Humankind has tried to improve its standard of living since the very beginning of civilization. Back then, as well as today, providing food and security was the basic task for a person.
Industrial manufacturing leads to the constantly increasing energy consumption.
For these reasons, bringing about economic growth without resulting in any environmental damage is impossible.
| A．It’s certain that economic growth contributes a lot to our society. |
| B．The traditional energy sources, which are commonly used nowadays, are considered to be the greatest polluters to the environment. |
| C．However, nowadays the range of required goods has expanded significantly. |
| D．There are certain aspects of economic growth which affect the environment. |
| E．Weather conditions, on the contrary, remains the same. |
| F．Consequently, the pressure balance that is brought about by this current will be affected. |
| G．What’s more, to produce economically practical energy, people unavoidably have to transform natural site. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】The benefits of a four-day working week, we have been told, are numerous. Increased productivity, improved mental health of employees and fewer sick days will apparently follow. Several companies are already trialling it, while the UK's Labour Party has announced that it will cut the average working week to 32 hours within ten years if it comes to power - with no loss of pay. But among all of the research, the impact on the environment has received less attention.
Now, with the climate crisis firmly in the headlines, this question is gaining more blows as a research theme. An obvious starting point is the potential impact of a four-day working week on car use. In a recent study, smartly titled “Four Better or Four Worse?” researchers at the Henley Business School considered to present this question to 505 business leaders and a separate sample of 2, 063 adults via a survey designed to reflect the UK in terms of age, gender and religion.
By applying the respondents' answers to commuting habits to the Department for Transport traffic data, the researchers found that if it was applied to the UK as a whole, a national four - day working week would reduce the number of miles driven each week by employees travelling to work by 558 million. This in turn would reduce fuel consumption and travel costs, with car mileage down by as much as 9%.
But there is another side of the story. While it's reasonably simple to analyse the way employees might change in a four-day situation, predicting what people will do with their extra time is much harder. There are plenty of energy savings to be made by having fewer people at work (think reduced use of workplace computers or machinery). But if an employee's new pursuits involve high energy consumption, many of these environment benefits could be undone. An increase in short - haul flights or other car journeys for example, would be bad news.
1. What is not the strength of a four-day working week?| A．Employees at work will have less productivity |
| B．People will bring more environmental problems |
| C．People at work will feel tired |
| D．People will pay more visits to hospitals |
| A．More people will choose online shopping |
| B．People's travel costs will be increased |
| C．People of different genders will have different choices |
| D．Less work time decreases fuel consumption |
| A．Environmental benefits are resisted in many companies |
| B．It's difficult to find the way employees choose their commutes |
| C．There are two sides of the four day working week |
| D．Buses will carry more working people to save money |
| A．How would a four -day working week affect the environment? |
| B．Who will benefit from a four-day working week in the future? |
| C．What can we do to save more energy? |
| D．Four better or four worse in your country? |
【推荐2】On November 10, China’s deep-sea manned submersible (潜水艇) Fendouzhe set a new record of 10,909 meters in the Challenger Deep located at the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.
For deep-sea exploration, the biggest challenge is the water pressure. The Mariana Trench, completely dark and extremely low in temperature, is one of the harshest areas on Earth. At the Challenger Deep, the water pressure is around 11,250 tons per square meter, which is equivalent to 2,000 African elephants stepping on person’s back.
Another threat is the seawater itself, which could corrode electronics and batteries. Underwater communication, navigation (航行) and tracking can also be extremely difficult.
To deal with these issues, Chinese scientists spent years creating a new titanium alloy (钛合金) that is lightweight, but strong enough for the job. The green, fish-shaped vehicle is the first manned submersible that can carry three people to dive and conduct full ocean survey in the world.
But why send humans instead of robots? Yang Ning, deputy director of the Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the “human touch” is important for underwater exploration.
“The ocean floor is dark and can be very cloudy due to sediment (沉淀物) and debris (废弃物), and cameras sometimes cannot detect things in these situations as effectively as human eyes,” Yang told China Daily.
In addition, humans may bring surprising discoveries, Yang pointed out. For example, on March 18, the submersible Shenhai Yongshi picked up a signal that was thought to be insignificant at the beginning. But Xie Wei, the marine microbiology expert on-board, suggested looking further into it. It turned out they had actually recorded a whale fall, an extremely rare occurrence, and the first one in the region.
1. What is the biggest challenge submersibles face when exploring the Mariana Trench?| A．Working in complete darkness. |
| B．Navigating the path underwater. |
| C．Communicating in extremely low temperatures. |
| D．Dealing with the extremely high water pressure. |
| A．Improve. | B．Destroy. |
| C．Press. | D．Remove. |
| A．The use of a new navigation system. |
| B．The use of an advanced tracking device. |
| C．The cabin made of a new titanium alloy. |
| D．The cabin designed in the shape of a giant fish. |
| A．Robots can pick up insignificant signals. |
| B．Robots can’t work well on the ocean floor. |
| C．Humans can conduct more complex ocean surveys. |
| D．Humans can detect things more effectively and flexibly. |
【推荐3】Avoid the supermarket shelves piled with cheese, cupcakes and pies. That is the message of an analysis that found these items are the worst when looking at both nutritional and environmental impacts of thousands of food and drink products sold in the UK and Ireland. So far, most studies have focused on the environmental impact of goods such as beef or beans, rather than tofu and other products that shoppers often buy. Where research has focused on such products, it has usually been for a small number of them.
In a bid to bridge the gap, Micheal Clark at the University of Oxford and his colleagues analyzed more than 57,000 food and drink products sold in the UK and Ireland. The team took the ingredients (成份) data from eight retailers (零售商), including major supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s. However, precise figures on how much of each ingredient is in each product were only available for around a tenth of them. To estimate the rest, Clark and his colleagues trained an algorithm (算法) on the known products and used it to predict the composition of the unknown ones. Finally, the team linked all the ingredients to an existing database of environmental impacts, including emissions (排放), land use and water stress.
The results may come as no surprise: meat, fish and cheese products had highest environmental impact while fruit, vegetables, bread and sugary drink products had the lowest burden. Clark admits that none of this is exciting, given what we already knew from past research. “What is important is that you can start getting these impact estimates for products that people are purchasing, which then has a lot of effects,” he says.
One of those is eco-lables, which can help consumers to make greener choices. However, retailers have struggled in the past with the challenge of the large number of food. Clark is thinking about how to eventually turn the data into an app that could be used either by shoppers or by retailers wanting to reduce their environmental impact. “We’ve made that information available in a way that means people can start making informed decisions,” he says.
1. What is the purpose of Clark’s study?| A．To solve the environmental problems with some products. |
| B．To point out the mistakes of the previous research. |
| C．To focus on the important ingredients data from retailers. |
| D．To estimate the environmental impact of frequently-bought products. |
| A．The process of Clark’s study. | B．The result of Clark’s study. |
| C．The significance of Clark’s study. | D．The limitation of Clark’s study. |
| A．Surprising. | B．Worrying. | C．Meaningful. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Nutritious food like beef and eggs. | B．Green food like carrots and bananas. |
| C．Healthy food like fish and tofu. | D．Fresh food like milk and chicken |
