一、Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension
1、Question 1 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、He would feel insulted.
B、He would feel very sad.
C、He would be embarrassed.
D、He would be disappointed.
2、Question 2 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、They are worthy of a prize.
B、They are of little value.
C、They make good reading.
D、They need improvement.
3、Question 3 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、He seldom writes a book straight through.
B、He writes several books simultaneously.
C、He draws on his real-life experiences.
D、He often turns to his wife for help.
4、Question 4 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、Writing a book is just like watching a football match.
B、Writers actually work every bit as hard as footballers.
C、He likes watching a football match after finishing a book.
D、Unlike a football match, there is no end to writing a book.
5、Question 5 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、Achievements of black male athletes in college.
B、Financial assistance to black athletes in college.
C、High college dropout rates among black athletes.
D、Undergraduate enrollments of black athletes.
6、Question 6 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、They display great talent in every kind of game.
B、They are better at sports than at academic work.
C、They have difficulty finding money to complete their studies.
D、They make money for the college but often fail to earn a degree.
7、Question 7 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、About 15%.
B、Around 40%.
C、Slightly over 50%.
D、Approximately 70%.
8、Question 8 is based on the conversation you have just heard.
A、Coaches lack the incentive to graduate them.
B、College degrees do not count much to them.
C、They have little interest in academic work.
D、Schools do not deem it a serious problem.
9、Question 9 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、Marketing strategies.
B、Holiday shopping.
C、Shopping malls.
D、Online stores.
10、Question 10 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、About 50% of holiday shoppers.
B、About 20%–30% of holiday shoppers.
C、About 136 million.
D、About 183.8 million.
11、Question 11 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、They have fewer customers.
B、They find it hard to survive.
C、They are thriving once more.
D、They appeal to elderly customers.
12、Question 12 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、Better quality of consumer goods.
B、Higher employment and wages.
C、Greater varieties of commodities.
D、People having more leisure time.
13、Question 13 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、They are new species of big insects.
B、They are overprescribed antibiotics.
C、They are life-threatening diseases.
D、They are antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
14、Question 14 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、Antibiotics are now in short supply.
B、Many infections are no longer curable.
C、Large amounts of tax money are wasted.
D、Routine operations have become complex.
15、Question 15 is based on the passage you have just heard.
A、Facilities.
B、Expertise.
C、Money.
D、Publicity.
16、Question 16 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、It is accessible only to the talented.
B、It improves students’ ability to think.
C、It starts a lifelong learning process.
D、It gives birth to many eminent scholars.
17、Question 17 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、They encourage academic democracy.
B、They promote globalization.
C、They uphold the presidents’ authority.
D、They protect students’ rights.
18、Question 18 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、His thirst for knowledge.
B、His eagerness to find a job.
C、His contempt for authority.
D、His potential for leadership.
19、Question 19 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、Few people know how to retrieve information properly.
B、People can enhance their memory with a few tricks.
C、Most people have a rather poor long-term memory.
D、People tend to underestimate their mental powers.
20、Question 20 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、They present the states in a surprisingly different order.
B、They include more or less the same number of states.
C、They are exactly the same as is shown in the atlas.
D、They contain names of the most familiar states.
21、Question 21 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、Focusing on what is likely to be tested.
B、Having a good sleep the night before.
C、Reviewing your lessons where the exam is to take place.
D、Making sensible decisions while choosing your answers.
22、Question 22 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、Discover when you can learn best.
B、Change your time of study daily.
C、Give yourself a double bonus afterwards.
D、Follow the example of a marathon runner.
23、Question 23 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、He is a politician.
B、He is a businessman.
C、He is a sociologist.
D、He is an economist.
24、Question 24 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、In slums.
B、In Africa.
C、In pre-industrial societies.
D、In developing countries.
25、Question 25 is based on the recording you have just heard.
A、They have no access to health care, let alone entertainment or recreation.
B、Their income is less than 50% of the national average family income.
C、They work extra hours to have their basic needs met.
D、Their children cannot afford to go to private schools.
二、Part III Reading Comprehension
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
26、(1)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
27、(2)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
28、(3)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
29、(4)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
30、(5)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
31、(6)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
32、(7)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
33、(8)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
34、(9)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often 26_____ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears （stimulating the left hemisphere） of 27_____ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear.
It was 28_____ observed that the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated “when we are in a 29_____ environment, the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any 30_____ danger.”
The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been 31_____ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal 32_____ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other 33_____ animals shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always 34_____ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably down. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for 35_____ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.
