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2021年1月30日发(作者：潘鼎坤)
Article one
：

Read a related article
“Climate change action: too little, too late”
and finish the
exercises within 20 minutes.


•

Climate change action: Too little, too late?
By Simon Hooper
Special for CNN
1. LONDON, England (CNN)
--
Fred Pearce, veteran environmental journalist and author.
generation to be able to rely on a stable climate.
2. Addressing a sympathetic audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival (1), Pearce
is preaching to the converted about the reality and risks of climate change.
3. But it is his fear -- as the title of his new book,
Will Take Her Revenge for Climate Change
in the U.S.), suggests -- that we still haven't fully realized the apocalyptic forces we
have awoken and the reality of what is at stake if global warming continues
untrammeled.
4. This is not just about warmer weather, environmental degradation and a looming
refugee crisis, according to Pearce, but
sapiens.
5. This year's series of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) (2) have been broadly welcomed for a sober and sensible tone, which, while
acknowledging the dangers of global warming, also suggested that our destiny was
still in our own hands.
6. Our carbon emissions would have to be slashed with strict targets set and met by
2050 to avert catastrophe but this was essentially a man-made problem with
man-made solutions.
7. But Pearce says the IPCC reports are
within narrow parameters framed by measurable quantifiable change and imprecise
computer modeling, what they don't factor in are the
all our existing certainties into disarray.
8.
the scenarios that scientists are starting to develop,

9.
believe.
10. In the history of the planet, Pearce argues, the past 10,000 years since the end of
the last ice age (3), in which humanity has established itself as the earth's dominant
species, have been unusually benign in climatological terms. But that tranquility

11. Now he warns, human activity in the space of less than 200 years threatens to
re-awaken extreme climate change of the sort never experienced in the era of recorded
history. Already, average sea level rise has doubled in a decade due to the
destabilization of the Arctic and Greenland ice shelves.
12.
Pearce.
climate does change it does so suddenly and violently.
13. He highlights one such episode 11,000 years ago when temperatures in some parts
of the Arctic warmed several degrees Celsius in the space of a decade:
the switch 10,000 years ago. We could be flipping the switch again.
14. As Pearce says, the
which we will be able to depend on a stable and predictable climate.
15. The challenge for future generations, he predicts, will come in dealing with the
sudden destabilization of the planetary ecosystem and the social chaos likely to
ensure.
16.
brought the world's greatest nation to its knees. We believe we can control climate
change but I wonder whether that is actually the case.
17. That, however, does not alleviate the need for urgent action, says Pearce, insisting
he retains a sense of
the IPCC reports, U.S. acknowledgment of the scale of the problem and the
beginnings of moves towards a post- Kyoto consensus, are finally treating climate
change seriously.
18.
they're not going to break the bank. The problem is political, making it happen. I hope
we are reaching a political tipping point.
19. He also sees hope in the fact that corporations have spotted lucrative potential in
adapting to ever more- stringent environmental regulations more effectively than their
rivals.
20. The next step, Pearce believes, is to add an ethical dimension to the struggle by
highlighting the fact that those initially affected will be almost entirely located in the
developing world where infrastructure and resources are already at their most
over-stretched.
21.
people going,

Notes
1. The Cheltenham science Festival:
it takes place every year in the beautiful town
of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, UK. Since the first Festival in 2002, Cheltenham
has earned an exciting reputation as one of the best science festivals in the UK.
2. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
:
政府间气候变化专门委员
会

Was established to provide the decision-makers and other interested in climate change
with an objective source of information about climate change.
3. the last ice age:
There have been several ice ages in the history of the earth. What is commonly called
the ice age is actually the most recent which began about two million years ago, and
was characterized by cold and relatively warm phases. The last began about 70,000
years ago, and ended 10,000 years ago.
4. Hurricane Katrina
: on august 28
th
, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast
of the US with devastating effected. It was reported more than 1,800 people lost their
lives, and more than
￥
81 billion dollars in damages occurred.

Exercise one:
Directions: decide whether the following statements are true of false according
the text.

1.
According
to
the
Pearce,
global
warming
just
implies
warmer
weather,
environmental degradation and a looming refugee crisis.

