问答题
When it comes to going green, intention can be
easier than action. Case in point, you decide to buy a T-shirt made from 100%
organic cotton, because everyone knows that organic is better for Earth. And in
some ways it is; in conventional cotton-farming, pesticides strip the soil of
life. But that green label doesn't tell the whole story—like the fact that even
organic cotton requires more than 2,640 gal. (10,000 L) of water to grow enough
fiber for one T-shirt. Or the possibility that the T-shirt may have been dyed
using harsh industrial chemicals, which can pollute local groundwater. If you
knew all that, would you still consider the T-shirt green? Would you still buy
it? It's a question that most of us are ill equipped to answer,
even as the debate over what is and isn't green becomes all-important in a hot
and crowded world. That's because as the global economy has grown, our ability
to make complex products with complex supply chains has outpaced our ability to
comprehend the consequences—for ourselves and the planet. We evolved to respond
to threats that were clear and present. That's why, when we eat spoiled food, we
get nauseated and when we see a bright light, we shut our eyes. But nothing in
evolution has prepared us to understand the cumulative impact that imperceptible
amounts of industrial chemicals may have on our children's health or the
slow-moving, long-term danger of climate change. Scanning the supermarket
aisles, we lack the data to understand the full impact of what we choose—and
probably couldn't make sense of the information even if we had it.
But what if we could seamlessly calculate the full lifetime effect of our
actions on the earth and on our bodies? Not just carbon footprints but social
and biological footprints as well? What if we could think ecologically? That's
what psychologist Daniel Goleman describes in his forthcoming book, Ecological
Intelligence. Using a young science called industrial ecology, businesses and
green activists alike are beginning to compile the environmental and biological
impact of our every decision—and delivering that information to consumers in a
user-friendly way. That's thinking ecologically—understanding the global
environmental consequences of our local choices. "We can know that causes of
what we're doing, and we can know the impact of what we're doing," says Goleman,
who wrote the 1995 best seller Emotional Intelligence."It's going to
have a radical impact on the way we do business." Over the past
couple of decades, industrial ecologists have been using a method called
life-cycle assessment (LCA) to break down that web of connection. The concept of
the carbon footprint comes from LCA, but a deep analysis looks at far more. The
manufacture and sale of a simple glass bottle requires input from dozens of
suppliers; for high-tech items, it can include many times more.
The good news is that industrial ecologists can now crunch those data, and smart
companies like Coca-Cola are using the information to clean up their corporate
ecology. Working with the World Wildlife Fund, Coke analyzed its globe-spanning
supply chain—the company uses 5% of the world's total sugar crop—to see where it
could minimize its impact; today Coke is on target to improve its water
efficiency 20% by 2012. Below the megacorporate level,
start-ups like the website Good Guide are sifting through rivers of data for
ordinary consumers, providing easy-to-understand ratings you can use to
instantly gauge the full environmental and health impact of that T-shirt. Even
better, they'll get the information to you when you need it: Good Guide has an
iPhone app that can deliver verdicts on tens of thousands of products. Good
Guide and services like it "let us align our dollars with our values easily",
says Goleman. But ecological intelligence is ultimately about
more than what we buy. It's also about our ability to accept that we live in an
infinitely connected world with finite resources. Goleman highlights the Tibetan
community of Sher, where for millenniums, villagers have survived harsh
conditions by carefully conserving every resource available to them. The
Tibetans think ecologically because they have no other choice. Neither do we.
"We once had the luxury to ignore our impacts," says Goleman. "Not
anymore."
问答题
Why does the author give the example of buying a T-shirt made from 100% organic cotton at the beginning of the passage?
【正确答案】Buying a T shirt made from 100% organic cotton does not equal "going green" as people commonly image. It is only a "green label". Growing of organic cotton for one T shirt needs much more water than we know and "harsh" industrial chemicals might be used in the dying process and they possibly pollute local groundwater. So, whether something people produce is "green" is much more complicated.
在文章的开头部分，作者举了用100%生态棉花制作的T恤衫的例子，并分析了该产品在生产过程中可能对环境产生的破坏，借以说明“环保(going green)”的真正意义其实很难界定。作者以此说明环保任务的艰难。
【答案解析】
问答题
What does the author mean by saying that "our ability to make complex products with complex supply chains has outpaced our ability to comprehend the consequences" (para. 2)?
【正确答案】With the rapid growth of global economy, high technology, extension of supply chains, humans are able to make more complex and better products with higher productivity, for human consumption. On the other hand, we have not fully realized the possible negative consequences we have caused through such production and consumption, the pollution of environment, the destruction of ecological environment. We are not prepared to understand the cumulative impact of "imperceptible amounts" of industrial chemicals on human health and that slow climate change might cause long-term danger. We do not have enough data to understand the impact of goods we choose from the market.
相关内容在文中第二段，作者想表达的是：我们的生产和制造能力发展迅速，我们通过复杂的供应链生产复杂的产品，但是我们并不完全了解这样的生产方式可能带来的负面影响。我们不明了的工业化学物质很可能正在以一个缓慢的方式影响孩子健康或引起气候变化。这些在文中都有明确表述。
【答案解析】
问答题
Give a brief introduction of the young science of "industrial ecology". What does the example of Coca-Cola tell us?
【正确答案】It is a kind of "Ecological Intelligence", taking into consideration the "lifetime effect" of human actions on the environment and human bodies. It cultivates ecological thinking, mainly concerned with the "environmental and biological impact" of human decision and human behavior. Green activists are popularizing such ecological thinking, realizing the global environmental consequences of local human choices. Industrial ecologists use the LCA method to "break down" the "web of connection". Coca-Cola uses related information to "clear up" their "corporate ecology". It analyzes the company's global supply chain and tries to "minimize" its negative impact.
对“工业生态学”这一新学科的解释主要在文章第三、四、五段，考生可根据文中的叙述作出归纳。而可口可乐公司作为优秀公司的代表，正在有效利用这些信息，检查供应链，减少对环境的危害，相关信息文章都有介绍。
【答案解析】
问答题
What does the psychologist Daniel Goleman mean by saying "We once had the luxury to ignore our impacts" (para. 7)?
【正确答案】When humans were less civilized, with a smaller population and lower productivity, we might ignore the impacts of our actions and decisions on the environment and on our bodies. But it is no longer the case today. With globalization and the rapid growth of technology and production, human activities will have greater impacts on the environment of the planet. Actions must be taken to prevent all possible pollutions caused by human actions. Tibetan Sher Community is an example.
Daniel Goleman说这句话表达了这样的意思：我们曾经不必考虑我们的行为对地球生态环境带来的种种影响及后果。但是鉴于生态环境的日益恶化，鉴于我们仍在对地球环境产生的越来越大、越来越多的消极影响，从现在开始必须严肃认真地考虑这一问题，否则人类行为对环境带来的更大破坏将造成无法挽回的后果。