单选题 Commerce has long been at the mercy of the elements. The British East India Company was almost strangled at birth when it lost several of its ships in a storm. But the toll is rising. The world has been so preoccupied with the man-made catastrophes of subprime mortgages and sovereign debt that it may not have noticed how much economic chaos nature has wreaked. With earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, floods in Thailand and Australia and tornadoes in America, last year was the costliest on record for natural disasters.
This trend is not, as is often thought, a result of climate change. There is little evidence that big hurricanes come ashore any more often than, say, a century ago. But disasters now extract a far higher price, for the simple reason that the world"s population and output are becoming concentrated in vulnerable cities near earthquake faults, on river deltas or along tropical coasts. Those risks will rise as the wealth of Shanghai and Kolkata comes to rival that of London and New York. Meanwhile, interconnected supply chains guarantee that when one region is knocked out by an earthquake or flood, the reverberations are global.
This may sound grim, but the truth is more encouraging. Richer societies may lose more property to disaster but they are also better able to protect their people. Indeed, although the economic toll from disasters has risen, the death toll has not, despite the world"s growing population.
The right role for government, then, is not to resist urbanization but to minimize the consequences when disaster strikes. This means, first, getting priorities right. At present, too large a slice of disaster budgets goes on rescue and repair after a tragedy, and not enough on consolidating defenses beforehand. Cyclone shelters are useless if they fall into disrepair.
Second, government should be fiercer when private individuals and firms, left to pursue their own self-interest, put all of society at risk. For example, in their quest for growth, developers and local governments have eradicated sand dunes, mangrove swamps, reefs and flood plains that formed natural buffers between people and nature. Preserving or restoring more of this natural capital would make cities more resilient, much as increased financial capital does for the banking system.
Third, governments must eliminate the perverse incentives their own policies produce. Politicians are often under pressure to limit the premiums insurance companies can charge. The result is to underprice the risk of living in dangerous areas—which is one reason that so many expensive homes await the next hurricane on Florida"s coast. When governments rebuild homes repeatedly struck by floods and wildfires, they are subsidizing people to live in hazardous places.
For their part companies need to operate on the assumption that a disaster will strike at some point. This means preparing contingency plans, reinforcing supply chains and even, costly though this might be, having reserve suppliers lined up: there is no point in having a perfectly efficient supply chain if it can be snapped whenever nature takes a turn for the worst. Disasters are inevitable; their consequences need not be.

单选题 From the first three paragraphs, we know that nowadays natural disasters ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】细节事实题
[解析] 本题是一道综合细节事实题，需要在充分理解前三段所讲内容的基础上才能正确解题。A选项是错误的。文章第二段第二句话明确指出“There is little evidence that big hurricanes come ashore any more often than, say, a century ago.”现在灾难发生的频率并不比以往更频繁。B选项错误，C选项正确。文章第三段明确指出“Richer societies may lose more property to disaster but they are also better able to protect their people. Indeed, although the economic toll from disasters has risen, the death toll has not, despite the world"s growing population.”现代社会可能在灾难中失去了更多的财产，但是死亡的人数并未增加。D选项错误，文章第一段出现了man-made catastrophe一词，但是并没有将之与natural disaster造成的损失进行比较。

单选题 Which of the following proverbs can best summarize the author"s suggestion to the government in Paragraph 4?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】推理题
[解析] 本题考查对文章第四段内容的理解。作者在前三段提到，现代社会面对自然灾害遭受的损失更为严重的原因是城市化的进程导致财富积聚，人口集中。因此政府为了降低自然灾害可能造成的损失应该做的不是抵制城市化进程，而是想方设法将灾害损失降到最低。第四段第三句话明确提出现在大部分的救灾资金都被投入到了灾后重建过程中，而不是投入到灾难防备工作上。作者言下之意就是应该事先做好万全的保护工作才能够最大程度降低自然灾害造成的损失。B选项中的谚语最能概括作者的这层含义。

单选题 The natural capital in Paragraph 5 refers to ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】词汇题
[解析] 本题是一道根据上下文推测词义的题目。首先在文中确定关键词的位置，第五段最后一句话。第五段第一句话中，作者提到政府应该采取更严厉的措施限制企业损害全社会利益的行为。第二句话举例说明，例如：某些企业和某些当地政府为了追求经济发展，根除了沙丘、红树湿地、暗礁区、泛洪区。接着在最后一句话中就提到“Preserving or restoring more of this natural capital would make cities more resilient, much as increased financial capital does for the banking system.”因此，这里的natural capital指的就是上一句话中提到的能够在人类和自然之间构成缓冲地带的自然地貌，例如沙丘、湿地等。本题正确答案应该选B。

单选题 It can be inferred from Paragraph 6 that ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】推理题
[解析] 本题考查对文章第六段内容的理解。第六段的中心句是第一句话“governments must eliminate the perverse incentives their own policies produce”，“政府必须消除他们颁布的措施可能带来的负面效应”。这一段提到了两条有可能带来意想不到的负面效应的政策。第一，政府总是迫于压力而限制保险公司保费的最高限度。这无意中低估了生活在危险地区的风险。第二，对于一再被洪水和森林大火吞没的地区，政府的重建工作往往也是变相鼓励人们在危险地带生活。根据这些信息，我们可以判断A选项错误，作者认为国家不应该重建那些经常性被自然灾害侵害的地区，但并没有说遭受过一次自然灾害，就禁止人们在该地区居住。B选项无法通过文章内容推断出来。作者认为政府应该消除他们的政策所可能带来的负面效应，那是否应该因为某一政策具有负面效应就取缔之，这一点我们无法根据文章内容进行推断。C选项错误，第六段提到在加州的海岸线上仍然有许多奢华的别墅屹立在那里，之所以不离开这个危险地带是因为他们交的保费并不高，这让他们对自身面临的危险产生了错误的判断，而并不是他们想要冒生命危险换取高额赔偿。D选项正确，根据第六段内容我们可以判断，一般保险公司会根据风险大小制定保费，但是政府的干预使得保险费反映风险的能力受到了干扰。