2017年全国医学考博英语统一考试真题06

希赛网英语频道为大家整理2017年全国医学博士英语统一考试真题。

Part IV Reading Comprehension (30%)

Passage Three

Back in 1896, the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius realized that by burning coal we were adding carbon dioxide to the air, and that this would warm the Earth. But he mentioned the issue only in passing （Jl匝便地），for his calculations suggested it would not become a problem for thousands of years. Others thought that the oceans would soak up any extra CO2, so there was nothing much to worry about. That this latter argument has persisted to this day in some quarters highlights our species ’ propensity （倾向）to underestimate the scale of our impact on the planet. Even the Earth’s vast oceans cannot suck up CO2 as quickly as we can produce it, and we now know the stored CO2 is acidifying the oceans, a problem in itself.

Now a handful of researchers are warning that energy sources we normally think of as innocuous could affect the planet5 s climate too. If we start to extract immense amounts of power from the wind, for instance, it will have an impact on how warmth and water move around the planet, and thus on temperatures and rainfall.Just to be clear, no one is suggesting we should stop building wind farms on the basis of this risk.Aside from the huge uncertainties about the climatic effects of extracting power from the wind, our present and near-term usage is far too tiny to make any difference. For the moment, any negative consequences on the climate are massively outweighed by the effects of pumping out even more CO2. That poses by far the greater environmental threat; weaning ourselves off fossil fuels should remain the priority.

Even so, now it is the time to start thinking about the long-term effects of the alternative energy sources we are turning to. Those who have already started to look at these issues report weary, indifferent or even hostile reactions to their work. That’s understandable, but disappointing. These effects may be inconsequential, in which case all that will have been wasted is some research time that may well yield interesting insights anyway. Or they may turn out to be sharply negative, in which case the more notice we have, the better. It would be unfortunate to put it mildly, to spend countless trillions replacing fossil-fue! energy infrastructure（基础建设）only to discover that its successor（替代物）is also more damaging than it need be.

These climatic effects may even be beneficial. The first, tentative models suggest that extracting large amounts of energy from high-altitude jet streams would cool the planet, counteracting the effects of rising greenhouse gases. It might even be possible to build an energy infrastructure that gives us a degree of control over the weather: turning off wind turbines here, capturing more of the sun5 s energy there. We may also need to rethink our long-term research priorities. The sun is ultimately the only source of energy that doesn’t end up altering the planet5s energy balance. So the best bet might be invest heavily in improving solar technology and energy storage—rather than in efforts to harness, say, nuclear fusion.

For the moment, all of this remains supposition（推'测）.But our species has a tendency to myopia. We have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by taking the long view for a change.

71. In the first two paragraphs, the author is trying to draw our attention to .

A. the escalating scale of the global warming

B. the division of scientists over the issue of global warming

C. reasons for us to worry about extra OO2 for the oceans

D. the human tendency to underestimate the harmful effects on the planet

72. The author’s illustration of wind-power extraction reflects .

A. the priority of protecting the environment

B.the same human propensity as mentioned previously

C. the best strategy of reducing the environmental threat

D. the definite huge uncertainties about the climatic effects

73. The author argues that it would be unfortunate to replace fossil fuels only to find out that .

A. the successors are also damaging

B.the countless trillions spent are wasted

C. the alternative energy sources don’t work

D. the research invites indifferent or even hostile reactions

74. According to the author, the best strategy is .

A. to counteract the effects of rising greenhouse gases

B. to develop a degree of control over the weather

C. to extract large amounts of energy from wind

D. to explore solar energy and its storage

75. It can be concluded from the passage that we need to take the long view on .

A. human existence on the planet B. humanity5 s energy supplies

C. our environmental threats D. our tendency to myopia

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