35、(10)
A、potential
B、referred
C、novel
D、specifically
E、varieties
F、species
G、identified
H、inherent
I、marine
J、exotic
K、consciously
L、volunteers
M、dramatically
N、predators
O、classified
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
36、A number of factors are driving down the global oil prices not just for now but in the foreseeable future.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
37、Pricing carbon proves the most economical way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
38、It is estimated that extreme weather conditions have endangered the lives of millions of African children.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
39、The prices of coal are low as a result of over-supply and decreasing demand.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
40、Higher fossil fuel prices prove to be conducive to innovation and application of cleaner technology.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
41、If fossil fuel prices remain low for a long time, it may lead to higher emissions of greenhouse gases.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
42、Fossil fuels remain the major source of primary energy consumption in today’s world.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
43、Even major fossil exporting countries have great potential to develop renewable energies.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
44、Greenhouse gas emissions, if not properly dealt with, will pose endless risks for mankind.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
The Price of Oil and the Price of Carbon
【A】 Fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”. Notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in, and adoption of, cleaner energy technologies. The result would be higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
【B】Policymakers should not allow low energy prices to derail the clean energy transition. Action to restore appropriate price incentives, notably through corrective carbon pricing, is urgently needed to lower the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating effects of climate change. That approach also offers fiscal benefits.
【C】 Oil prices have dropped by over 60 percent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that “the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices”. The reasoning behind this saying is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields—which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost—are depleted. In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States. The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.
【D】Oil prices are expected to remain lower for longer. The advent of new technologies has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global over-supply. In addition, other factors are putting downward pressure on oil prices: change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling-down of global demand（especially from emerging markets）, the long-term drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes. These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale （页岩）, point to a “low for long” scenario. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view.
【E】Natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels—have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived. Coal and natural gas are mainly used for electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transportation, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there. The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have impact on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other places, notably Argentina. Coal prices also are low, owing to over-supply and the scaling down of demand, especially from China, which burns half of the world’s coal.
【F】Technological innovations have unleashed the power of renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal （地热）. Even Africa and the Middle East, home to economies that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports, have enormous potential to develop renewables. For example, the United Arab Emirates has endorsed an ambitious target to draw 24% of its primary energy consumption from renewable sources by 2021.
【G】Progress in the development of renewables could be fragile, however, if fossil fuel prices remain low for long. Renewables account for only a small share of global primary energy consumption, which is still dominated by fossil fuels—30% each for coal and oil, 25% for natural gas. But renewable energy will have to displace fossil fuels to a much greater extent in the future to avoid unacceptable climate risks.
【H】Unfortunately, the current low prices for oil, gas, and coal may provide little incentive for research to find even cheaper substitutes for those fuels. There is strong evidence that both innovation and adoption of cleaner technology are strongly encouraged by higher fossil fuel prices. The same is true for new technologies for alleviating fossil fuel emissions.
【I】The current low fossil-fuel price environment will thus certainly delay the energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy sources. Unless renewables become cheap enough that substantial carbon deposits are left underground for a very long time, if not forever, the planet will likely be exposed to potentially catastrophic climate risks.
【J】Some climate impacts may already be discernible. For example, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that some 11 million children in Africa face hunger, disease, and water shortages as a result of the strongest El Niño（厄尔尼诺）weather phenomenon in decades. Many scientists believe that El Niño events, caused by warming in the Pacific, are becoming more intense as a result of climate change.
【K】Nations from around the world have gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, with the goal of a universal and potentially legally-binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need very broad participation to address fully the global tragedy that results when countries fail to take into account the negative impact of their carbon emissions on the rest of the world. Moreover, non-participants by nations, if sufficiently widespread, can undermine the political will of participating countries to act.
【L】The nations participating at COP 21 are focusing on quantitative emissions-reduction commitments. Economic reasoning shows that the least expensive way for each country is to put a price on carbon emissions. The reason is that when carbon is priced, those emissions reductions that are least costly to implement will happen first. The International Monetary Fund calculates that countries can generate substantial fiscal revenues by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and levying carbon charges that capture the domestic damage caused by emissions. A tax on upstream carbon sources is one easy way to put a price on carbon emissions, although some countries may wish to use other methods, such as emissions trading schemes. In order to maximize global welfare, every country’s carbon pricing should reflect not only the purely domestic damages from emissions, but also the damages to foreign countries.
