2023年北京卷
C
In recent years, researchers from diverse fields have agreed that short-termism is now a significant problem in industrialised societies. The inability to engage with longer-term causes and consequences leads to some of the world’s most serious problems: climate change, biodiversity collapse, and more. The historian Francis Cole argues that the West has entered a period where “only the present exists, a present characterised at once by the cruelty of the instant and by the boredom of an unending now”.
It has been proved that people have a bias (偏向) towards the present, focusing on loud attractions in the moment at the expense of the health, well-being and financial stability of their future selves or community. In business, this bias surfaces as short-sighted decisions. And on slow-burning problems like climate change, it translates into the unwillingness to make small sacrifices (牺牲) today that could make a major difference tomorrow. Instead, all that matters is next quarter’s profit, or satisfying some other near-term desires.
These biased perspectives cannot be blamed on one single cause. It is fair to say, though, that our psychological biases play a major role. People’s hesitancy to delay satisfaction is the most obvious example, but there are others. One of them is about how the most accessible information in the present affects decisions about the future. For instance, you might hear someone say: “It’s cold this winter, so I needn’t worry about global warming.”Another is that loud and urgent matters are given too much importance, making people ignore longer-term trends that arguably matter more. This is when a pop star draws far more attention than, say, gradual biodiversity decline.
As a psychologist once joked, if aliens (外星人) wanted to weaken humanity, they wouldn’t send ships; they would invent climate change. Indeed, when it comes to environmental transformations, we can develop a form of collective “poor memory”, and each new generation can believe the state of affairs they encounter is nothing out of the ordinary. Older people today, for example, can remember a time with insect-covered car windscreens after long drives. Children, on the other hand, have no idea that insect population has dropped dramatically.
28. The author quotes Francis Cole mainly to ________.
A. draw a comparison B. introduce a topic C. evaluate a statement D. highlight a problem
29. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A. Climate change has been forgotten.
B. Lessons of history are highly valued.
C. The human mind is bad at noting slow change.
D. Humans are unwilling to admit their shortcomings.
30. What does the author intend to tell us?
A. Far-sighted thinking matters to humans.
B. Humans tend to make long-term sacrifices.
C. current policies facilitate future decision-making.
D. Bias towards the present helps reduce near-term desires.
答案解析：
28. D.作者引用Francis Cole的话是为了强调短期主义导致的问题，即“现在唯一存在，现在的特点是瞬间的残酷和无尽的现在的无聊”。这与文章主题相符，即短期主义是工业化社会的一个严重问题。因此，作者引用Francis Cole的话是为了突出这个问题，答案为D。
29. C. 根据最后一段的内容，作者讨论了人类对于环境变化的“集体健忘”，以及每一代人可能认为他们所遇到的情况是正常的。这表明人类的大脑不擅长注意到缓慢的变化。选项C与文章内容相符。
30. A. 文章整体讨论了短期主义的问题，以及人们如何因为对当下的偏向而忽视了长期的影响。作者通过这些讨论意在告诉我们，具有远见的思考对人类来说很重要。选项A与文章内容相符。
