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Question 66 to 70 are based on the following passage

There is nothing like the suggestion of a cancer risk to scare a parent, especially one of the over-educated, eco- conscious type. So you can imagine the reaction when a recent USA Today investigation of air quality around the nation’s schools singled out those in the smugly(自鸣得意)green village of Berkeley, Calif., as being among the worst in the country. The city’s public high school, as well as a number of daycare centers, preschools, elementary and middle schools, fell in the lowest 10%. Industrial pollution in our town had supposedly turned students into living science experiments breathing in a laboratory’s worth of heavy metals like manganese, chromium and nickel each day. This is a city that requires school cafeterias to serve organic meals. Great, I thought, organic lunch, toxic campus.

Since December, when the report came out, the mayor, neighborhood activists(活跃分子) and various parent-teacher associations have engaged in a fierce battle over its validity: over the guilt of the steel-casting factory on the western edge of town, over union jobs versus children’s health and over what, if anything, ought to be done. With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents believe? Is there truly a threat here, we asked one another as we dropped off our kids, and if so, how great is it? And how does it compare with the other, seemingly perpetual health scares we confront, like panic over lead in synthetic athletic fields?

Rather than just another weird episode in the town that brought you protesting environmentalists, this latest drama is a trial for how today’s parents perceive risk, how we try to keep our kids safe—whether it’s possible to keep them safe— in what feels like an increasingly threatening world. It raises the question of what, in our time, “safe” could even mean.

“There’s no way around the uncertainty,” says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit group that studies children’s health. “That means your choices can matter, but it also means you aren’t going to know if they do.” A 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics explained that nervous parents have more to fear from fire, car accidents and drowning than from toxic chemical exposure. To which I say: Well, obviously. But such concrete hazards are beside the point. It’s the dangers parents can’t—and may never—quantify that occur all of a sudden. That’s why I’ve rid my cupboard of microwave food packed in bags coated with a potential cancer-causing substance, but although I’ve lived blocks from a major fault line(地质断层)for more than 12 years, I still haven’t bolted our bookcases to the living room wall.

单选题

What does a recent investigation by USA Today reveal?

【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】

由第一段第二句可知, 今日美国调查了全国的学校, 结果发现自称是绿色村庄的伯克利却成了全国空气质量最差的地方之一。 因此, 今日美国的报告揭示了伯克利学校周围的环境质量很差。 本题的正确答案为B。

单选题

What response did USA Today’s report draw?

【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】

由第二段的内容可知, 今日美国的报告出来以后, 市长, 社区积极分子和各种家长教师协会质疑其有效性。

单选题

How did parents feel in the face of the experts’ studies?

【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】

由第二段中With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents believe?可知, 面对这些专家的研究结果, 家长们不知道该去相信谁。 因此, 本题正确答案为A。

单选题

What is the view of the 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics?

【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】

文章中最后一段中提到, 小儿科学杂志2004年的一份报告解释说, 比起有毒化学品, 父母更害怕火灾,车祸和溺水。 紧接着提出自己的观点, 这些具体可发生的灾害并不重要, 重要的是在日常生活中不易发现且突然发生的灾害。 因此, 笔者认为应当多关注有毒化学物品的危害。 因此, 本题正确答案为B。

单选题

Of the dangers in everyday life, the author thinks that people have most to fear from _____.

【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】

由最后一段前两句可知, 作者认为, 在日常生活中遇到的危险之中, 人们更害怕不确定性的危险。 因此, 本题正确答案为A。