阅读理解
As everyone knows, there are far too many people in the word. Or at least, there soon will be too many people, because the rate of population increase is running out of control. We are, as they say, breeding like rabbits, and rabbits are widely recognized as destructive animals. People are possibly the most serious of all pollutants. We hear this so often, from such distinguished persons, that it must be true. So we accept it. The arithmetic tells its own story and never better than in the words of Paul Ehrlich, whose Population Bomb drew the matter to our attention many years ago. " Let' s examine what might happen on the absurd assumption that the population continued to double every 37 years into the indefinite future. If growth continued at that rate for about 900 years, there would be some 60,000,000, 000,000,000 people on the face of the earth. Sixty million billion people. This is about 100 persons for each square yard of the Earth' s surface, land and sea. " Images were generated in which the entire visible universe consisted of a solid mass of human bodies. It is not really the fault of us western Europeans, Australians and North Americans. It is not in our countries that the increase is taking place. Growth is concentrated in the less industrialized countries, among the poor. The people of Whom we have, or will have, too many are poor, many of them are very poor indeed, and there seems to be little that can be done about it, beyond urging them to behave more responsibly and criticizing those who oppose the widespread provision of contraceptive devices. The choice we face in our arithmetic of poor people is between reducing one or other of the two apparent variables: the people or their poverty. In fact it is not that simple, for reducing poverty would surely encourage people to breed faster, so eliminating what we had helped them to gain at no small cost to ourselves. No matter how you look at it, the future seems pretty grim. Obviously, such a rate of growth cannot be sustained. The question centers not on whether it will end, but how, and most commentators, following the line of reasoning popularized by Paul Ehrlich, suppose the end will be disastrous. Our numbers will be reduced; sword, fire, famine and pestilence will sweep the world on an unprecedented scale.
单选题1.According to the passage, the word' s overpopulation is due to______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】由第一段第二句“…,because the rate of popolation increase is running out of control.”可知选A。
单选题2.Paul Ehrlich, who was the first to use " population bomb" ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】第二段Paul Ehrlich指出人口如按这个速率增长,900年后人口将达到60 million bil-lion,并且地球上平均每平方米有100个人,由此可见“population bomb”带来的后果很严重,故选D。
单选题3.The passage indicates that______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】文章从开始就指出人口增长已经失控,第二段指出增长如不加控制,人口将在900年后达到60 million billion。因此对世界人口增长充满了恐惧。
单选题4.The author of the passage seems very depressed and pessimistic about the future because
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】第三段指出主要是贫穷的非工业化国家人口增长快,减缓人口增长就要“reduce twovariables:the people or their poverty”,但“reducing poverty would surely encourage peopleto breed faster”,人口因此很难得到控制,未来很是gloomy。
单选题5.The line of reasoning popularized by Paul Ehrlich suggests______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】最后一段第二句“…suppose the end will be disastrous”,由此可断定人口不断增长带来的危险是超出我们想象的。