Feeling blue about world? “Cheer up. Says science writer Matt Ridley． The world

Feeling blue about world? “Cheer up.” Says sciencewriter Matt Ridley．”The world has never been a better place tolive in, and it will keep on getting better both for humans and for nature．”

Ridley calls himself a rational optimist—rational,because he’s carefully weighed the evidence; optimistic, because that evidenceshows human progress to be both unavoidable and good．And this is what he’s set out to prove from a uniquepoint of view in his most recent book．The RationalOptimist．He views mankind as grand enterprise thaton the whole, has done little but progress for 100,000 years．He backs his finding with hard facts gathered throughyears of research．

Here’s how he explains his views．

1) Shopping fuels invention

It is reported that there are more than ten billiondifferent products for sale in London alone．Even allowingfor the many people who still live in poverty, our own generation has access tomore nutritious food, more convenient transport, bigger houses, better ears,and of course, more pounds and dollars than any who lived before us．This will continue as long as we use these things tomake other things. The more we specialize and exchange, the better off we’ll be．

2）Brilliant advances

One reason we are richer, healthier, taller, cleverer,longer-lived and freer than ever before is that the four most basic human needs-food, clothing, fuel and shelter- have grown a lot cheaper．Take one example．In 1800 acandle providing one hour’s light cost six hours’ work．In the 1880s the same light from an oil lamp took 15minutes’ work to pay for．In 1950 it was eight seconds．Today it’s half second．

3）Let’s not kill ourselvesfor climate change

Mitigating（减轻）climatechange could prove just as damaging to human welfare as climate change itself．A child that dies from indoor smoke in a village,where the use of fossil-fuel（化石燃料）electricity isforbidden by well - meaning members of green political movements trying to savethe world, is just as great a tragedy as a child that dies in a flood caused byclimate change．If climate change proves to be mild, butcutting carbon causes real pain, we may well find that we have stopped a nose -bleed by putting a tourniquet（止血带）around our necks．

1.What is the theme of Ridley’s most recent book?

A．Weakness ofhuman nature．

B．Concern aboutclimate change．

C．Importance ofpractical thinking．

D．Optimismabout human progress．

2.How does Ridley look at shopping?

A．It encouragesthe creation of things．

B．It results inshortage of goods．

C．It demandsmore fossil fuels．

D．It causes apoverty problem．

3.The candle and lamp example is used to show that    ．

A．oil lampsgive off more light than candles

B．shorteningworking time brings about a happier life．

C．advancedtechnology helps to produce better candles．

D．increasedproduction rate leads to lower cost of goods．

试题答案

【答案】

1.D

2.A

3.D

【解析】

试题