劍橋雅思真題15閱讀答案解析：Environmental practices of big businesses

劍橋雅思真題15閱讀答案解析：Environmental practices of big businesses

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Environmental practices of big businesses

The environmental practices of big businesses are shaped by a fundamental fact that for many of us offends our sense of justice. Depending on the circumstances, a business may maximize the amount of money it makes, at least in the short term, by damaging the environment and hurting people. That is still the case today for fishermen in an unmanaged fishery without quotas, and for international logging companies with short-term leases on tropical rainforest land in places with corrupt officials and unsophisticated landowners. When government regulation is effective, and when the public is environmentally aware, environmentally clean big businesses may out-compete dirty ones, but the reverse is likely to be true if government regulation is ineffective and if the public doesn't care.

It is easy for the rest of us to blame a business for helping itself by hurting other people. But blaming alone is unlikely to produce change. It ignores the fact that businesses are not charities but profit-making companies, and that publicly owned companies with shareholders are under obligation to those shareholders to maximize profits, provided that they do so by legal means. US laws make a company's directors legally liable for something termed 'breach of fiduciary responsibility' if they knowingly manage a company in a way that reduces profits. The car manufacturer Henry Ford was in fact successfully sued by shareholders in 1919 for raising the minimum wage of his workers to $5 per day: the courts declared that, while Ford's humanitarian sentiments about his employees were nice, his business existed to make profits for its stockholders.

Our blaming of businesses also ignores the ultimate responsibility of the public for creating the conditions that let a business profit through destructive environmental policies. In the long run, it is the public, either directly or through its politicians, that has the power to make such destructive policies unprofitable and illegal, and to make sustainable environmental policies profitable.

The public can do that by suing businesses for harming them, as happened after the Exxon Valdez disaster, in which over 40,000 m3 of oil were spilled off the coast of Alaska. The public may also make their opinion felt by preferring to buy sustainably harvested products; by making employees of companies with poor track records feel ashamed of their company and complain to their own management; by preferring their governments to award valuable contracts to businesses with a good environmental track record; and by pressing their governments to pass and enforce laws and regulations requiring good environmental practices.

In turn, big businesses can exert powerful pressure on any suppliers that might ignore public or government pressure. For instance, after the US public became concerned about the spread of a disease known as BSE, which was transmitted to humans through infected meat, the US government's Food and Drug Administration introduced rules demanding that the meat industry abandon practices associated with the risk of the disease spreading. But for five years the meat packers refused to follow these, claiming that they would be too expensive to obey. However, when a major fast-food company then made the same demands after customer purchases of its hamburgers plummeted, the meat industry complied within weeks. The public's task is therefore to identify which links in the supply chain are sensitive to public pressure: for instance, fast-food chains or jewelry stores, but not meat packers or gold miners.

Some readers may be disappointed or outraged that I place the ultimate responsibility for business practices harming the public on the public itself. I also believe that the public must accept the necessity for higher prices for products to cover the added costs, if any, of sound environmental practices. My views may seem to ignore the belief that businesses should act in accordance with moral principles even if this leads to a reduction in their profits. But I think we have to recognize that, throughout human history, in all politically complex human societies, government regulation has arisen precisely because it was found that not only did moral principles need to be made explicit, they also needed to be enforced.

To me, the conclusion that the public has the ultimate responsibility for the behavior of even the biggest businesses is empowering and hopeful, rather than disappointing. My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong, admirable or selfish, a good guy or a bad guy. In the past, businesses have changed when the public came to expect and require different behavior, to reward businesses for behavior that the public wanted, and to make things difficult for businesses practicing behaviors that the public didn't want. I predict that in the future, just as in the past, changes in public attitudes will be essential for changes in businesses' environmental practices.

Questions 27-31

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-J, below.

Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

Big businesses

Many big businesses today are prepared to harm people and the environment in order to make money, and they appear to have no 27………….. . Lack of 28………….. by governments and lack of public 29………….. can lead to environmental problems such as 30………….. or the destruction of 31………….. .

