Article one：
Read a related article “Climate change action: too little, too late” and finish the exercis within 20 minutes.
•Climate change action: Too little, too late?
By Simon Hooper
Special for CNN
1. LONDON, England (CNN) -- "I want to scare you about climate change," says Fred Pearce, veteran environmental journalist and author. "We are probably the last generation to be able to rely on a stable climate."
2. Addressing a sympathetic audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival (1), Pearce is preaching to the converted about the reality and risks of climate change.
3. But it is his fear -- as the title of his new book, "The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take Her Revenge for Climate Change" (it is called "With Speed and Violence" in the U.S.), suggests -- that we s
till haven't fully realized the apocalyptic forces we have awoken and the reality of what is at stake if global warming continues untrammeled.
4. This is not just about warmer weather, environmental degradation and a looming refugee crisis, according to Pearce, but "about our survival as a species, as homo sapiens."
5. This year's ries of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2) have been broadly welcomed for a sober and nsible tone, which, while acknowledging the dangers of global warming, also suggested that our destiny was still in our own hands.
6. Our carbon emissions would have to be slashed with strict targets t and met by 2050 to avert catastrophe but this was esntially a man-made problem with
man-made solutions.
7. But Pearce says the IPCC reports are "not the whole story." Carefully restricted within narrow parameters framed by measurable quantifiable change and impreci computer modeling, what they don't factor in are the "long shots" which could throw all our existing certainties into disarray.
龙年是哪几年8. "The truth is, the more we obrve about the climate system, the more frightening the scenarios th
at scientists are starting to develop," Pearce says.
9. "Past climate change has been more violent and extreme than we have been led to believe."
10. In the history of the planet, Pearce argues, the past 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age (3), in which humanity has established itlf as the earth's dominant species, have been unusually benign in climatological terms. But that tranquility "looks like the exception rather than the rule."
11. Now he warns, human activity in the space of less than 200 years threatens to
re-awaken extreme climate change of the sort never experienced in the era of recorded history. Already, average a level ri has doubled in a decade due to the destabilization of the Arctic and Greenland ice shelves.
12. "We could soon be measuring a level ris in meters, not centimeters," says Pearce. "Old ideas about climate change are just not how the world works. When climate does change it does so suddenly and violently."
13. He highlights one such episode 11,000 years ago when temperatures in some parts of the Arctic
warmed veral degrees Celsius in the space of a decade: "Nature flicked the switch 10,000 years ago. We could be flipping the switch again."
鼠目寸光的意思14. As Pearce says, the "last generation" of his book title refers to the final years in which we will be able to depend on a stable and predictable climate.
15. The challenge for future generations, he predicts, will come in dealing with the sudden destabilization of the planetary ecosystem and the social chaos likely to ensure.
16. "When that certainty fails, how will society respond? One hurricane (Katrina) (4) brought the world's greatest nation to its knees. We believe we can control climate change but I wonder whether that is actually the ca."
17. That, however, does not alleviate the need for urgent action, says Pearce, insisting he retains a n of "apocalyptic optimism" harbored by the n that politicians, in the IPCC reports, U.S. acknowledgment of the scale of the problem and the beginnings of moves towards a post-Kyoto connsus, are finally treating climate change riously.
18. "The technology to do things so much better is there. The economics is not hard, they're not goin
g to break the bank. The problem is political, making it happen. I hope we are reaching a political tipping point."
19. He also es hope in the fact that corporations have spotted lucrative potential in adapting to ever more-stringent environmental regulations more effectively than their rivals.
20. The next step, Pearce believes, is to add an ethical dimension to the struggle by highlighting the fact that tho initially affected will be almost entirely located in the developing world where infrastructure and resources are already at their most
三顾茅庐课文原文over-stretched.
21. "If the economics is what gets the politicians going, it's the ethics that gets the people going," he says.
Notes
1. The Cheltenham science Festival: it takes place every year in the beautiful town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, UK. Since the first Festival in 2002, Cheltenham has earned an exciting reputation as one of the best science festivals in the UK.
2. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)：政府间气候变化专门委员会
Was established to provide the decision-makers and other interested in climate change with an objective source of information about climate change.
3. the last ice age:
There have been veral ice ages in the history of the earth. What is commonly called the ice age is actually the most recent which began about two million years ago, and was characterized by cold and relatively warm phas. The last began about 70,000 years ago, and ended 10,000 years ago.
儿童画房子4. Hurricane Katrina: on august 28th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the US with devastating effected. It was reported more than 1,800 people lost their lives, and more than ￥81 billion dollars in damages occurred.
Exerci one:
Directions: decide whether the following statements are true of fal according the text.
1. According to the Pearce, global warming just implies warmer weather, environmental degradation and a looming refugee crisis. ( )
2. This year’s ries of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that we human beings couldn’t control our fate any more. ( )
3. Pearce sa ys the IPCC reports haven’t taken all the possible factors into consideration. ( )
4. Pearce argues that the extreme climate changed will take place in less than 200 years. ( )
5. Pearce mentions that the climate change occurs naturally and slowly and finally could throw all or existing certainties into chaos. ( )
6. Pearce says the “last generation” of his book title refers to the final years in which we couldn’t predict the climates. ( )
7. Hurricane Katrina has forced the United States to admit defeat in dealing with climate changes. ( )
8. Pearce harbors hopes in the politicians to take rious measures in dealing with climate change. ( )
9. Pearce implies the developing countries could be the first to feel the effect of climate change. ( )
Exerci two: Translate the two paragraphs at the end of the article.
