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Section B Directions: There are 2 passages in

2022-08-05 15:31:22 问答库 阅读 169 次

问题详情

Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
When global warming finally came, it stuck with a vengeance(报复). In some regions, temperatures rose several degrees in less than a century. Sea levels shot up nearly 400 feet, flooding coastal settlements and forcing people to migrate inland. Deserts spread throughout the world as vegetation shifted drastically in North America, Europe and Asia. After driving many of the animals around them to near extinction, people were forced to abandon their old way of life for a radically new survival strategy that resulted in widespread starvation and disease. The adaptation was farming: the global warming crisis that gave rise to it happened more than 10,000 years ago.
As environmentalists convene in Rio de Janeiro this week to ponder the global climate of the future, earth scientists are in the midst of a revolution in understanding how climate has changed in the past, and how those changes have transformed human existence. Researchers have begun to piece together an illuminating picture of the powerful geological and astronomical forces that have combined to change the planet's environment from hot to cold, wet to dry and back again over a time period stretching back hundreds of millions of years.
Most important, scientists are beginning to realize that the climatic changes have had a major impact on the evolution of the human species. New research now suggests that climate shifts have played a key role in nearly every significant turning point in human evolution: from the dawn of primates (灵长目动物) some 65 million years ago to human ancestors rising up to walk on two legs, from the huge expansion of the human brain to the rise of agriculture. Indeed, the human history has not been merely touched by global climate change, some scientists argue, it has in some instances been driven by it.
The new research has profound implications for the environmental summit in Rio. Among other things, the findings demonstrate that dramatic climate change is nothing new for planet Earth. The benign(宜人的) global environment that has existed over the past 10,000 years—uring which agriculture, writing, cities and most other features of civilization appeared—s a mere bright spot in a much larger pattern of widely varying climate over the ages. In fact, the pattern of climate change in the past reveals that Earth's climate will almost certainly go through dramatic changes in the future—ven without the influence of human activity.
Farming emerged as a survival strategy because man had been obliged_.
A. to give up the former way of life
B. to leave the coastal areas
C. to follow the ever-shifting vegetation
D. to abandon his original settlement请帮忙给出正确答案和分析,谢谢!

参考答案

正确答案:A
根据题干信息词farming,survivalstrategy将答案定位到文章的第一段第五、六句。文章提到当周围的动物都濒临灭绝时,人们被迫放弃导致大面积饥荒和疾病的旧生活方式而选择农业,A与此相符,故选A。B、C、D都与文章不符。译文:当全球变暖最终来临时,它持续进行报复。在不到一个世纪的时间里,一些地区的气温就上升了好几度。海平面迅速升高了将近400英尺(约122米),淹没了沿海居民点并迫使人们向内陆迁移。随着北美洲、欧洲和亚洲植被的急剧变化,沙漠开始向全世界蔓延。[52]在驱使周围的动物濒临灭绝后,人类被迫放弃传统的生活方式以谋求全新的生存策略,而这种生存策略又恰恰造成了饥饿和疾病的蔓延。人们生存方式的改变就是农业,引起这一变化的全球变暖危机早在一万年前就发生过。本周,当环境保护主义者齐聚里约热内卢共同研讨未来的全球气候时,地球科学家们对过去气候变化之大和这些气候变化怎样改变人类生存状况的认知正产生革命性的变化。研究者们已经开始着手组合一幅图片来说明地球环境变化是强、大的地质力量和天体力量共同作用的结果。[53]在这两种力量的共同作用下,从数亿年前开始,地球环境在一定周期内就开始进行由热到冷、由湿润到干燥这种周而复始的循环。[54]更重要的是,科学家开始意识到气候变化对人类物种进化有重大影响。现在新的研究表明,在人类进化过程中的每一次重大转折中,气候变化都发挥了关键的作用。从6,500万年前灵长目动物的出现到人类祖先开始直立行走,从人体大脑不断发达到农业的兴起,气候变化对人类的影响无处不在。一些科学家认为,实际上全球天气的变化不仅仅影响了人类历史,在某些情况下甚至推动了人类历史。这项新研究对里约热内卢召开的环境保护峰会有着深远的意义。此外,这项研究结果表明全球气候的急剧变化对地球来说已经屡见不鲜了。过去一万年宜人的地球环境在整个漫长久远而诡谲多变的气候变化长河中只不过是一个亮点而已。在此期间,农业、文化、城市和其他人类文明的象征都相继出现了。[55]事实上,过去气候变化的形式规律表明:将来即使没有人类活动的影响,地球气候也肯定要经历剧变。

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