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  3. The costs associated with natural disasters are increasing rapidly. As a result, officials in government and industry have focus

The costs associated with natural disasters are increasing rapidly. As a result, officials in government and industry have focus

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问题     The costs associated with natural disasters are increasing rapidly. As a result, officials in government and industry have focused more attention on disasters and their effects. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has estimated that disasters cost the country about 1 billion per week. Hurricane Andrew, the Midwest flood of 1993, and the Hanshin earthquake have shown that individual disasters can cost tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. This increasing cost has resulted in greater funding from government and industry for the development of technologies related to disaster prediction, and has led to more research into the effective use of predictive information.
    The insurance industry has long been aware of the dangers of natural disasters; the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, California, bankrupted scores of insurance companies. But the industry has focused particular attention on disaster prediction in recent years, as spiraling costs revealed that many companies had underestimated their financial exposure. For instance, prior to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, many insurance experts thought that the worst hurricane possible would do no more than 8 billion in damages to the industry. The damages caused by Hurricane Andrew, estimated at about 17 billion, shattered these beliefs. Today, estimates of worst-case disaster scenarios approach 100 billion.
    The insurance industry has therefore increased its support for research into disaster prediction. One such effort involves a number of companies that have joined together to support the Bermuda-based Risk Prediction Initiative, which funds disaster research. The expectation is that the resulting information will place the industry on a more solid foundation to make decisions about the risk of future disasters. The industry has also lobbied for the government to bear some of the financial burden of disaster insurance. Such a program already exists for flood insurance, set up in the late 1960s by the federal government to insure flood-prone areas. These types of programs, effectively implemented, could be increasingly necessary in the future to make insurance available in areas prone to disasters.
    Because the stakes are so high, the science of disaster prediction has a bright future. The various projects and programs illustrate that disaster prediction is a topic of concern to scientists and policy makers alike. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes all show that the effective use of disaster predictions not only requires advanced technology but also requires that society consider the entire process of prediction—forecasts, communication, and use of information. Because they cannot predict the future with certainty, and because much remains to be learned, scientists warn that society must understand the limits of scientific predictions and be prepared to employ alternatives. Wisely used, however, disaster prediction has the potential to reduce society’s vulnerability to natural disasters.
The result of the increasing costs in natural disasters is________.
选项 A、great loss suffered by commercial companies
B、organizations’ increased attention on disasters
C、individual awareness to natural disasters
D、more funds to support the prediction research
答案D
解析 本题关键词是the increasing costs和natural disasters。问题是：自然灾害造成的损失不断增加导致了什么后果?答案可以定位到第一段。根据第一段的第五句话可知，不断增加的损失让政府和企业加大投资(greater funding)致力于开发与灾难预测相关的技术，greater funding与选项D中的more funds属于同义替换，为正确答案。本文并没有提到不断增加的损失对贸易公司(commercial companies)的影响，因此选项A属于无中生有。从第一段第二句话可知，政府和企业的官员(officials in government and industry)对灾害的关注度增加，而不是选项B中的组织(organizations)，因此选项B属于偷换概念。另外，文中并没有提到个人(individual)对自然灾害的看法，因此选项C属于无中生有。第一段：自然灾害造成的损失在不断增加。
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