【M】Setting the right carbon price will therefore efficiently align the costs paid by carbon users with the true social opportunity cost of using carbon. By raising relative demand for clean energy sources, a carbon price would also help to align the market return to clean-energy innovation with its social return, spurring the refinement of existing technologies and the development of new ones. And it would raise the demand for technologies such as carbon capture and storage, spurring their further development. If not corrected by the appropriate carbon price, low fossil fuel prices are not accurately signaling to markets the true social profitability of clean energy. While alternative estimates of the damages from carbon emissions differ, and it’s especially hard to reckon the likely costs of possible catastrophic climate events, most estimates suggest substantial negative effects.
【N】Direct subsidies to research and development have been adopted by some governments but are a poor substitute for a carbon price: they do only part of the job, leaving in place market incentives to over-use fossil fuels and thereby add to the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases without regard to the collateral（附带的）costs.
【O】The hope is that the success of COP 21 opens the door to future international agreement on carbon prices. Agreement on an international carbon-price floor would be a good starting point in that process. Failure to address comprehensively the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, however, exposes all generations, present and future, to incalculable risks.
45、It is urgent for governments to increase the cost of using fossil fuels to an appropriate level to lessen the catastrophic effects of climate change.
A、A
B、B
C、C
D、D
E、E
F、F
G、G
H、H
I、I
J、J
K、K
L、L
M、M
N、N
O、O
Tennessee’s technical and community college will not outsource（外包）management of their facilities to a private company, a decision one leader said was bolstered by an analysis of spending at each campus.
In an email sent Monday to college presidents in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, outgoing Chancellor John Morgan said an internal analysis showed that each campus’ spending on facilities management fell well below the industry standards identified by the state. Morgan said those findings—which included data from the system’s 13 community colleges, 27 technical colleges and six universities—were part of the decision not to move forward with Governor Bill Haslam’s proposal to privatize management of state buildings in an effort to save money.
“While these numbers are still being validated by the state, we feel any adjustments they might suggest will be immaterial,” Morgan wrote to the presidents. “System institutions are operating very efficiently based on this analysis, raising the question of the value of pursing a broad scale outsourcing initiative.”
Workers’ advocates have criticized Haslam’s plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan, which has not been finalized.
Morgan notified that Haslam administration of his decision to opt out in a letter sent last week. That letter, which includes several concerns Morgan has with the plan, was originally obtained by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
In an email statement from the state’s Office of Customer Focused Government, which is examining the possibility of outsourcing, spokeswoman Michelle R. Martin said officials were still working to analyze the data from the Board of Regents. Data on management expenses at the college system and in other state departments will be part of a “business justification” the state will use as officials deliberate the specifics of an outsourcing plan.
“The state’s facilities management project team is still in the process of developing its business justification and expects to have that completed and available to the public at the end of February,” Martin said. “At this time there is nothing to take action on since the analysis has yet to be completed.”
Morgan’s comments on outsourcing mark the second time this month that he has come out against one of Haslam’s plans for higher education in Tennessee. Morgan said last week that he would retire at the end of January because of the governor’s proposal to split off six universities of the Board of Regents system and create separate governing boards for each of them. In his resignation letter, Morgan called the reorganization “unworkable”.
46、What do we learn about the decision of technical and community colleges in Tennessee?
A、It is backed by a campus spending analysis.
B、It has been flatly rejected by the governor.
C、It has neglected their faculty’s demands.
D、It will improve their financial situation.
Tennessee’s technical and community college will not outsource（外包）management of their facilities to a private company, a decision one leader said was bolstered by an analysis of spending at each campus.
In an email sent Monday to college presidents in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, outgoing Chancellor John Morgan said an internal analysis showed that each campus’ spending on facilities management fell well below the industry standards identified by the state. Morgan said those findings—which included data from the system’s 13 community colleges, 27 technical colleges and six universities—were part of the decision not to move forward with Governor Bill Haslam’s proposal to privatize management of state buildings in an effort to save money.
“While these numbers are still being validated by the state, we feel any adjustments they might suggest will be immaterial,” Morgan wrote to the presidents. “System institutions are operating very efficiently based on this analysis, raising the question of the value of pursing a broad scale outsourcing initiative.”
Workers’ advocates have criticized Haslam’s plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan, which has not been finalized.
Morgan notified that Haslam administration of his decision to opt out in a letter sent last week. That letter, which includes several concerns Morgan has with the plan, was originally obtained by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
In an email statement from the state’s Office of Customer Focused Government, which is examining the possibility of outsourcing, spokeswoman Michelle R. Martin said officials were still working to analyze the data from the Board of Regents. Data on management expenses at the college system and in other state departments will be part of a “business justification” the state will use as officials deliberate the specifics of an outsourcing plan.