Questions 32-34

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 32-34 on your answer sheet.

32 The main idea of the third paragraph is that environmental damage

A requires political action if it is to be stopped.

B is the result of ignorance on the part of the public.

C could be prevented by the action of ordinary people.

D can only be stopped by educating business leaders.

33 In the fourth paragraph, the writer describes ways in which the public can

A reduce their own individual impact on the environment.

B learn more about the impact of business on the environment.

C raise awareness of the effects of specific environmental disasters.

D influence the environmental policies of businesses and governments.

34 What pressure was exerted by big business in the case of the disease BSE?

A Meat packers stopped supplying hamburgers to fast-food chains.

B A fast-food company forced their meat suppliers to follow the law.

C Meat packers persuaded the government to reduce their expenses.

D A fast-food company encouraged the government to introduce legislation.

Questions 35-39

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 35-39 on your answer sheet, write

YESif the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NOif the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVENif it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

32 The public should be prepared to fund good environmental practices.

33 There is a contrast between the moral principles of different businesses.

34 It is important to make a clear distinction between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

35 The public have successfully influenced businesses in the past.

36 In the future, businesses will show more concern for the environment.

Question 40

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D:

Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.

37 What would be the best subheading for this passage?

A Will the world survive the threat caused by big businesses?

B How can big businesses be encouraged to be less driven by profit?

C What environmental dangers are caused by the greed of businesses?

D Are big businesses to blame for the damage they cause the environment?

答案解析

Question 27

答案：D

關(guān)鍵詞：harm people, environment, make money

解題思路：通過定位詞對應(yīng)到文中第一段第二句，但是本句沒有對應(yīng)的答案。而第一段第一句說：大企業(yè)的環(huán)保行為受一個基本事實(shí)影響，而這個事實(shí)冒犯了我們大多數(shù)人的正義感。綜合兩句話的關(guān)系可知：第一段第一句說明有一個事實(shí)冒犯了我們的正義感，第二句給出事實(shí)，即企業(yè)為了賺錢而做出傷害人們的事情。這兩句的句意表明這些企業(yè)沒有道德準(zhǔn)則。

Question 28&29

答案：E、F

關(guān)鍵詞：governments, public, environmental problems

解題思路：文中說：當(dāng)政府監(jiān)管有效時，當(dāng)公眾有環(huán)保意識時，環(huán)境污染少的大企業(yè)可能會在競爭中戰(zhàn)勝污染嚴(yán)重的企業(yè)，但如果政府監(jiān)管無效并且公眾不關(guān)心環(huán)保，情況就可能正好相反。這表明政府要有管制和公眾要有意識才能解決環(huán)境問題，也就是說如果沒有政府的管制和公眾的意識就會導(dǎo)致環(huán)境問題。

Question 30&31

答案：H、B

關(guān)鍵詞：destruction

解題思路：兩個由or連接的并列結(jié)構(gòu)的空格必然對應(yīng)文中距離很近的并列關(guān)系的句子。這兩道題目在文中的對應(yīng)點(diǎn)位于前兩道題目的文中對應(yīng)點(diǎn)之前，這種亂序出題的方式可能會給部分考生帶來困擾。文中說：今天這種情況依然發(fā)生在沒有配額且缺乏管理的漁業(yè)的漁民當(dāng)中;依然發(fā)生在那些對熱帶雨林擁有短期租約的國際伐木公司當(dāng)中，這些地方的官員腐敗并且土地所有者缺乏經(jīng)驗。 這說明環(huán)境問題包括捕魚問題和破壞森林問題。

