2. 考研
  3. In 1575—over 400 years ago the French scholar Louis Le Roy published a learned book in which he voiced despair over the changes

In 1575—over 400 years ago the French scholar Louis Le Roy published a learned book in which he voiced despair over the changes

admin2013-01-25  37
问题     In 1575—over 400 years ago the French scholar Louis Le Roy published a learned book in which he voiced despair over the changes caused by the social and technological innovations of his time, what we now call the Renaissance. We, also, feel that our times are out of joint; we even have reason to believe that our descendants will be worse off than we are.
    The earth will soon be overcrowded and its resources exhausted. Pollution will ruin the environment, upset the climate and endanger human health. The gap in living standards between the rich and the poor will widen and lead the angry, hungry people of the world to acts of desperation including the use of nuclear weapons as blackmail. Such are the inevitable consequences of population and technological growth if present trends continue.
    The future is never a projection of the past. Animals probably have no chance to escape from the tyranny of biological evolution, but human beings are blessed with the freedom of social evolution. For us, trend is not destiny (fate). The escape from existing trends is now facilitated by the fact that societies anticipate future dangers and take preventive steps against expected changes.
    Despite the widespread belief that the world has become too complex for comprehension by the human brain; modern societies have often responded effectively to critical situations. The decrease in birth rates, the partial prohibition of pesticides and the rethinking of technologies for the production and use of energy are but a few examples illustrating a sudden reversal of trends caused not by political upsets or scientific breakthroughs, but by public awareness of consequences.
    Even more striking are the situations in which social attitudes concerning future difficulties undergo rapid changes before the problems have come to pass—witness the heated arguments about the problems of behavior control and of genetic engineering even though there is as yet no proof that effective methods can be developed to manipulate behavior and genes on a population scale.
    One of the characteristics of our times is thus the rapidity with which steps can be taken to change the orientation of certain trends and even to reverse them. Such changes usually emerge from grass root movements rather than from official directives.
Notes:
Renaissance (14—15世纪欧洲)文艺复兴(时期)。tyranny 暴虐统治；暴虐行为。are blessed with幸有；有幸得到。but a few 只是几个。come to pass 发生，实现。as yet 至今。grass root 群众。
选项 A、An overpopulated earth will be unable to sustain its inhabitants.
B、The rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer.
C、New sources of energy will be substituted for oil and natural gas.
D、The effects of pollution will pose a dreadful threat to mankind.
答案C
解析 细节辨认题。本题问：根据前两段，如果目前的趋势继续下去的话，下面哪一种情况将不会发生?A可以参阅第2段第1句："地球将很快人满为患，资源耗尽"。B可参阅第2段第3句："贫富之间生活水准的差异将扩大…"。D可参阅第 2段第2句："污染将毁坏环境、搞乱气候并损害人的健康"。C文中并未提及。注意：解细节辨认题的诀窍之一是针对选项中的关键词，通过段落主题句的引导，为所查找的信息进行段落定位。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/Np0RFFFM
0

考研英语一

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)