“The state’s facilities management project team is still in the process of developing its business justification and expects to have that completed and available to the public at the end of February,” Martin said. “At this time there is nothing to take action on since the analysis has yet to be completed.”
Morgan’s comments on outsourcing mark the second time this month that he has come out against one of Haslam’s plans for higher education in Tennessee. Morgan said last week that he would retire at the end of January because of the governor’s proposal to split off six universities of the Board of Regents system and create separate governing boards for each of them. In his resignation letter, Morgan called the reorganization “unworkable”.
47、What does the campus spending analysis reveal?
A、Private companies play a big role in campus management.
B、Facilities management by colleges is more cost-effective.
C、Facilities management has greatly improved in recent years.
D、College exercise full control over their own financial affairs.
Tennessee’s technical and community college will not outsource（外包）management of their facilities to a private company, a decision one leader said was bolstered by an analysis of spending at each campus.
In an email sent Monday to college presidents in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, outgoing Chancellor John Morgan said an internal analysis showed that each campus’ spending on facilities management fell well below the industry standards identified by the state. Morgan said those findings—which included data from the system’s 13 community colleges, 27 technical colleges and six universities—were part of the decision not to move forward with Governor Bill Haslam’s proposal to privatize management of state buildings in an effort to save money.
“While these numbers are still being validated by the state, we feel any adjustments they might suggest will be immaterial,” Morgan wrote to the presidents. “System institutions are operating very efficiently based on this analysis, raising the question of the value of pursing a broad scale outsourcing initiative.”
Workers’ advocates have criticized Haslam’s plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan, which has not been finalized.
Morgan notified that Haslam administration of his decision to opt out in a letter sent last week. That letter, which includes several concerns Morgan has with the plan, was originally obtained by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
In an email statement from the state’s Office of Customer Focused Government, which is examining the possibility of outsourcing, spokeswoman Michelle R. Martin said officials were still working to analyze the data from the Board of Regents. Data on management expenses at the college system and in other state departments will be part of a “business justification” the state will use as officials deliberate the specifics of an outsourcing plan.
“The state’s facilities management project team is still in the process of developing its business justification and expects to have that completed and available to the public at the end of February,” Martin said. “At this time there is nothing to take action on since the analysis has yet to be completed.”
Morgan’s comments on outsourcing mark the second time this month that he has come out against one of Haslam’s plans for higher education in Tennessee. Morgan said last week that he would retire at the end of January because of the governor’s proposal to split off six universities of the Board of Regents system and create separate governing boards for each of them. In his resignation letter, Morgan called the reorganization “unworkable”.
48、Workers’ supporters argue that Bill Haslam’s proposal would ______.
A、deprive colleges of the right to manage their facilities
B、make workers less motivated in performing duties
C、render a number of campus workers jobless
D、lead to the privatization of campus facilities
Tennessee’s technical and community college will not outsource（外包）management of their facilities to a private company, a decision one leader said was bolstered by an analysis of spending at each campus.
In an email sent Monday to college presidents in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, outgoing Chancellor John Morgan said an internal analysis showed that each campus’ spending on facilities management fell well below the industry standards identified by the state. Morgan said those findings—which included data from the system’s 13 community colleges, 27 technical colleges and six universities—were part of the decision not to move forward with Governor Bill Haslam’s proposal to privatize management of state buildings in an effort to save money.
“While these numbers are still being validated by the state, we feel any adjustments they might suggest will be immaterial,” Morgan wrote to the presidents. “System institutions are operating very efficiently based on this analysis, raising the question of the value of pursing a broad scale outsourcing initiative.”
Workers’ advocates have criticized Haslam’s plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan, which has not been finalized.
Morgan notified that Haslam administration of his decision to opt out in a letter sent last week. That letter, which includes several concerns Morgan has with the plan, was originally obtained by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
In an email statement from the state’s Office of Customer Focused Government, which is examining the possibility of outsourcing, spokeswoman Michelle R. Martin said officials were still working to analyze the data from the Board of Regents. Data on management expenses at the college system and in other state departments will be part of a “business justification” the state will use as officials deliberate the specifics of an outsourcing plan.
“The state’s facilities management project team is still in the process of developing its business justification and expects to have that completed and available to the public at the end of February,” Martin said. “At this time there is nothing to take action on since the analysis has yet to be completed.”
