长篇阅读:Can societies be rich and green?If our economies are to flourish,if global poverty is to be eliminated

Section B（2016年6月英语六级卷1真题）

Directions:In this section,you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it.Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs.Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.You may choose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

Can societies be rich and green?

[A]“If our economies are to flourish,if global poverty is to be eliminated and if the well-being of the world’s people enhanced—not just in this generation but in succeeding generations—we must make sure we take care of the natural environment and resources on which our economic activity depends.”That statement comes not,as you might imagine,from a stereotypical tree-hugging,save-the-world greenie(环保主义者),but from Gordon Brown,a politician with a reputation for rigour,thoroughness and above all,caution.

[B]A surprising thing for the man who runs one of the world’s most powerful economies to say?Perhaps;though in the run-up to the five-year review of the Millennium(千年的)Goals,he is far from alone.The roots of his speech,given in March at the roundtable meeting of environment and energy ministers from the G20 group of nations,stretch back to 1972,and the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.

[C]“The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world,”read the final declaration from this gathering,the first of a sequence which would lead to the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992 and the World Development Summit in Johannesburg three years ago.

[D]Hunt through the reports prepared by UN agencies and development groups—many for conferences such as this year’s Millennium Goals review—and you will find that the linkage between environmental protection and economic progress is a common thread.

[E]Managing ecosystems sustainably is more profitable than exploiting them,according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.But finding hard evidence to support the thesis is not so easy.Thoughts turn first to some sort of global statistic,some indicator which would rate the wealth of nations in both economic and environmental terms and show a relationship between the two.

[F]If such an indicator exists,it is well hidden.And on reflection,this is not surprising;the single word“environment”has so many dimensions,and there are so many other factors affecting wealth—such as the oil deposits—that teasing out a simple economy-environment relationship would be almost impossible.

[G]The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,a vast four-year global study which reported its initial conclusions earlier this year,found reasons to believe that managing ecosystems sustainably—working with nature rather than against it—might be less profitable in the short term,but certainly brings long-term rewards.

[H]And the World Resources Institute(WRI)in its World Resources 2005 report,issued at the end of August,produced several such examples from Africa and Asia;it also demonstrated that environmental degradation affects the poor more than the rich,as poorer people derive a much higher proportion of their income directly from the natural resources around them.

[I]But there are also many examples of growing wealth by trashing the environment,in rich and poor parts of the world alike,whether through unregulated mineral extraction,drastic water use for agriculture,slash-and-burn farming,or fossil-fuel-guzzling(大量消耗)transport.Of course,such growth may not persist in the long term—which is what Mr.Brown and the Stockholm declaration were both attempting to point out.Perhaps the best example of boom growth and bust decline is the Grand Banks fishery.For almost five centuries a very large supply of cod(鳕鱼)provi