单选题 A United Nations report is sounding an alarm on the state of the earth"s natural resources, in advance of this month"s U. N. sponsored sustainable development summit (峰会) in Johannesburg.
The report says sea levels rose and forests were destroyed at unprecedented (前所未有的 ) rates during the last decade. It notes that more than 40 percent of the world"s population— two billion people—now faces water shortages. And it predicts that with the global population expected to increase from six billion to eight billion people over the next 25 years, further environmental stress is expected. U. N. Under Secretary General Nitin Desai says the most important message in the report is that the world"s environmental crises are interrelated. As an example, he cites the "Asian Brown Cloud", a "poisonous cocktail" of particulate (微粒的) matter, chemicals, and various aerosols (浮质), currently hanging over a vast area of southeast Asia.
"Here you have a situation which arises because of the unsustainable way energy is used in this region, which is leading to these problems which impact on agriculture, on water, on health," said Mr. Desai. "If you really want to address water, agriculture and health, you have to address energy. You can"t reduce poverty unless you also address land and water. You can"t improve children"s health without addressing water and sanitation (卫生) and air quality."
Mr. Desai, who will lead the Earth Summit, says that governments must form specific partnerships to reduce threats in five areas: water, energy, agriculture, biodiversity and health.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 论述环境保护的重要性和途径；文章列出了现在的环境危机，指出环境危机是相关联的，要保护环境就得从多方面着手；
[解题技巧] 41题是细节题。询问联合国的报告是什么时候发布的，从第一段可知，报告是在sustainable development summit之前发布的，而从最后一段可知，这次会议就是the Earth Summit；42题是细节题，问“Asian Brown Cloud”作一个例子来说明什么。从文章第二段的第五六行可以判断答案是A)；43题是细节题，问是什么导致了关于农业、水和健康的问题，可以从第三段第一句话得知；44题是词汇题，根据address后所接的宾语water，agriculture and health可以排除A)，B)，D)项；45题是推断题。根据文章的要点和最后一段可以排除B)， C)，D)三项。