单选题 It was time to get creative. In 2006, a head of government had signed a law requiring that greenhouse gases be cut 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. The cuts will be carried out through a cap-and-trade system, like the one passed by the House of Representatives and introduced in the Senate, due to start in 2012. In an effort to reduce the cost of those greenhouse cuts, the executive reached out to his counterparts in Brazil and Indonesia, which have more than half of the world's remaining tropical forests. Because reducing deforestation is the cheapest way to mitigate climate change in the short term, he wanted utilities and other greenhouse emitters to be able to pay state governments in Brazil and Indonesia to preserve their forests, which ranchers and loggers keep whacking (砍劈), yielding the same net gain for the atmosphere as reducing their own emissions of carbon dioxide. The details—how to measure the CO2 cuts, how much to pay for preserving forests—will be worked out in the next few months, in time to set the rules for cap-and-trade.
The official is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and his bilateral agreements with counterparts from Amazonas, Papua, and six other states in Brazil and Indonesia with millions of hectares of tropical forests illustrate why the impending failure to reach a new global climate accord isn't the disaster it might have been. Think "subnational". Although the 192 countries set to meet in Copenhagen next month will not reach a legally binding treaty setting out targets for greenhouse-gas reductions starting in 2012, cities, states, and provinces are on track to cut greenhouse gases. They see it as a way to retool their economies, draw high-paying jobs, and establish the industries of tomorrow, leapfrogging the sclerotic (僵化的) global talks. California's partnerships, for instance, will be the first time tropical forests are corralled (包围) into an international agreement. Not even the 1997 Kyoto climate treaty which requires wealthy countries to reduce their emissions of six greenhouse gases 5.2 percent from 1990 levels, does that. "We will definitely keep moving ahead," says Anthony Brunello, California's deputy secretary for climate and energy.
That's the promise not only from states and provinces but also from businesses, especially those placing big bets on renewable energy and technologies to boost energy effeciency. Which raises a question that makes climate activists uneasy: why, exactly, was the Copenhagen meeting painted as the do-or-die moment—"the most important meeting since the end of the second world war", one green group called it—for averting calamitous climate change?
Seeing the failure of Copenhagen as something short of Armageddon is not contrarianism for contrarianism's sake. Just to be clear, if the world had agreed on what quantity of greenhouse-gas emissions to cut by when—on "targets and timetables", in the prevailing argot (行话)—it would have launched us down a path that could keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, relative to pre-industrial levels, which many climate scientists see as a point of no return. The meltdown of global climate talks is therefore a setback to efforts to avert the worst consequences of global warming.

单选题 Brazil and Indonesia come into the executive's view because ______.
A. they maintain the most emissions of carbon dioxide
B. they are reluctant to join in the cap-and-trade system
C. they possess large scopes of remaining tropical forests
D. they are against America's deforestation in their countries
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据题干关键词Brazil and Indonesia和the executive定位到第一段。该段第四句提及“后者拥有一半以上世界上现存的热带森林……减少森林砍伐是短期内缓和气候变化最经济实惠的途径”，由此可知，C含义与之相符，故为正确答案。原文并未提及两国二氧化碳排放最多，也未提及他们不愿意加入“总量管制和交易”体系，故排除A和B；该段第五句提及的deforestation是指这两国本身的，而非美国在两国的森林砍伐，故排除D。
单选题 The word "mitigate" in Paragraph 1 probably means ______.
A. settle B. moderate C. suspend D. accelerate
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】根据题干提示定位到第一段。联系关键词所在句子可知，该句含义是消减森林砍伐对于气候变化的作用，联系上下文可知，消减森林砍伐有助于缓解气候变化，由此可推知mitigate含有“缓解”之意，因此可推知B含义与之相符，故为正确答案。A“解决”C“暂停”和D“加速”均为原文不符，故都排除。
单选题 What will work as a supplement to the potential failure of a new global climate accord?
A. The efforts made by cities, states and provinces.
B. The creation of high-paying jobs and new industries.
C. The bilateral agreements made among the 192 countries.
D. The global talks within the countries with tropical forests.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】根据题干关键词the potential failure of a new global climate accord定位到第二段开头。该段首句提及，虽然国家之间不会达成相关协议，但是各个城市、州和省却在温室气体减排上积极行动起来，来弥补国际间合作的失败，由此可推知A含义与之相符，故为正确答案。同时排除C和D。B含义只属于各城市、州和省合作的部分具体措施，不如A含义全面到位，故排除。
单选题 What seems original to California's agreements with its counterparts?
A. The legally binding treaty among them.
B. The requirements on wealthy countries.
C. The consideration of tropical forests.
D. The way to restructure their economies.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据题干关键词original to California's agreements定位到第二段倒数第三句。原文该句提及“加州的伙伴关系中，将首次将热带雨林包含在一项国际协议之中”，由此可知C含义与之相符，故为正确答案。A中legally binding treaty与原文international agreement不符，且不具备题干要求的“original”，故排除；B是1997年京都议定书的内容，与题干original要求不符，故排除；该段第四句提及改组经济的方式只是各城市、州和省的合作，不符合题干要求，故排除D。
单选题 According to the passage, many climate scientists hold the idea that ______.
A. renewable energy and technologies will boost energy efficiency
B. it's hard for the global temperature to reach the pre-industrial levels
C. the Copenhagen meeting is a crucial moment for climate change
D. global talks are critical to keep off the influence of global warming
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】根据题干关键词。根据题干关键词climate scientists定位到末段。由该段第二句可知，很多气候学家认为比前工业化水平高2摄氏度是一个不可能恢复的温度点，由此可知B含义与之相符，故为正确答案。第三段首句只是提及一些企业在可再生能源和促进能效的科技上投了巨大赌注，而非气候学家的观点，故排除A；C和D尽管在原文有所提及，但均非气候学家的观点，与题干要求不符，故都排除。