【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]6-10
Matthew Christopher, most countries now appear to be becoming increasingly concerned with the issue of pollution and its control. How do you see this problem?
Christopher What I see pollution as being…is the way the environment is being mishandled. Um…obviously there are certain waste products which are vomited out of motor cars or out of factories, either into the air or into the sea or into the river-ways and so on. But, you know, they are what people say is pollution, and in most of the publicity and…and action, they're just concerned on those particular items which are at the bottom of the scale. More important things that I think in terms of pollution, are the way that the environment in general is being misused…things like agriculture, where artificial fertilizers and over-cropping and so on actually… er…literally consume the environment. It is all picked up, collected…um… transported from the land in terms of food or fibres and then ends up in the sea at some stage, either through sewage or through waste products. Er…associated with that too things like erosion and also desecration of land by pushing trees down and so on, I drink that they are probably more significant.
Matthew Right. Michael, cart you tell me though whether…um… as I get the feeling, this is a problem which has been blown up by the various media, newspapers and television because people wish to avoid some of the more difficult problems to do with being a consumer society, having a growing economy and so on…and, in a sense trying to solve many aspects of the pollution problem is rather a sort of cleaning up process without getting to the root of the problem'?
Michael Well, pollution is a symptom really rather than a cause.
Matthew Mmm.
Michael But of itself it does produce many quite serious results. But we do have a problem of not really knowing what the long-term effects of many pollutants are going to be, so in those…in that sense, pollution can be extremely serious in its effects; but most forms of pollution in fact can be solved…um…fairly easily and usually by technical means. Now the problem…the difficulty with other environmental problems is that many of them have no technical solution and this is where the difference you get…the difference between those who are advocating technical solutions to problems which they see almost purely in terms of pollution or, on the other hand, you have people who see the real problems of society as a whole, the way we organize it, the way…the incredible waste of resources that we have, and so on.
Hiatthew This seems a very complex problem. Janet, how can individual members of the public, housewives, children at school, anyone…er…help to prevent pollution?
Janet Well, I think there are lots of things people can do in the home, or at school or in the office. When it comes to tackling the problems on a major basis, I mean it's a question of continual lobbying and pressuring, writing to newspapers etcetera. But I think there are many things that particularly housewives can do in the house, like for instance just not buying things that have no use after, you know, the package has been opened, to really make a note of the sort of stuff that goes in the rubbish bin, that's very important; you can cut down on the amount of packaging, on the amount of, for instance, water pollution like buying toilet paper that's dyed and all this sort of thing that people can cut down on. You can make a great effort not to buy a drink in, sort of, er…non-returnable bottles; to…um…either make your own food, such as jams and drinks which are quite easy to do, rather than just going out and buying and consuming more and more. And if you put this into practice in all walks of life, in the home and at school and in the office, this is a very, very good, major contribution to helping solve some of the more immediate problems of pollution.
Hiatthew So in a sense perhaps you are saying that it's the way we consume things that is creating pollution, by the litter that they cause or perhaps by the fact that we use so much oil, and therefore there will be a number of oil tankers on the sea and that means there will be accidents and oil spillages and so on, so that we have to stop consuming, is it…or…
Janet Well, I think that is a very big part of it actually…um…Certainly er… you know, when you get down to the more technical sides of pollution, of atmospheric pollution caused by certain industrial processes, there's not a great deal that an individual can do other than cause a fuss about it, which I hope most people, you know, would consider doing. But certainly on a sort of day by day household basis, it's most of the problems of pollution in that sphere are certainly caused by either just complete thoughtlessness and waste or problems of over-consuming natural resources which themselves obviously lead to pollution. And in all the processes that, whatever there is, arrives at the housewife's table, the more sort of refined and pre-packed and disposable it is, the more pollution it will have caused in its manufacture and it's likely to cause in its disposal.
6. According to Christopher, what is the most serious problem in terms of pollution?