Morgan’s comments on outsourcing mark the second time this month that he has come out against one of Haslam’s plans for higher education in Tennessee. Morgan said last week that he would retire at the end of January because of the governor’s proposal to split off six universities of the Board of Regents system and create separate governing boards for each of them. In his resignation letter, Morgan called the reorganization “unworkable”.
49、What do we learn from the state spokeswoman’s response to John Morgan’s decision?
A、The outsourcing plan is not yet finalized.
B、The outsourcing plan will be implemented.
C、The state officials are confident about the outsourcing plan.
D、The college spending analysis justifies the outsourcing plan.
Tennessee’s technical and community college will not outsource（外包）management of their facilities to a private company, a decision one leader said was bolstered by an analysis of spending at each campus.
In an email sent Monday to college presidents in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, outgoing Chancellor John Morgan said an internal analysis showed that each campus’ spending on facilities management fell well below the industry standards identified by the state. Morgan said those findings—which included data from the system’s 13 community colleges, 27 technical colleges and six universities—were part of the decision not to move forward with Governor Bill Haslam’s proposal to privatize management of state buildings in an effort to save money.
“While these numbers are still being validated by the state, we feel any adjustments they might suggest will be immaterial,” Morgan wrote to the presidents. “System institutions are operating very efficiently based on this analysis, raising the question of the value of pursing a broad scale outsourcing initiative.”
Workers’ advocates have criticized Haslam’s plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan, which has not been finalized.
Morgan notified that Haslam administration of his decision to opt out in a letter sent last week. That letter, which includes several concerns Morgan has with the plan, was originally obtained by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
In an email statement from the state’s Office of Customer Focused Government, which is examining the possibility of outsourcing, spokeswoman Michelle R. Martin said officials were still working to analyze the data from the Board of Regents. Data on management expenses at the college system and in other state departments will be part of a “business justification” the state will use as officials deliberate the specifics of an outsourcing plan.
“The state’s facilities management project team is still in the process of developing its business justification and expects to have that completed and available to the public at the end of February,” Martin said. “At this time there is nothing to take action on since the analysis has yet to be completed.”
Morgan’s comments on outsourcing mark the second time this month that he has come out against one of Haslam’s plans for higher education in Tennessee. Morgan said last week that he would retire at the end of January because of the governor’s proposal to split off six universities of the Board of Regents system and create separate governing boards for each of them. In his resignation letter, Morgan called the reorganization “unworkable”.
50、Why did John Morgan decide to resign?
A、He had lost confidence in the Tennessee state government.
B、He disagreed with the governor on higher education policies.
C、He thought the state’s outsourcing proposal was simply unworkable.
D、He opposed the governor’s plan to reconstruct the college board system.
Macy’s reported its sales plunged 5.2% in November and December at stores open more than a year, a disappointing holiday season performance that capped a difficult year for a department store chain facing wide-ranging challenges. Its flagship stores in major U.S. cities depend heavily on international tourist spending, which shrank at many retailers due to a strong dollar. Meanwhile, Macy’s has simply struggled to lure consumers who are more interested in spending on travel or dining out than on new clothes or accessories.
The company blamed much of the poor performance in November and December on unseasonably warm weather. “About 80% of our company’s year-over-year declines in comparable sales can be attributed to shortfalls（短缺）in cold-weather goods,” said chief executive Terry Lundgren in a press release. This prompted the company to cut its forecasts for the full fourth quarter.
However, it’s clear that Macy’s believes its troubles run deeper than a temporary aberration（偏离）off the thermometer. The retail giant said the poor financial performance this year has pushed it to begin implementing $400 million in cost-cutting measures. The company pledged to cut 600 back-office positions, though some 150 workers in those roles would be reassigned to other jobs. It also plans to offer “voluntary separation” packages to 165 senior executives. It will splash staffing at its fleet of 770 stores, a move affecting some 3,000 employees.
The retailer also announced the locations of 36 stores it will close in early 2016. The company had previously announced the planned closures, but had not said which locations would be affected. None of the chain’s stores in the Washington metropolitan area are to be closed.
Macy’s has been moving aggressively to try to remake itself for a new era of shopping. It has plans to open more locations of Macy’s Backstage, a newly-developed off-price concept which might help it better compete with ambitious T.J. Maxx. It’s also pushing ahead in 2016 with an expansion of Bluemercury, the beauty chain it bought last year. At a time when young beauty shoppers are often turning to Sephora or Ulta instead of department store beauty counters, Macy’s hopes Bluemercury will help strengthen its position in the category.
