2021年北京卷
C
Hundreds of scientists, writers and academics sounded a warning to humanity in an open letter published last December: Policymakers and the rest of us must engage openly with the risk of global collapse. Researchers in many areas have projected the widespread collapse as “a credible scenario(情景) this century”.
A survey of scientists found that extreme weather events, food insecurity, and freshwater shortages might create global collapse. Of course, if you are a non-human species, collapse is well underway.
The call for public engagement with the unthinkable is especially germane in this moment of still-uncontrolled pandemic and economic crises in the world's most technologically advanced nations. Not very long ago, it was also unthinkable that a virus would shut down nations and that safety nets would be proven so disastrously lacking in flexibility.
The international scholars’ warning letter doesn't say exactly what collapse will look like or when it might happen. Collapseology, the study of collapse, is more concerned with identifying trends and with them the dangers of everyday civilization. Among the signatories(签署者) of the warning was Bob Johnson, the originator of the “ecological footprint” concept, which measures the total amount of environmental input needed to maintain a given lifestyle. With the current footprint of humanity, “it seems that global collapse is certain to happen in some form, possibly within a decade, certainly within this century,” Johnson said in an email.
“Only if we discuss the consequences of our biophysical limits,” the December warning letter says, “can we have the hope to reduce their speed, severity and harm”. And yet messengers of the coming disturbance are likely to be ignored. We all want to hope things will turn out fine. As a poet wrote,
Man is a victim of dope(麻醉品)
In the incurable form of hope.
The hundreds of scholars who signed the letter are intent(执着) on quieting hope that ignores preparedness. “Let's look directly into the issue of collapse,” they say, “and deal with the terrible possibilities of what we see there to make the best of a troubling future.”
28. What does the underlined word “germane” in paragraph 3 probably mean?
A. Scientific.B. Credible.
C. Original.D. Relevant.
29. As for the public awareness of global collapse, the author is________.
A. worriedB. puzzled
C. surprisedD. scared
30. What can we learn from this passage?
A. The signatories may change the biophysical limits.
B. The author agrees with the message of the poem.
C. The issue of collapse is being prioritized.
D. The global collapse is well underway.
答案解析：
28. D. Relevant。划线词"germane"在第三段中的意思是“相关的”，在这个上下文中，它指的是公众参与讨论全球崩溃的风险在当前疫情期间尤其相关。选项D中的"Relevant"与这个意思相符。
29. A. worried。作者对于公众对全球崩溃的意识表示担忧，这从文章的最后几段可以看出，作者提到了人们倾向于忽视即将到来的混乱的使者，并且希望事情会有好的结果，这表明作者担心公众可能不会认真对待全球崩溃的警告。
30. B 原文诗歌可知，人类无视未来全球崩塌的巨大危险，把头埋进沙子里，假装不知道，充满不切实际的幻想和希望。而诗歌前面的段落就提到，未来崩溃的先行信号很可能被忽略，我们都希望事情在未来会变好，结合上下文，这里指的是人们都幻想着未来就会变好。诗歌之后的最后一段则提到执着于掐灭不做准备的空有幻想，接着又借学者之口，提议，让我们直面全球崩塌的议题，真正去解决我们看到的可能的糟糕情况，以便使未来没那么糟。可见，作者对于这首诗表达的信息是赞同的，故选B。
