing liabilities relating to the 1984 Bhopal disaster” 反对陶氏为 2012伦敦奥运赞助商的人士认为陶氏对 1984年的印度博帕尔灾难负有责任，所以选 B。 【知识模块】 环境 2 【正确答案】 D 【试题 解析】 本题为细节题。第四段意为：委员会主席 Shaun McCarthy说他们的可持续监管并不涉及奥运会的道德监护，但是会敦促在评估将来奥运会的赞助商时具有这个职能。所以他是想在上面提到的陶氏事件中的关于道德问题撇清自己的机构。而不是详细介绍机构职能，或是公布其成就或发牢骚，所以选项 D正确。 【知识模块】 环境 3 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 本题为词汇题。 row这里是 “争吵 ”的意思，且根据 row前面的单词embroiled (卷入 )可以看出选项 B接近该意。 【知识模块】 环境 4 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 本题为理解题。文章倒数第三段和