One relative bright spot for Macy’s during the holiday season was the online channel, where it rang up “double-digit” increases in sales and a 25% increase in the number of orders it filled. That relative strength would be consistent with what was seen in the wider retail industry during the early part of the holiday season. While Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all saw record spending online, in-store sales plunged over the holiday weekend.
51、What does the author say about the shrinking spending of international tourists in the U.S.?
A、It is attributable to the rising value of the U.S. dollar.
B、It is a direct result of the global economic recession.
C、It reflects a shift of their interest in consumer goods.
D、It poses a potential threat to the retail business in the U.S.
Macy’s reported its sales plunged 5.2% in November and December at stores open more than a year, a disappointing holiday season performance that capped a difficult year for a department store chain facing wide-ranging challenges. Its flagship stores in major U.S. cities depend heavily on international tourist spending, which shrank at many retailers due to a strong dollar. Meanwhile, Macy’s has simply struggled to lure consumers who are more interested in spending on travel or dining out than on new clothes or accessories.
The company blamed much of the poor performance in November and December on unseasonably warm weather. “About 80% of our company’s year-over-year declines in comparable sales can be attributed to shortfalls（短缺）in cold-weather goods,” said chief executive Terry Lundgren in a press release. This prompted the company to cut its forecasts for the full fourth quarter.
However, it’s clear that Macy’s believes its troubles run deeper than a temporary aberration（偏离）off the thermometer. The retail giant said the poor financial performance this year has pushed it to begin implementing $400 million in cost-cutting measures. The company pledged to cut 600 back-office positions, though some 150 workers in those roles would be reassigned to other jobs. It also plans to offer “voluntary separation” packages to 165 senior executives. It will splash staffing at its fleet of 770 stores, a move affecting some 3,000 employees.
The retailer also announced the locations of 36 stores it will close in early 2016. The company had previously announced the planned closures, but had not said which locations would be affected. None of the chain’s stores in the Washington metropolitan area are to be closed.
Macy’s has been moving aggressively to try to remake itself for a new era of shopping. It has plans to open more locations of Macy’s Backstage, a newly-developed off-price concept which might help it better compete with ambitious T.J. Maxx. It’s also pushing ahead in 2016 with an expansion of Bluemercury, the beauty chain it bought last year. At a time when young beauty shoppers are often turning to Sephora or Ulta instead of department store beauty counters, Macy’s hopes Bluemercury will help strengthen its position in the category.
One relative bright spot for Macy’s during the holiday season was the online channel, where it rang up “double-digit” increases in sales and a 25% increase in the number of orders it filled. That relative strength would be consistent with what was seen in the wider retail industry during the early part of the holiday season. While Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all saw record spending online, in-store sales plunged over the holiday weekend.
52、What does Macy’s believe about its problems?
A、They can be solved with better management.
B、They cannot be attributed to weather only.
C、They are not as serious in its online stores.
D、They call for increased investments.
Macy’s reported its sales plunged 5.2% in November and December at stores open more than a year, a disappointing holiday season performance that capped a difficult year for a department store chain facing wide-ranging challenges. Its flagship stores in major U.S. cities depend heavily on international tourist spending, which shrank at many retailers due to a strong dollar. Meanwhile, Macy’s has simply struggled to lure consumers who are more interested in spending on travel or dining out than on new clothes or accessories.
The company blamed much of the poor performance in November and December on unseasonably warm weather. “About 80% of our company’s year-over-year declines in comparable sales can be attributed to shortfalls（短缺）in cold-weather goods,” said chief executive Terry Lundgren in a press release. This prompted the company to cut its forecasts for the full fourth quarter.
However, it’s clear that Macy’s believes its troubles run deeper than a temporary aberration（偏离）off the thermometer. The retail giant said the poor financial performance this year has pushed it to begin implementing $400 million in cost-cutting measures. The company pledged to cut 600 back-office positions, though some 150 workers in those roles would be reassigned to other jobs. It also plans to offer “voluntary separation” packages to 165 senior executives. It will splash staffing at its fleet of 770 stores, a move affecting some 3,000 employees.
The retailer also announced the locations of 36 stores it will close in early 2016. The company had previously announced the planned closures, but had not said which locations would be affected. None of the chain’s stores in the Washington metropolitan area are to be closed.
Macy’s has been moving aggressively to try to remake itself for a new era of shopping. It has plans to open more locations of Macy’s Backstage, a newly-developed off-price concept which might help it better compete with ambitious T.J. Maxx. It’s also pushing ahead in 2016 with an expansion of Bluemercury, the beauty chain it bought last year. At a time when young beauty shoppers are often turning to Sephora or Ulta instead of department store beauty counters, Macy’s hopes Bluemercury will help strengthen its position in the category.
