Question

Three Yale University professors agreed in a discussion that the automobile was what one of them called “Public Health Enemy No. 1 in this century”. Besides polluting the air and overcrowding the cities, cars are involved in more than half the disastrous accidents, and they contribute to heart disease “because we won’t walk anywhere any more,” said Richard Weeinaman, professor of medicine and public health.

Speaking of many of those man-made dangers of the automobile, Arthur W. Galson, professor of biology, said it was possible to make a kerosene-burning turbine car that would “lessen smog by a very large factor”. But he expressed doubt whether Americans were willing to give up moving about the countryside at 90 miles per hour in a large vehicle. “America seems wedded to the motor car—every family has to have at least two, and one has to be a convertible (敞篷汽车) with 300 horsepower,” professor Galson continued. “Is this the way of life that we choose because we treasure these values?”

For professor Sears, part of the blame lies with “a society that regards profit as a supreme value, under the illusion that anything that’s technically possible is, therefore, morally justified”. Professor Sears also called the country’s dependence on its modern automobiles “terrible economics” because of the large horsepower used simply “moving one individual to work”. But he admitted that Americans have painted themselves into a corner by allowing the national economy to become so dependent on the automobile industry.

“The solution,” Dr Weeinerman said, “is not finding a less dangerous fuel but a different system of inner city transportation. Because of the increasing use of cars, public transportation has been allowed to wither (衰弱) and grow worse, so that if you can’t walk to where you want to go, you have to have a car in most cities,” he declared. This, in turn, Dr Weeinerman contended, is responsible for the “arteriosclerosis (动脉硬化)” of public roads, for the pollution of the inner city and for the middle-class movement to the suburbs.

1.The main idea of the passage is that .

A. Americans are used to travelling by cars

B. American public transportation is growing worse

C. American car industry caused disastrous road accidents

D. American people’s health is threatened by automobiles

2.It can be inferred from the passage that .

A. Americans prefer cars to anything else

B. Americans are interested in fast automobiles

C. kerosene-burning engines cause more problems

D. kerosene-burning engines are green transportation

3.In Paragraph 3, Professor Sears implies that .

A. technology is always good for people

B. technology is a sword with two sides

C. more attention should be paid to social effects

D. US doesn’t care about the environment at all

Answer 1

1.D

2.B

3.C

【解析】

试题分析：本文主要讲的是汽车对人的身体健康的影响。

1.主旨大意题。文章第一段第一句指出，三位耶鲁大学的教授一致认为汽车是“本国公共健康的头号大敌”，随后作者又指明汽车的使用会污染空气，导致交通事故，引发心脏病等，故选D。

2.推理判断题。文章第二段前两句话指出人类有必要生产煤油汽车，但又提出疑问：人类是否愿意放弃在乡间以每小时90英里的速度高速行使的乐趣？可见，人们对高速行驶的兴趣大于对健康的关心，故选B。

3.细节理解题。文章最后一段提到：Dr．Weinermen认为：解决这一问题的关键不是寻找一种污染小的燃料，而是建立一套完全不同的市内交通体系。因为汽车的增多，公共交通已经变得越来越糟糕。除了开车，你无法走到你想去的地方，因此，解决这个问题的办法在于改善市内公共交通系统，故选C。

考点：社会生活类阅读