羊奶粉排行榜10. He also es hope in the fact that corporations have spotted lucrative potential in adapting to ever more-stringent environmental regulations more effectively than their rivals.
11. The next step, Pearce believes, is to add an ethical dimension to the struggle by highlighting the fact that tho initially affected will be almost entirely located in the developing world where infrastructure and resources are already at their most
over-stretched.
Article Two：
Blacks, Whites and Love
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: April 24, 2005
One gauge of the progress we've made in American race relations in recent decades is the growing number of blacks and whites who have integrated their hearts and ended up marrying each other. As of the 2000 census, 6 percent of married black men had a white wife, and 3 percent of married black
women had a white husband - and the share is much higher among young couples. Huge majorities of both blacks and whites say they approve of interracial marriages, and the number of interracial marriages is doubling each decade. One survey found that 40 percent of Americans had dated someone of a different race.
But it's hard to argue that America is becoming more colorblind when we're still missing one benchmark: When will Hollywood dare relea a major movie in which Denzel Washington and Ree Witherspoon fall passionately in love?
For all the gains in race relations, romance on the big screen between a black man and a white woman remains largely a taboo. Americans themlves may be falling in love with each other without regard to color, but the movie industry is still too craven to imitate life.
Or perhaps the studios are too busy pushing the limits on x, nudity and violence to portray something really kinky, like colorblind love.
Back in 1967, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" helped chip away at taboos by showing a black man and white woman scandalizing their parents with their - chaste - love. In 2005 we have a new version of "Guess Who," but it only underscores how little progress we've made.
The latest "Guess Who" is about a white man in love with a black woman, and that's a comfortable old archetype from days when slave owners inflicted themlves on slave women. Hollywood has portrayed romances between white men and (usually light-complexioned) black women, probably calculating that any good ol' boy eing Billy Bob Thornton embracing Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball" is filled not with disgust but with envy.
Off screen, the change has been dizzying. At least 41 states at one time had laws banning interracial marriage. A1958 poll found that 96 percent of whites disapproved of marriages between blacks and whites.
That same year, in North Carolina, two black boys, a 7-year-old named Fuzzy Simpson and a 9-year-old named Hanover Thompson, were arrested after a white girl kisd Hanover. The two boys were convicted of attempted rape. As Randall Kennedy notes in his book "Interracial Intimacies," Fuzzy was ntenced to 12 years, and Hanover to 14 years. Pressure from President Dwight Einhower eventually cured the boys' relea.
Then the mood began to change, and 1967 was the turning point. That was the year that the daughter of Dean Rusk, then cretary of state, married a black man. Secretary Rusk proudly walke
d his daughter down the aisle (after warning President Lyndon Johnson of the political risks), and Time magazine put the couple on its cover. That was also the year of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and of a Supreme Court ruling striking down miscegenation laws.
Y et right from the beginning, the entertainment industry has lagged society in its racial mores. Films and television have always been squeamish about race: in 1957, on Alan Freed's ABC show,
the black singer Frankie Lymon was en dancing with a white woman. ABC promptly canceled the show.
There have been just a few mainstream movies with black men romancing white women, lower-profile films like "One Night Stand." More typically, you get a film like "Hitch," where the studio pairs a black man with a Latina.
Popular entertainment shapes our culture as well as reflects it, and one breakthrough might come late next year with the possible relea of "Emma's War." That's a movie that 20th Century Fox is considering, in which a white woman - Nicole Kidman is being discusd - marries an African. It's great that Hollywood is clo to catching up to Shakespeare's "Othello."
Let's hope that Hollywood will finally dare to be as iconoclastic as its audiences. It's been half a century since Brown v. Board of Education led to the integration of American schools, but the breakdown of the barriers of love will be a far more conquential and transformative kind of integration - not least becau it's spontaneous and hormonal rather than impod and legal.点痣后要注意什么
1. Why doesn’t the movie industry in the US depict romance between a black man and a white woman?
[A]Becau the movie industry does not dare to do so.
[B]Becau the law of many states does not allow it to do so.
[C]Becau the audience does not like to e such romance on the screen.
[D]Becau the movie industry is not interested in it.
2. What is the purpo of the author by comparing “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with the 2005 version?
[A]To show that the movie industry in still engaged in prenting the interracial marriage.
观阁镇[B]To introduce the new movie
[C]To show that we made little progress during the decades.
[D]To form a contrast between what the movie industry is doing with real life.
3. Why did ABC cancel the show?
[A]Becau it lagged behind society.
[B]Becau it did not like current racial mores.
[C]Becau it didn’t want to show a black singer dancing with a white woman.
[D]Becau it was not the mainstream of television.
4. What is the significance of “Emma’s War”?
[A]It shows one breakthrough that Hollywood is going to make in depicting interracial love.
[B]It should be a big hit since Nicole Kidman is going to be the leading lady in the movie.
[C]It is going to catch up with the greatest drama of Shakespeare.
[D]It shapes our culture as well as reflects it.
5. What can we infer from the passage?
[A]The author is quite optimistic about the future of integration.
[B]The author is quite pessimistic about the future of integration.
[C]It is hoped that the breakdown of the barriers of love should be ensured by law.
[D]Hollywood is more conrvative in interracial love than its audience.豆沙