One relative bright spot for Macy’s during the holiday season was the online channel, where it rang up “double-digit” increases in sales and a 25% increase in the number of orders it filled. That relative strength would be consistent with what was seen in the wider retail industry during the early part of the holiday season. While Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all saw record spending online, in-store sales plunged over the holiday weekend.
53、 In order to cut costs, Macy’s decided to _______.
A、cut the salary of senior executives
B、relocate some of its chain stores
C、adjust its promotion strategies
D、reduce the size of its staff
Macy’s reported its sales plunged 5.2% in November and December at stores open more than a year, a disappointing holiday season performance that capped a difficult year for a department store chain facing wide-ranging challenges. Its flagship stores in major U.S. cities depend heavily on international tourist spending, which shrank at many retailers due to a strong dollar. Meanwhile, Macy’s has simply struggled to lure consumers who are more interested in spending on travel or dining out than on new clothes or accessories.
The company blamed much of the poor performance in November and December on unseasonably warm weather. “About 80% of our company’s year-over-year declines in comparable sales can be attributed to shortfalls（短缺）in cold-weather goods,” said chief executive Terry Lundgren in a press release. This prompted the company to cut its forecasts for the full fourth quarter.
However, it’s clear that Macy’s believes its troubles run deeper than a temporary aberration（偏离）off the thermometer. The retail giant said the poor financial performance this year has pushed it to begin implementing $400 million in cost-cutting measures. The company pledged to cut 600 back-office positions, though some 150 workers in those roles would be reassigned to other jobs. It also plans to offer “voluntary separation” packages to 165 senior executives. It will splash staffing at its fleet of 770 stores, a move affecting some 3,000 employees.
The retailer also announced the locations of 36 stores it will close in early 2016. The company had previously announced the planned closures, but had not said which locations would be affected. None of the chain’s stores in the Washington metropolitan area are to be closed.
Macy’s has been moving aggressively to try to remake itself for a new era of shopping. It has plans to open more locations of Macy’s Backstage, a newly-developed off-price concept which might help it better compete with ambitious T.J. Maxx. It’s also pushing ahead in 2016 with an expansion of Bluemercury, the beauty chain it bought last year. At a time when young beauty shoppers are often turning to Sephora or Ulta instead of department store beauty counters, Macy’s hopes Bluemercury will help strengthen its position in the category.
One relative bright spot for Macy’s during the holiday season was the online channel, where it rang up “double-digit” increases in sales and a 25% increase in the number of orders it filled. That relative strength would be consistent with what was seen in the wider retail industry during the early part of the holiday season. While Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all saw record spending online, in-store sales plunged over the holiday weekend.
54、Why does Macy’s plan to expand Bluemercury in 2016?
A、To experiment on its new business concept.
B、To focus more on beauty products than clothing.
C、To promote sales of its products by lowering prices.
D、To be more competitive in sales of beauty products.
Macy’s reported its sales plunged 5.2% in November and December at stores open more than a year, a disappointing holiday season performance that capped a difficult year for a department store chain facing wide-ranging challenges. Its flagship stores in major U.S. cities depend heavily on international tourist spending, which shrank at many retailers due to a strong dollar. Meanwhile, Macy’s has simply struggled to lure consumers who are more interested in spending on travel or dining out than on new clothes or accessories.
The company blamed much of the poor performance in November and December on unseasonably warm weather. “About 80% of our company’s year-over-year declines in comparable sales can be attributed to shortfalls（短缺）in cold-weather goods,” said chief executive Terry Lundgren in a press release. This prompted the company to cut its forecasts for the full fourth quarter.
However, it’s clear that Macy’s believes its troubles run deeper than a temporary aberration（偏离）off the thermometer. The retail giant said the poor financial performance this year has pushed it to begin implementing $400 million in cost-cutting measures. The company pledged to cut 600 back-office positions, though some 150 workers in those roles would be reassigned to other jobs. It also plans to offer “voluntary separation” packages to 165 senior executives. It will splash staffing at its fleet of 770 stores, a move affecting some 3,000 employees.
The retailer also announced the locations of 36 stores it will close in early 2016. The company had previously announced the planned closures, but had not said which locations would be affected. None of the chain’s stores in the Washington metropolitan area are to be closed.
