单选题 .  Dr. Donald Sadoway at MIT started his own battery company with the hope of changing the world's energy future. It's a dramatic endorsement for a technology most people think about only when their smartphone goes dark. But Sadoway isn't alone in trumpeting energy storage as a missing link to a cleaner, more efficient, and more equitable energy future.
    Scientists and engineers have long believed in the promise of batteries to change the world. Advanced batteries are moving out of specialized markets and creeping into the mainstream, signaling a tipping point for forward-looking technologies such as electric cars and rooftop solar panels.
    The ubiquitous (无所不在的) battery has already come a long way, of course. For better or worse, batteries make possible our mobile-first lifestyles, our screen culture, our increasingly globalized world. Still, as impressive as all this is, it may be trivial compared with what comes next. Having already enabled a communications revolution, the battery is now poised to transform just about everything else.
    The wireless age is expanding to include not just our phones, tablets, and laptops, but also our cars, homes, and even whole communities. In emerging economies, rural communities are bypassing the wires and wooden poles that spread power. Instead, some in Africa and Asia are seeing their first lightbulbs illuminated by the power of sunlight stored in batteries.
    Today, energy storage is a $33 billion global industry that generates nearly 100 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. By the end of the 'decade, it's expected to be worth over $50 billion and generate 160 gigawatt-hours, enough to attract the attention of major companies that might not otherwise be interested in a decidedly pedestrian technology.  Even utility companies, which have long viewed batteries and alternative forms of energy as a threat, are learning to embrace the technologies as enabling rather than disrupting.
    Today's battery breakthroughs come as the world looks to expand modern energy access to the billion or so people without it, while also cutting back on fuels that warm the planet. Those simultaneous challenges appear less overwhelming with increasingly better answers to a centuries-old question: how to make power portable.
    To be sure, the battery still has a long way to go before the nightly recharge completely replaces the weekly trip to the gas station. A battery-powered world comes with its own risks, too. What happens to the centralized electric grid, which took decades and billions of dollars to build, as more and more people become "prosumers," who produce and consume their own energy on-site?
    No one knows which—if any—battery technology will ultimately dominate, but one thing remains clear. The future of energy is in how we store it.1.  What does Dr. Sadoway think of energy storage? ______
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】 根据题干中的Dr. Sadoway和energy storage定位至第1段。
   本题问萨多韦博士是如何看待能量储存的。第1段开头提到,萨多韦开公司希望改变未来世界的能量状况,最后一句提到他认为能量储存是被遗漏的一环(missing link),可让未来的能量更清洁、更高效、更公平。由此可知他认为应该补好这个遗漏,即未来的能量状况应往能量储存方向去发展,B项“这是能量发展应该遵循的方向”与文意相符。
   文中萨多韦并未提及实现能量储存需要用什么技术,故A项“能量储存涉及到高端技术的运用”不正确。虽然萨多韦博士对此信心满满,也成立了一间电池公司,但会不会盈利,文中没有涉及萨多韦对此的看法,故排除C项“这将是一盘能盈利的生意”。D项“这是一种惠及每个人的技术”说法过于绝对,虽然该技术的确会给某些人带来好处(如第4段提到的新兴经济体中的农村人和第6段提到的尚未用上现代能源的人),但并非涉及everyone,而且本项所述也不是萨多韦博士的观点,故不选。
[参考译文] 麻省理工学院的唐纳德·萨多韦博士成立了自己的电池公司,希望改变未来世界的能量状况。此举是对电池技术的有力宣传;大多数人只有在智能手机没电时才想到这个。萨多韦认为要使未来的能量状况更清洁、更高效、更公平,能量储存是被遗漏的一环,不过他并不是唯一大力宣扬能源储存的人。
   许多科学家和工程师一直相信电池可以改变世界。高级电池正在走出专业市场,逐渐进入主流市场,成为了一些前瞻性技术的引爆点,如电动汽车和屋顶太阳能电池板。
   当然,很早以前,电池在我们的生活中就已经变得无处不在了。无论好坏,电池使“移动先行”的生活方式成为可能,促成了屏幕文化,也让全球化进程得以不断深化。虽然这一切让人印象深刻,但和未来相比却是微不足道的。电池的发展已经造就了一场通迅革命,而现在它正准备改变一切。
   无线时代正在延伸,不仅覆盖我们的手机、平板电脑和笔记本电脑,还覆盖到我们的汽车、房子,甚至整个社区。在新兴经济体中,农村地区试图绕过用电线和电线杆传电的方法。在非洲和亚洲,一些农村地区将首次用上以太阳能电池供电的灯泡。
   目前,能量储存是一个价值330亿美元的全球产业,每年产生近1000亿瓦时的电量。到2020年,其估值预计将超过500亿美元,产电1600亿瓦时,这就足以吸引大公司的注意,不然它们是不会对一个毫无惊艳之处的技术感兴趣的。即使是长期把电池和其他替代能源视为威胁的公用事业公司也认为这些电池技术是有利的而不是具有破坏性的。
   电池技术目前取得的突破有赖于以下需求:世界想要让无法用上现代能源的10亿人能够用上,同时希望减少使用导致地球变暖的燃料。这两个同时出现的挑战似乎没有那么难解决。尤其是当“如何制造便携式电源”这个百年老问题有了更好的答案时。
   可以肯定的是,要实现夜间充电完全取代了去加油站加油,电池行业还有很长的路要走。以电池作为能量来源的世界也需要承担一定的后果。随着越来越多人成为电能的“产消者”,他们可以就地产电、就地用电,人们历时数十年并且花费数十亿美元建成的集中式电网又该何去何从?
   没有人知道哪一种——如果有的话——电池技术最终会占据主导地位,但有一点仍然是清楚明白的:能量的未来怎么样,在于我们如何储存它。