单选题 "The world's environment is surprisingly healthy. Discuss." If that were an examination topic, most students would tear it apart, offering a long list of complaints: from local smog (烟雾) to global climate change, from the felling (砍伐) of forests to the extinction of species. The list would largely be accurate, the concern legitimate. Yet the students who should be given the highest marks would actually be those who agreed with the statement. The surprise is how good things are, not how bad.
After all, the world's population has more than tripled during this century, and world output has risen hugely, so you would expect the earth itself to have been affected. Indeed, if people lived, consumed and produced things in the same way as they did in 1900 (or 1950, or indeed 1980), the world by now would be a pretty disgusting place: smelly, dirty, toxic and dangerous.
But they don't. The reasons why they don't, and why the environment has not been mined, have to do with prices, technological innovation, social change and government regulation in response to popular pressure. That is why today's environmental problems in the poor countries ought, in principle, to be solvable.
Raw materials have not run out, and show no sign of doing so. Logically, one day they must: the planet is a finite place. Yet it is also very big, and man is very ingenious. What has happened is that every time a material seems to be running short, the price has risen and, in response, people have looked for new sources of supply, tried to find ways to use less of the material, or looked for a new substitute. For this reason prices for energy and for minerals have fallen in real terms during the century. The same is true for food. Prices fluctuate, in response to harvests, natural disasters and political instability; and when they rise, it takes some time before new sources of supply become available. But they always do, assisted by new farming and crop technology. The long-term trend has been downwards.
It is where prices and markets do not operate properly that this benign (良性的) trend be-gins to stumble, and the genuine problems arise. Markets cannot always keep the environment healthy. If no one owns the resource concerned, no one has an interest in conserving it or fostering it: fish is the best example of this.

单选题 According to the author, most students ______.

A. believe the world's environment is in an undesirable condition
B. agree that the environment of the world is not as bad as it is thought to be
C. get high marks for their good knowledge of the world's environment
D. appear somewhat unconcerned about the state of the world's environment

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】这篇文章讨论了环境问题，作者以比较积极的态度看待环境变化。在文章第一段中，作者假想了一个作文题目“The world's environment is surprisingly healthy. Discuss.”，通过描写学生可能的表现——“...most students would tear it apart, offering a long list of complaints...”可以判断学生认为世界环境状况非常糟糕，因此正确答案应为A项。

单选题 The huge increase in world production and population ______.

A. has made the world a worse place to live in
B. has had a positive influence on the environment
C. has not significantly affected the environment
D. has made the world a dangerous place to live in

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】文章第二段提到由于人口的急速增长，环境原本应该急剧恶化，但第三段指出由于物价、科技创新、社会变革、政府调控，环境并没有达到被摧毁的程度(“...the environment has not been mined...”)。也就是说，人口的增长和生产的扩大，并没有像想象中给环境带来那么大的影响。因此正确答案应为C项。

单选题 One of the reasons why the long-term trend of prices has been downwards is that ______.

A. technological innovation can promote social stability
B. political instability will cause consumption to drop
C. new farming and crop technology can lead to overproduction
D. new sources are always becoming available

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】题干中的“the long-term trend of prices has been downwards”出现在文章的第四段最后一句，答案在本段中可以找到。“...people have looked for new sources of supply,...For this reason prices for energy and for minerals have fallen in real terms...”说明从长远来看，价格处于下降趋势的原因之一是总能找到新的替代能源。因此正确答案应为D项。

单选题 Fish resources are diminishing because ______.

A. no new substitutes can be found in large quantities
B. they are not owned by any particular entity
C. improper methods of fishing have ruined the fishing grounds
D. water pollution is extremely serious

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】本题考查的是理解例证与观点之间的关系。文章最后一句“If no one owns the resource concerned, no one has an interest in conserving it or fostering it: fish is the best example of this.”说明，鱼减少的原因是它们不为任何实体所拥有，所以没有人关心对于它们的保护。因此正确答案应为B项。

单选题 The primary solution to environmental problems is to ______.

A. allow market forces to operate properly
B. curb consumption of natural resources
C. limit the growth of the world population
D. avoid fluctuations in prices

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】文章最后一段第一句指出，“It is where prices and markets do not operate properly that this benign trend begins to stumble, and the genuine problems arise.”也就是说，市场和价格的正常运转是维持环境良性发展的要素。因此正确答案应为A项。