Text 2
While fossil fuels - coal, oil, gas – still generate roughly 85 percent of the world’s energy supply, it’s clearer than ever that the future belongs to renewable sources such as wind and solar. The move to renewable is picking up momentum around the world: They now account for more than half of new power sources going on line.
Some growth stem from a commitment by governments and farsighted businesses to fund cleaner energy sources. But increasingly the story is about the plummeting prices of renewables, especially wind and solar. The cost of solar panelshas dropped by 80 percent and the cost of wind turbines by close to one-third in the past eight years.
In many parts of the world renewable energy is already a principal energy source. In Scotland, for example, wind turbines provide enough electricity to power 95 percent of homes. While the rest of the world takes the lead, notably China and Europe, the United States is also seeing a remarkable shift. In March, for the first time, wind and solar power accounted for more than 10 percent of the power generated in the US, reported the US Energy Information Administration.
President Trump has underlined fossil fuels – especially coal – as the path to economic growth. In a recent speech in Iowa, he dismissed wind power as an unreliable energy source. But that message did not play well with many in Iowa, where wind turbines dot the fields and provide 36 percent of the state’s electricity generation – and where tech giants like Microsoft are being attracted by the availability of clean energy to power their data centers.
The question “what happens when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine?” has provided a quick put-down for skeptics. But a boost in the storage capacity of batteries is making their ability to keep power flowing around the clock more likely.
The advance is driven in part by vehicle manufacturers, who are placing big bets on battery-powered vehicles. Although electric cars are still a rarity on roads now, this massive investment could change the picture rapidly in coming years.
While there’s a long way to go, the trend lines for renewables are spiking. The pace of change in energy sources appears to be speeding up – perhaps just in time to have a meaningful effect in showing climate change. What Washington does – or doesn’t do – to promote alternative energy may mean less and less at a time of a global shift in thought.
26. The word “plummeting” (Line 3, Para.2) is closest in meaning to______.
A. stabilizing
B. changing
C. falling
D. rising
27. According to Paragraph 3, the use of renewable energy in America_____.
A. is progressing notably
B. is as extensive as in Europe
C. faces many challenges
D. has proved to be impractical
28. It can be learned that in Iowa, ____.
A. wind is a widely used energy source.
B. wind energy has replaced fossil fuels
C. tech giants are investing in clean energy
D. there is a shortage of clean energy supply
29. Which of the following is true about clean energy according to Paragraphs 5& 6?
A. Its application has boosted battery storage.
B. It is commonly used in car manufacturing.
C. Its continuous supply is becoming a reality.
D. Its sustainable exploitation will remain difficult.
30. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that renewable energy____.
A. will bring the US closer to other countries
B. will accelerate global environmental change
C. is not really encouraged by the US government
D. is not competitive enough with regard to its cost
【参考答案】BBDCA
Text 3
The power and ambition of the giants of the digital economy is astonishing – Amazon has just announced the purchase of the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.5bn, but two years ago Facebook paid even more than that to acquire the WhatsApp messaging service, which doesn’t have any physical product at all. What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users’friendships and social lives.
Facebook promised the European commission then that it would not link phone numbers to Facebook identities, but it broke the promise almost as soon as the deal went through. Even without knowing what was in the messages, the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be. What political journalist, what party whip, would not want to know the makeup of the Whats App groups in which Theresa May’s enemies are currently plotting? It may be that the value to Amazon is not so much the 460 shops it owns, but the records of which customers have purchased what.
Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power. But it is clumsy. For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy. By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power. But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too. Competition law as presently interpreted deals with financial disadvantage to consumers and this is not obvious when the users of these services don’t pay for them. The users of their services are not their customers. That would be the people who buy advertising from them – and Facebook and Google, the two virtual giants, dominate digital advertising to the disadvantage of all other media and entertainment companies.
The product they’re selling is data, and we, the users, convert our lives to data for the benefit of the digital giants. Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew they produce when they feed, so Google farms us for the data that our digital lives yield. Ants keep predatory insects away from where their aphids feed; Gmail keeps the spammers out of our in boxes. It doesn’t feel like a human or democratic relationship, even if both sides benefit.
31. According to Paragraph1, Facebook acquired Whats App for its ______.
A. digital products
B. user information
C. physical assets
D. quality service
32. Linking phone numbers to Facebook identities may ______.
A. worsen political disputes
B. mess up customer records
C. pose a risk to Facebook users
D. mislead the European commission
33. According to the author, competition law ______.
A. should serve the new market powers
B. may worsen the economic imbalance
C. should not provide just one legal solution
D. cannot keep pace with the changing market
34. Competition law as presently interpreted can hardly protect Facebook users because ______.
A. they are not defined as customers
B. they are not financially reliable
C. the services are generally digital
D. the services are paid for by advertisers
35. The ants analogy is used to illustrate ______.
A. a win- win business model between digital giants
B. a typical competition pattern among digital giants
C. the benefits provided for digital giants’ customers
D. the relationship between digital giants and their users
【参考答案】DACBD