Macy’s has been moving aggressively to try to remake itself for a new era of shopping. It has plans to open more locations of Macy’s Backstage, a newly-developed off-price concept which might help it better compete with ambitious T.J. Maxx. It’s also pushing ahead in 2016 with an expansion of Bluemercury, the beauty chain it bought last year. At a time when young beauty shoppers are often turning to Sephora or Ulta instead of department store beauty counters, Macy’s hopes Bluemercury will help strengthen its position in the category.
One relative bright spot for Macy’s during the holiday season was the online channel, where it rang up “double-digit” increases in sales and a 25% increase in the number of orders it filled. That relative strength would be consistent with what was seen in the wider retail industry during the early part of the holiday season. While Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all saw record spending online, in-store sales plunged over the holiday weekend.
55、 What can we learn about Macy’s during the holiday season?
A、Sales dropped sharply in its physical stores.
B、Its retail sales exceeded those of T.J. Maxx.
C、It helped Bluemercury establish its position worldwide.
D、It filled its stores with abundant supply of merchandise.
三、Part IV Translation
56、明朝统治中国276年，被人们描绘成人类历史上治理有序、社会稳定的最伟大的时代之一。这一时期，手工业的发展促进了市场经济和城市化。大量商品，包括酒和丝绸，都在市场销售。同时，还进口许多外国商品，如时钟和烟草。北京、南京、扬州、苏州这样的大商业中心相继形成。也是在明代，由郑和率领的船队曾到印度洋进行了七次大规模探险航行。还值得一提的是，中国文学的四大经典名著中有三部写于明代。
参考答案：
全文普通版：
The Ming Dynasty ruled China for 276 years, and it was described as one of the greatest era with ordered governance and stable society. During this period, the development of handicraft promoted the market economy and urbanization. Abundant commodities, including wine and silk, were sold on the market. Meanwhile, numerous exotic products were imported, such as clocks and tobacco. Commercial centers like Beijing, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou formed in succession. The fleet of ships led by Zheng He sailed for seven times to the Indian Ocean on a large scale in the Ming Dynasty. What is also worth mentioning is that three of the Four Great Classical Novels were written in the Ming Dynasty.
全文高配版：
The Ming Dynasty ruled China for 276 years, which is depicted as one of the greatest era that are governed orderly and stabilized in the history. During this period, the development of handicraft promoted the market economy and urbanization. Abundant commodities, including wine and silk, were sold on the market. Meanwhile, numerous exotic products were imported, such as clocks and tobacco. Commercial centers like Beijing, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou emerged in succession. It was also in Ming dynasty that the fleet of ships led by Zheng He expedited for seven times to the Indian Ocean on a large scale. What is also worth mentioning is that three of the Four Great Classical Novels were written in the Ming Dynasty.
四、Part I Writing
57、Directions: Suppose you are asked to give advice on whether to major in science or humanities at college, write an essay to state your opinion. You are required to write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.
参考答案：
【范文】
Nowadays, many students will be faced with a dilemma about which kind of major they should choose at college: science or humanities. Some people hold that they prefer the former to study science, but others take the attitude that it is much better to study humanities. From a personal perspective, I prefer the latter opinion.
The reasons why we should major in humanities are as follows. To begin with, in such a society which is full of intense competition, it is difficult for college graduates to get a great job when compared with others who have extensive knowledge, acute insight, and an innovative thought mode, which all are the excellent qualities that humanities could teach us. In other words, with such thinking mode, we could learn whatever we long for and become more competitive in job hunting. In addition, studying humanities can not only broaden our inner horizon but also cultivate a humanistic feeling which are very praiseworthy in this era.
From my perspective, people should understand the value of studying humanities at college. A better choice can be taken if we weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and only in this way can we learn more and have a promising future.
【译文】
如今，很多学生都在大学选择专业方面选择面临一个两难选择：学理科还是学文科。有些人倾向于前者，即学理科，有些人则认为学文科更好。在我看来，我更倾向于后者。
我认为应该学文科的原因如下：首先，在充满激烈竞争的社会中，找一份好工作已经变得越来越困难了，尤其是和拥有广博知识、敏锐洞察力和创新思维的人相比，这些都是学文科能教给我们的优秀品质。换言之，有了这种思维模式，我们能学习我们渴望的任何东西并在找工作的过程中更具竞争力。此外，学文科不仅能提升内在修养还能培养一种人文情怀，这二者在当今时代都是十分可贵的。
在我看来，人们应理解学文科的价值。只有平衡利弊，才能做出更好的选择；也只有这样，我们才能学到更多并拥有一个光明的未来。
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