(












)
2.
This
year’s
series
of
reports
by
the
Intergovernmental
Panel
on
Climate
Change
(IPCC)
suggested
that
we
human
beings
couldn’t
control
our
fate
any
more.


(












)
3.
Pearce
sa
ys
the
IPCC
reports
haven’t
taken
all
the
possible
factors
into
consideration.

(












)
4.
Pearce
argues
that
the
extreme
climate
changed
will
take
place
in
less
than
200
years.

(












)
5.
Pearce
mentions
that
the
climate
change
occurs
naturally
and
slowly
and
finally
could throw all or existing certainties into chaos.

(












)
6. Pearce says the “last generation” of his book title refers to the final years in which
we couldn’t predict the climates.

(












)

7.
Hurricane
Katrina
has
forced
the
United
States
to
admit
defeat
in
dealing
with
climate changes. (












)
8.
Pearce
harbors
hopes
in
the
politicians
to
take
serious
measures
in
dealing
with
climate change. (












)
9.
Pearce
implies
the
developing
countries
could
be
the
first
to
feel
the
effect
of
climate change. (












)

Exercise two: Translate the two paragraphs at the end of the article.
10. He also sees hope in the fact that corporations have spotted lucrative potential in
adapting to ever more- stringent environmental regulations more effectively than their
rivals.
11. The next step, Pearce believes, is to add an ethical dimension to the struggle by
highlighting the fact that those initially affected will be almost entirely located in the
developing world where infrastructure and resources are already at their most
over-stretched.

Article Two
：

Blacks, Whites and Love
By
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF



Published: April 24, 2005

One gauge of the progress we've made in American race relations in recent decades is the growing
number of blacks and whites who have integrated their hearts and ended up marrying each other.
As of the 2000 census, 6 percent of married black men had a white wife, and 3 percent of married
black women had a white husband - and the share is much higher among young couples. Huge
majorities of both blacks and whites say they approve of interracial marriages, and the number of
interracial marriages is doubling each decade. One survey found that 40 percent of Americans had
dated someone of a different race.
But it's hard to argue that
America is becoming
more
colorblind
when we're still
missing one


benchmark: When will Hollywood dare release a major movie in which Denzel Washington and

Reese Witherspoon fall passionately in love?
For all the gains in race relations, romance on the big screen between a black man and a white
woman
remains
largely
a
taboo.
Americans
themselves
may
be
falling
in
love
with
each
other
without regard to color, but the movie industry is still too craven to imitate life.
Or
perhaps
the
studios
are
too
busy
pushing
the
limits
on
sex,
nudity
and
violence
to
portray
something really kinky, like colorblind love.
Back in 1967,
man and white woman scandalizing their parents with their - chaste - love. In 2005 we have a new
version of

The latest
old archetype from days when slave owners inflicted themselves on slave women. Hollywood has
portrayed romances between white men and (usually light-complexioned) black women, probably
calculating that any good ol' boy seeing Billy Bob Thornton embracing Halle Berry in
Ball
Off
screen,
the
change
has
been
dizzying.
At
least
41
states
at
one
time
had
laws
banning
interracial
marriage.
A
1958
poll
found
that
96
percent
of
whites
disapproved
of
marriages
between blacks and whites.
That
same
year,
in
North
Carolina,
two
black
boys,
a
7-year-old
named
Fuzzy
Simpson
and
a
9-year-old named Hanover Thompson, were arrested after a white girl kissed Hanover. The two
boys
were
convicted
of
attempted
rape.
As
Randall
Kennedy
notes
in
his
book

Intimacies,
Dwight Eisenhower eventually secured the boys' release.
Then
the
mood
began
to
change,
and
1967
was
the
turning
point.
That
was
the
year
that
the
daughter
of
Dean
Rusk,
then
secretary
of
state,
married
a
black
man.
Secretary
Rusk
proudly
walked his daughter down the aisle (after warning President Lyndon Johnson of the political risks),
and Time magazine put the couple on its cover. That was also the year of
Dinner
Yet
right
from
the
beginning,
the
entertainment
industry
has
lagged
society
in
its
racial
mores.
Films and television have always been squeamish about race: in 1957, on Alan Freed's ABC show,

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