阅读理解。
The energy crisis (危机) has made people aware of how the careless use of the earth's energy has brought
the whole world to the edge of disaster. The over-development of motor transport, with its increase of more
cars, more traveling, has contributed to the near-destruction of our cities and the pollution not only of local air
but also of the earth's atmosphere.
Our present situation is unlike natural disasters of the past. Worldwide energy use has brought us to a state
where long-range planning is vital. What we need is not a continuation of our present serious state, which
endangers the future of our country, our children, and our earth, but a movement forward in order to work
rapidly and effectively on planetary problems.
This country has been falling back under the continuing exposures of loss of morality and the revelation (揭
露) that lawbreaking has reached into the highest place in the land. There is a strong demand for morality to
turn for the better and for some devotion that is vast enough and yet personal enough to enlist the devotion of
all. In the past it has been only in a way in defense of their own country and their own benefits that people have
been able to devote themselves wholeheartedly.
This is the first time that we have been asked to defend ourselves and what we hold dear in cooperation
with all the other people of this planet, who share with us the same endangered air and the same endangered
oceans. There is a common need to reassess our present course, to change that course and to employ new
methods through which the world can survive. This is a priceless opportunity.
To grasp it, we need a widespread understanding of nature if the crisis we and the world are facing is no
passing inconvenience, no byproduct of the ambitions of the oil-producing countries, no environmentalists'
only fears, no byproduct of any present system of government. What we face is the result of the invention
of the last four hundred years. What we need is a transformed life style. This new life style can flow directly
from science and technology, but its acceptance depends on a sincere devotion to finding a higher quality of
life for the world's children and future generation.
1. Which of the following has nearly destroyed our cities?[ ]
A. The loss of beliefs and ideas.
B. More of law-breaking.
C. Natural di8asters in many areas.
D. The rapid growth of motors.
2. By comparing past problems with present ones, the author draws our attention to the _____. [ ]
A seriousness of this crisis
B. ineffectiveness of laws
C. similarity of the past to the present
D. hopelessness of the situation
3. Which of the following is used as an example to show the loss of morality? [ ]
A. Disregard for law.
B. Lack of devotion.
C. Lack of understanding.
D. Destruction of cities.
4. The author wrote the passage in order to _____. [ ]
A. make a recommendation for a transformed life style
B. limit ambitions of the people of the whole world
C. demand devotion to nature and future generation
D. encourage awareness of the decline of morality