Question 32

答案：C

關(guān)鍵詞：third paragraph

解題思路：A. 需要政治行動才能被阻止。 B. 是公眾無視的結(jié)果。 C. 可以被普通民眾的行動阻止。 D. 只有通過教育企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人才能阻止。 文中第三段總共兩句話。第一句表明了我們的譴責(zé)忽視了公眾的責(zé)任，雖然B選項可以對應(yīng)這句話，但是這句話不是主要觀點(diǎn)。第二句使用了強(qiáng)調(diào)句型來突出從長遠(yuǎn)來看，公眾有能力阻止這一切。所以答案為C。

Question 33

答案：D

關(guān)鍵詞：fourth paragraph

解題思路：A.減少他們對環(huán)境的個體影響。B.了解更多企業(yè)對環(huán)境的影響。C.增強(qiáng)具體環(huán)境災(zāi)難影響的意識。D.影響企業(yè)和政府的環(huán)境政策。第四段第一句就點(diǎn)出了公眾可以起訴企業(yè)。第二句也說明公眾可以做很多事情使自己的意見被聽到，句中的四個并列結(jié)構(gòu)全部表明相同的目的。而整段話中公眾行為的目的就是第三段最后一句提到的“只有公眾才能使可持續(xù)的環(huán)境政策變得有利可圖”。所以答案為D。

Question 34

答案：B

關(guān)鍵詞：BSE

解題思路：A. 肉類加工商停止向快餐連鎖店供應(yīng)漢堡包。B. 一家快餐公司迫使其肉類供應(yīng)商遵從法律。C. 肉類加工商說服政府減少他們的費(fèi)用。D. 一家快餐公司支持政府引入立法。 通過文中描述可知，原本肉類行業(yè)不遵從政府規(guī)定，后來購買肉類產(chǎn)品的快餐店業(yè)績大幅下滑，迫使肉類行業(yè)服從規(guī)定。所以答案為B。

Question 35

答案：YES

關(guān)鍵詞：good environmental practices

解題思路：文中的sound environmental practices對應(yīng)題目中的good environmental practices。文中說：公眾必須接受提高產(chǎn)品價格的必要性，以彌補(bǔ)健全的環(huán)保行為所增加的成本。所以和題目是完全相符的。

Question 36

答案：NOT GIVEN

關(guān)鍵詞：moral principles

解題思路：第六段最后兩句話都提到了moral principles，但是沒有提到兩個moral principles的對比和不同。

Question 37

答案：NO

關(guān)鍵詞：acceptable and unacceptable behaviour

解題思路：第六段最后一句：但我認(rèn)為我們必須認(rèn)識到，在整個人類歷史上，在所有政治環(huán)境復(fù)雜的人類社會中，政府監(jiān)管之所以出現(xiàn)，正是因為人們發(fā)現(xiàn)，政府不僅需要明確道德原則，還需要強(qiáng)制執(zhí)行這些原則。通過這句話可以看出作者強(qiáng)調(diào)重要的是執(zhí)行。另外，第七段第二句：我的結(jié)論不是關(guān)于誰對誰錯、誰值得欽佩誰自私、誰是好人誰是壞人的說教。通過這句話也可以看出作者的傾向。

Question 38

答案：YES

關(guān)鍵詞：in the past

解題思路：文中說：在過去，當(dāng)公眾開始期望和要求不同的行為時，企業(yè)就會做出改變。這句話說明公眾成功影響了企業(yè)。

Question 39

答案：NOT GIVEN

關(guān)鍵詞：future

解題思路：文中無對應(yīng)信息。

Question 40

答案：D

解題思路：A.世界會在大企業(yè)導(dǎo)致的威脅中存活下來嗎? B. 大企業(yè)如何能變得不那么被利潤驅(qū)動呢? C. 企業(yè)的貪婪導(dǎo)致了哪些環(huán)境危害呢? D. 對環(huán)境造成破壞的大企業(yè)應(yīng)該受到譴責(zé)嗎? 根據(jù)作者在全文中的觀點(diǎn)可以看出，作者更傾向于認(rèn)為環(huán)境破壞的主要原因是公眾對企業(yè)的放任，以及公眾缺少責(zé)任意識。

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