Obama’s Energy Policy While the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that prompted the president’s speech is an unprecedented catastrophe

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问题                         Obama’s Energy Policy
   While the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that prompted the president’s speech is an unprecedented catastrophe, it’s nothing compared to what’s ahead if we keep pretending that fossil fuels are cheap. Addressing our habits of carbon consumption isn’t just the most important possible response to this particular disaster. It’s probably the most important issue this president, or any other for the next few decades, will face. Moreover, there’s a fairly clear solution that’s already been outlined: at the moment, there’s an implicit public subsidy for carbon use that enables our reliance, so the government needs to compensate for it by jack up the price of energy somehow. A cap-and-trade system is the preferred method here in much the same way that an insurance mandate was in healthcare reform: it’s a politically palatable partial measure, but far better than nothing.
   But Obama gave a lame speech by only offering vague generalities about " increasing the cost of energy," failing to lay out the case for the reform that he knows perfectly well to be the only viable one. In fact, if the president decided to take the idea of energy reform to the people, he probably still wouldn’t get legislation passed. But even in failure, there’s something to be gained from speaking clearly and honestly to the public.
   Woodrow Wilson was a generally pretty detestable guy, but there’s something Obama could learn from him. At the end of World War I, Wilson expended massive, futile effort trying to convince Americans that the League of Nations was the world’s only hope for peace and stability. The Republicans who opposed Wilson over the League succeeded, in large part, because a weary country wasn’t willing to accept an intellectual president’s high-flown scheme to prevent the recent disaster from repeating.
   When the feeble League failed and the crisis of the 1930s developed into World War II, it offered a kind of perverse validation to Wilson’s effort. By forcefully campaigning for the United States to take a central role in global stability, he had elucidated the choices facing the American people. After World War II, the argument of 1919 reoccurred, but it was won by Wilson’s successor, Harry Truman. The reoccurrence of global war had validated Wilson’s argument, making it much easier for Truman to sell Americans on the Marshall Plan, NATO, the United Nations and, ultimately, the Cold War itself. By being ambitious and clear, Wilson lost, but his side won out in the long term for the same reason.
By "a lame speech" , the author means Obama fails to______.

选项 A、offer details of the energy reform
B、give examples of similar practices
C、inform the American people that energy reform is the only measure that works
D、inform the American people that the reform probably wouldn’t get legally passed

答案A

解析 词句归纳题型,答案是A。本题涉及对文中具体词句的理解,需对第二段第一句话进行归纳总结。需重点留意的词汇包括lame,offering vague generalities以及failing to lay out the case for the reform,如答题者词汇量足够丰富,可知三者意思分别为“没有说服力的”、“语焉不详”和“没能详细阐释这一改革”,三词呈递进关系,逐步深入解释奥巴马演讲的不足之处:方案不够具体。即便答题者词汇量不够丰富,对lame和lay out the case两词把握不准,也可通过offering vague generalities一词基本推定奥巴马演讲的问题所在。四个选择项给出的信息分别为“未能给出能源改革的具体细节”、“未能援引类似的成功案例”、“未能让美国民众知晓能源改革是唯一出路”和“未能让美国人民知晓改革可能无法得到立法”,显然只有A选项归纳得最为准确。值得一提的是,C、D选项亦出现在了同一段落里,这时就需要考查两者与题干之间的联系程度,原文gave a lame speech by中的by一词提示我们,相关解释一定会紧跟其后,而不会出现相距较远的分句甚至是其他独立句子中,故排除这两项。本题核心:紧紧围绕考查词句,抓住核心解释词vague generalities,通过by厘清句法关系,做出正确归纳。
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