内容发布更新时间 : 2024/9/18 11:42:21星期一 下面是文章的全部内容请认真阅读。

and beyond for this milestone event.

Register Now to Enjoy Early Booker Rate-Save USD100!

www.fininclusionsummit.org # Fininclusion Summit

56. The purpose of the Summit is to . A. boost cooperation to further financial inclusion B. promote partnerships to explore the opportunities C. provide financial assistance to encourage initiatives D. strengthen academic exchanges to stimulate innovations 57. What can we learn from the passage? A. China is the host of the Summit. B. $ 100 can be saved upon registration. C. Microsoft can’t participate in the cooperation. D. There is another organizer except the Citi Foundation.

B

On 30 November I he European Commission (EC) revealed a draft “clean energy” package for the period up to 2030. On the surface, these proposals address some of the issues with existing renewable energy policies. But environmental groups who have been analyzing the proposals say that the changes will make little difference and won’t solve the serious flaws.

The European Union (EU) gets 65 percent of its renewable energy from biofuels—mainly wood, but il is failing to ensure that the bioenergy comes from sustainable sources and results in less emission than burning fossil fuels. Its policies, in some cases, are leading to deforestation, biodiversity loss and putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than burning coal.

“It’s almost worse than doing nothing,” says Sini Erajaa, the bioenergy policy officer for BirdLife Europe & Central Asia, who describes the changes as greenwashing.

第页

5

For instance, one proposed change is to apply the EU’s sustainability criteria to biomass (生物燃料) used in heat and power plants whose output is 20 megawatts or more. “This means, for instance, that electricity and heat from biomass have to produce at least 80 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels by 2021 and 85 percent less by 2026,” states a memo on the revised renewable energy instruction.

You might think this will ensure that burning biomass does not result in higher greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel use, but far from it. That statement is misleading because it does not make clear that the EU’s method for calculating emissions assumes burning biomass produces no CO2 at all. The assumption is that these emissions don’t have to be counted because the growth of plants take in as much CO2 as is emitted when I hey are burned.

But because the EU doesn’t count these emissions, it is claiming carbon reduction for activities that are sometimes increasing emissions.

For instance, the EU is not just burning small bits of wood waste for energy, which can indeed reduce emissions. Whole trees are being cut down for energy and often in an unsustainable way, say campaigners, who want the EU lo abandon its drive to use ever more bioenergy, particularly forest bioenergy. “We are not saying bioenergy has no role to play,” says Erajaa. “But it will have to be smaller.” 58. What do the environmental groups imply according to the passage? A. The EC has performed its duty in reducing carbon emission. B. The government had better do nothing to reduce carbon emission. C. The “clean energy” policies are harmful to the atmosphere in a sense. D. The biofuels that KU gets mainly come from sustainable resources. 59. Why is the revised renewable energy directive regarded misleading? A. It assumes plants give out as much CO2 as fossil fuels. B. The methods for calculating emissions are not reliable. C. Burning biomass contributes to more CO2 emissions. D. Plants can cancel out the emissions of burning fuels. 60. We can infer from the last paragraph that . A. protecting trees are more important than bioenergy B. fallen branches arc a good source of clean energy C. deforestation is, in essence, the side effects of biofuels D. the drive of bioenergy can be continued in a proper way

C

第页

6

As PhD research goes, Brian Wisenden was enviable: watching baby fish swimming swiftly through the clear waters in the Costa Rican tropical dry forest. By recording their growth and numbers, he hoped to look at their risks of being eaten. Instead, he witnessed something odd. Many groups were increasing in numbers. In these groups, some were smaller than others, suggesting they weren’t siblings (兄弟姐妹). Wisenden had accidentally discovered that the fish, called convict cichlids, adopt each other’s babies. Why would they do that, he wondered?

In the human world, we think of adoption as a selfless act. But in nature, its presence is puzzling. Taking on the burden of bringing up babies with no genetic link would seem to reduce an animal’s chances of survival or at least provide no gain. Yet, adoption is surprisingly common in the world.

Take the eastern grey kangaroo. Between 2008 and 2013, Wisenden followed the fates of 326 baby kangaroos in the National Park in Victoria and recorded 11 cases of pouch swapping. The circumstances behind some of these adoptions aren’t known, but four were straight swaps and another four occurred after a mother had lost her own baby.

How come? Before independence, baby kangaroos go through a period inside and outside their mother’s pouch. Following out-of-pouch forays, mothers normally sniff their young before allowing them back in, but Wisenden’s team suspect that during an emergency they may skip the sniff test, allowing a vulnerable baby to quickly climb in before fleeing from danger. Once inside the wrong pouch, the young may take on the mother’s odor, making them smell confusingly like her own progeny. So, poor baby recognition is the prime cause of “accidental” adoption.

Some of nature’s adoptions are, actually, driven by young looking for better prospects. In burrower hugs, for example, females lay a nest of eggs close to those of unrelated bugs. Mother bugs tend their developing eggs before they hatch, then feed their babies nuts from weedy mint plants. Finding nuts is a competitive business, so not every mother bug gets her fair share. And if the delivery rate isn't up to scratch, clever young may abandon their mothers to join a better-fed group. That’s similar to behavior in several species of gull whose babies, if poorly fed, may leave home in search of better parents.

The consequences of adoption following mistaken identity can be dire. The true babies of adopting mothers were abandoned. But it can have remarkable benefits, not just for adoptees but also for adoptive parents. 61. It can be inferred from the passage that Wisenden’s findings are . A. too weird to be witnessed B. out of his own expectation C. envied by his peer co-researchers D. a sound proof of his research object

第页

7

62. Which is NOT the reason for adoption in the animal kingdom? A. Baby animals looking for better parenting. B. Parents’ failing to recognize their own babies. C. Selfless adoption is common in animals, world. D. Parents, having no ability to providing enough food.

63. The underlined word “vulnerable” in the fourth paragraph means . A. weak and easily attacked C. independent and well fed

B. naughty and easily hurt D. fragile and poorly raised

64. What will the author most probably talk about next? A. The benefits for baby animals. B. The benefits for adopters. C. The consequences of adoption. D. The consequences of wrong identity.

D

In the early years of the Enlightenment, a few brave philosophers challenged the Christian order-an apparently hopeless task. But their efforts paid off, and books have since been written, by authors from Diderot to Richard Dawkins, about the victory of secular (世俗的) man. What, after all, has Christianity ever done for us?

Rather a lot, argues Nick Spencer in an excellent new book, “The Evolution of the West”. Mr. Spencer, who is research director at Theos, a religious think-tank in London, picks up from Larry Siedentop’s epic work from 2014, “Inventing the Individual”—the recognition of how much the Western world owes lo Christianity. It is not a popular thesis but, like a prophet crying in the post-modern wilderness, Mr. Spencer arouses reflection that goes far beyond the shallow ding-dongs of the modem culture wars. He wants to make sure Westerners know where they came from as a way to illuminate where they are going.

Starting with the ancient world, he takes the reader on a journey to meet, among many others, Augustine of Hippo and John Locke as well as Thomas Piketty. The author believes that the fact that Christianity became the religion of the European establishment has blinded people to what a revolutionary doctrine it was and it is. And he clearly believes it can still play a role. The Christianisation of Europe, he says, was not a bunch of conservative priests trying to shut down a noble, free, secular ancient world, but a new idea of “a voluntary basis for human association in which people joined together through will and love rather than blood or shared material objectives”. Christianity declared that humans “have access to the deepest reality as individuals rather than merely as members of a group”.

第页

8