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  3. British air is far cleaner than it was a few decades ago. Fewer people use coal-burning stoves: old industrial plants have been

British air is far cleaner than it was a few decades ago. Fewer people use coal-burning stoves: old industrial plants have been

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问题     British air is far cleaner than it was a few decades ago. Fewer people use coal-burning stoves: old industrial plants have been abandoned. But since 2009 levels of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, coarse or fine particles that are linked to lung cancer and asthma(哮喘), have fallen more slowly. The exact number of deaths caused by dirty air is unknown. But in 2010 a government advisory group estimated that removing man-made fine particulate matter from the atmosphere would increase life expectancy for those born in 2008 by an average of six months.
    Much of the slowdown is the result of fumes from diesel(柴油)cars, which were championed by successive governments because they use less fuel and thus produce less carbon dioxide than petrol cars. In 2001 only 14% of all cars ran on diesel: by 2013 the proportion had increased to 35% . Greener "hybrid" and electric cars have increased ninefold since 2006, but account for just 0. 5% of the entire fleet. Second-hand cars are particularly toxic, but evert newer ones have not been as clean as hoped. Many cars that let out few pollutants in tests produced more when on the roads.
    Government irresolution has not helped. Part of the problem is that several departments are responsible for air pollution. This means nobody has taken a lead on it, complains Joan Walley, a Labour MP who chairs an environmental committee that has released a series of damning reports. And few politicians are keen to criticize drivers. Talking to Britons about car ownership is " like talking to an American about hand guns" , jokes one air-pollution scientist.
    Some improvements have been made. In 2008 a " low-emission zone" was created in London, which targets large vans and coaches. A smaller "ultra low-emission zone" has been proposed for 2020, which would charge all vehicles that are not of a certain standard ￡12. 50 a day. European Commission fines for breaching limits may encourage cities to do more. But other countries are more ambitious: 60 such zones exist in Germany, targeting private cars as well as vans. In December Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, announced that she wanted to ban diesel cars by 2020. Cities in Denmark and the Netherlands do more to boost cycling.
It can be inferred from the passage that______.
选项 A、hybrid and electric cars are more environment-friendly
B、second-hand cars are often dirtier than new ones
C、new cars are designed to produce clean fume
D、tests on car pollutants are often reliable
答案A
解析 推理判断题。根据原文第二段第三句，更绿色的“混合动力”和电动汽车自2006年以来增加了九倍，但仅占汽车总量的0．5％，通过greener一词可以判断“混合动力”和电动汽车更环保，故A)为答案。原文指出，二手汽车toxic“有害”，并不等同于dirty，故排除B)；原文指出，较新的汽车也没有人们期望的那样清洁，选项C)与该处语义相反，故排除；原文指出，很多在污染物排放测试中排放量低的车在上路时却排放了更多，说明对汽车污染物的测试并不可靠，故排除D)。
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