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考研英语阅读理解有一部分是截取自报刊文章,因此考生在复习备考的过程中要注意提高报刊文章的阅读能力,把握时事阅读。下面新东方在线小编分享历年真题同源的30篇报刊文章,附有注释和解析,希望考生认真阅读,提高对此类文章的阅读能力和增加相关词汇量。
考研英语阅读真题同源报刊文章30篇(4)
Moment of truth
No sooner did James McCarthy's name turn up in an Associated Press story on
the outlook for global warming than he started getting outraged emails from
colleagues. All that McCarthy, a Harvard oceanographer who studies how climate
change affects marine life, told the AP last week was that "the worst stuff is
not going to happen ... not that I think the projections aren't that accurate,
but because we can't be that stupid." The overwhelming response, he said, was,
What do you mean, we can't be that stupid? Just look around!
On that very question could hinge the fate of much of life on Earth. Last
week was bracketed by two events that could make 2007 a turning point in the
effort to control global warming. On Monday, by a 54 vote, the Supreme Court
ruled that the federal government had the power under the Clean Air Act to
regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. This victory for
environmentalists was quickly snatched away by President Bush, who announced the
next day that his administration had no intention of doing anything of the sort.
But the ruling set an important precedent for treating carbon dioxide as a
threat to human welfare, and opens the way to regulating it by tightening
fueleconomy standards. On Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, marshaling the research of nearly 1,000 scientists from 74 countries,
issued a longawaited report on climatechange"impacts, adaptation and
vulnerability".The study found that global warming was already affecting the
Earth's ecosystems; it predicted that continued climate change, in combination
with other environmental stressors such as population increases and greater
urbanization, would lead to moresevere and widespread drought, greater coastal
and riverine flooding, and"increased risk of extinction"for 20 to 30 percent of
plant and animal species. Depending on how much temperature rises, food
production in the temperate regions (including parts of the United States and
Canada) could actually increase, but would probably decline in much of the
tropics.
Yet at least since last year's congressional elections it's been clear that
2007 would be a critical year for what former vice president Al Gore has called
the"planetary emergency". A halfdozen bills to control greenhouse gases have
already been introduced or are being prepared for introduction to the Senate,
according to the National Environmental Trust. Some version of the"cap and
trade"marketbased system that has already shown its value in reducing acidrain
pollution is virtually certain to pass this Congress."The key question now",says
NET president Phil Clapp,"is, will President Bush sign a meaningful bill? But I
don't think there's any question that if this Congress doesn't produce one, the
next one will and the next president will sign it. We're in the endgame now,
after 10 years on this issue."
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