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北京外国语大学

2006年硕士研究生入学考试基础英语试题

I. Reading Comprehension (50 points)

A Multiple Choice (24 points)

Please read the passages and choose A, B, C or D to best complete the statements aboutthem.

Hot under the Collar

One of the Labour Party’s many transformations during Tony Blair’s leadership was itsconversion to environmentalism. A party with its roots in dirty, heavy industry such as coal-minesand blast-furnaces presented itself as an eco-friendly guardian of the planet’s future. The mostvisible form of this was a commitment, in Labour’s 1997 manifesto, to cut 20% off Britishgreenhouse-gas emissions by 2010 compared with their 1990levels. That went above and beyondthe 12.5% required by the Kyoto treaty.

This pledge has been repeated as recently as the last election, but the promises have not stoodup to reality. Since 1999, British greenhouse-gas emissions have been broadly unchanged.Disillusionment among environmentalists has gradually given way to an anger which found anattention-grabbing means of expression this week, when Greenpeace dumped a lorry-load of coaloutside Downing Street. Stephen Tindale,its boss and a former government adviser, accused Mr.Blair of empty rhetoric. The WWF went further, claiming that Mr. Blair’s policies soundedidentical to those of George Bush—the eco-worrier’s nastiest insult.

So far, Britain has had an easy ride cutting emissions. The rhythm oftechnological changeand relatively painless policy choices have helped put the country on course to meet its Kyotoobligations. In an attempt to rescue the 20% target, ministers have ordered a policy review, whichthe Guardian obtained this week. The review, to be formally published next year, acknowledgedthat cutting emissions further will be hard.

Power generation is a good example of why. The government’s‘‘flagship policy’’ on climatechange has been to offer subsidies to renewable energy. But much of the cut in emissions predatesthese handouts and owed more to economy than ecology. Newly liberalized electricity firmsreplaced old, dirty coal-fired power plants with new, clean gas-fired ones in the “dash for gas” inthe 1990s because they were cheaper, not because they were cleaner—that was just a happycoincidence. Indeed, part of the reason for modest emissions rises in the past two years is that highgas prices have prompted some companies to switch back to coal.

More gas power plants (and possibly nuclear ones, too) will eventually be built, but not fastenough to rescue the government from its difficulties. Renewables will help, too, but wind farmsare often unpopular with local residents, and with the public finances looking sickly, call for anextravagant subsidy (recast to reach￡1 billion—$1.72 billion—a year by 2010).

Industry already bears the brunt of Britain’s climate commitments through the ClimateChange Levy, a tax on energy use, and the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), whichallocates tradable emissions limits for firms. Introducing new restrictions will be politicallydifficult. Ministers tacitly acknowledged as much last year, when they bowed to industry pressureto seek a rise in Britain’s European emissions allowances.

So, too, in transport, where emissions have risen by 10% since 1990 and which now accounts for aquarter of Britain’s greenhouse-gas output. Most of the emissions come from road transport, butmotorists face only weak incentives to buy carbon-friendly cars (the difference in road tax