高考英语外刊阅读训练——阅读理解：全美竟1.2亿人生活在空气污染地区
本文节选自：The Guardian（卫报）
发布时间：2023.04.19
作者：Nina Lakhani
原文标题：Nearly 120 million people in US expod to unhealthy levels of soot and smog –report
The climate crisis has upended progress on improving air quality, with one in three Americans currently living in areas with harmful levels of pollutants known to increa the risk of medical emergencies, pregnancy complications and premature death, new rearch reveals.
户口所在地行政区划Almost 120 million people in the US are still expod to unhealthy levels of soot and smog, according to the annual report by the American Lung Association (ALA), which found that people of color are almost four times more likely to live in the most polluted places than white Americans. The extent to which access to clean air is racialized is stark; people of color account for 54% of tho living in counties with failing air quality, despite accounting for just over 40% of the general population.
The zip code lottery spotlights decades of racist housing and environmental policies, which have incentivized and enabled polluting infrastructure like highways and railroads, fossil fuel projects and manufacturing plants to be located clo to Black, Latin and Indigenous communities.
And despite overall improvements in air quality and pollution-related deaths over the past 50 years, the report also highlights a widening disparity between air quality in eastern and western states, especially for soot particles –scientifically known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5. Ten of the 11 most polluted counties are in California where the climate breakdown is fueling wildfires and rising temperatures that are undermining efforts to improve air quality in places like Fresno, San Bernardino, Tulare and Los Angeles.
“It is striking and distressing that 120 million people are still at risk from unhealthy air pollution, said Katherine Pruitt, lead author and the ALA’s national nior policy director. “Since around 2017, heat and drought driven by climate change has been undoing some of the progress that we should have made and been able to retain.”
阅读理解：
就业失业证1. According to the annual report by the American Lung Association, what proportion of people of col
观赏莲花or live in the most polluted places in the US?
A) 40%
B) 54%
C) 60%
D) 75%
答案：B
2. What is the effect of pollutants on people's health?
A) They increa the risk of medical emergencies.
B) They decrea the risk of pregnancy complications.
C) They improve air quality.
D) They increa life expectancy.
答案：A
3. What caus the widening disparity between air quality in eastern and western states in the US?
A) Decrea in industrial production.
B) Lack of environmental policies.
C) Climate breakdown.
D) Increa in population.
答案：C
4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a type of polluting infrastructure?
A) Highways
暮江吟B) Railroads
C) Fossil fuel projects
D) Supermarkets
答案：D
5. What is the zip code lottery?
A) A lottery where people can win clean air.
家教广告
B) A term referring to the racial disparity in air quality.
C) A way to rai awareness about climate change.
D) A game played in California to rai money for
environmental caus.
答案：B
6. Which state in the US has the most polluted counties?
A) Florida
B) California
C) New York
D) Texas
答案：B
7. What is the name for the harmful particles in the air?
A) Carbon dioxide
B) Oxygen
C) PM2.5
D) Nitrogen
答案：C
8. How long has progress on improving air quality been undone by climate change?
A) Since around 2007
B) Since around 2008
C) Since around 2017
D) Since around 2018
答案：C
9. What is the main cau of the disparity in access to clean air in the US?
A) Lack of funds for environmental policies.
B) Racist housing and environmental policies.
C) Lack of public transportation.
D) Economic inequality.
答案：B
10. What is the purpo of the annual report by the American Lung Association?
A) To promote fossil fuel projects.
B) To rai awareness about the effects of climate change.
C) To evaluate progress on improving air quality.
D) To reduce the population of the US.
答案：C
词汇总结：
1.climate crisis 气候危机
2.upend 颠覆周泰
3.progress 进展
文明的作文素材4.improving air quality 改善空气质量
5.harmful levels of pollutants 有害污染物的水平
6.increa the risk of medical emergencies 增加医疗紧急事件的风险
7.pregnancy complications 妊娠并发症
8.premature death 早逝
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