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  3. The battle to prevent or at least slow global warming has intensified in the past year as scientists have learned more about the

The battle to prevent or at least slow global warming has intensified in the past year as scientists have learned more about the

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问题     The battle to prevent or at least slow global warming has intensified in the past year as scientists have learned more about the magnitude of the problem. One of the leading climate experts, Inez Y. Fung, director of the Atmospheric Sciences Center at the University of California, Berkeley, recently showed that the earth may soon lose its ability to absorb much of the greenhouse gas thatis raising temperatures. The oceans and continents currently soak up about half the carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels. In the oceans, the gas combines with water to form carbonic acid; on land, plants take in more carbon dioxide and grow faster.
    But computer modeling done by Fung and her colleagues indicates that these carbon sinks will become less effective as the earth continues to warm. For example, as the tropics become hotter and drier in the summer, plants will reduce their respiration of carbon dioxide to avoid water loss. Atmospheric measurements over the past decade have confirmed this effect. If the oceans and land take in less carbon dioxide, more will remain in the atmosphere and global warming could accelerate catas-trophically.
    Despite these warning signs, the government administration has opposed approval of the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty mandating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, But nine states in the northeastern U.S. are attempting to sidestep the federal government’s opposition by taking action on their own. Last August the group reached a preliminary agreement to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 10 percent by 2020. The plan requires approval by the state legislatures, but environmentalists are already hoping that other regions of the U.S. will follow suit. If adopted nationwide, the proposal would lower greenhouse gas emissions by roughly as much as the Kyoto Protocol would have.
    Steve Howard, chief executive of the Climate Group, is tackling the global-warming problem from a different angle. Founded in 2004, the Climate Group is a coalition of corporations and local governments that have voluntarily committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Members include oil giant BP(British Petroleum Co. PLC), drug-maker Johnson & Johnson, and Starbucks. Businesses in the Climate Group have discovered that improvements in energy efficiency can enhance profits as well ascut fossil-fuel emissions; BP, for instance, slashed its energy bills by $650 million over 10 years. "We have seen important evidence about successful emission reduction scattered here and there in the most surprising places all over the globe," Howard says. "We are working to bring all of it together so that it forms a body of evidence."
It is suggested in the last paragraph that
选项 A、the government profited from the Climate Group’s gas emission reduction.
B、energy used more efficiently will bring benefits to economy as well as nature.
C、energy bills should be slashed in order to maintain a low level of gas emission.
D、the Climate Group is tackling the problem through accumulating strong evidence.
答案B
解析 段落细节题。最后一段举了BP的例子说明，提高能源利用率，既能增加利润，同时也可以减少化石燃料的排放，因此B项为正确选项。这一段说的是企业提高能源利用率，而没有提及政府是否从中获益，所以A项排除；文中说的是提高能源利用率可以降低能源费用，并不能推断出为了低排放，应当削减能源费用，所以C项也不对；气候集团应对全球变暖的方法是由自愿减少温室气体排放的企业或政府共同研究提高能源利用率，而不是通过搜集证据，所以D项也排除。
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