新東方：2008年12月英語四級考試模擬沖刺試卷

　　Section B

　　Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

　　Passage One

　　Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

　　Electric cars are dirty. In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.

　　People in California love to talk about “zero-emissions vehicles,” but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants most all use fire to make it. Aside from the few folks who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators. Generators are fueled by something — usually coal, oil, but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.

　　In other words, those “zero-emissions” cars are likely coal-burning cars. It's just the coal is burned somewhere else so it looks clean. It is not. It’s as if the California Greens are covering their eyes — “If I can’t see it, it’s not happening.” Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it. But when you take that gas (or another fuel) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat — at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.

　　A gallon of gas may propel your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far — so electric cars burn more fuel than gas-powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from nukes, or geothermal, or hydro, or solar, or wind, then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical, and economic reasons, we don’t use much of those energy sources.

　　In addition, electric cars’ batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill. And finally, when cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it’s a power plant, though, all the junk is in one place. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot.

　　注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答。

　　57. What does “clueless” mean in paragraph 2?

　　A) The California Greens are covering their eyes.

　　B) People in California love to talk about zero-emissions vehicles

　　C) People in California love to have their roofs covered with solar cells

　　D) People there have no idea that so far electricity mainly comes from burning coal, oil, etc.

　　58. According to the passage, why the California Greens hold the idea “If I can’t see it, it’s not happening.”?

　　A) They do not know those clean cars are likely coal-burning cars.

　　B) They do believe that the coal is burned somewhere else so it looks clean.

　　C) They tend to hold that electricity is a nice part of energy.

　　D) They tend to maintain that gasoline is a good way to run a vehicle.

　　59. The electricity we get from a gallon of gas may make our car run __________.

　　A) not less than 25 miles.

　　B) more than 25 miles.

　　C) no less than 25 miles.

　　D) not more than 25 miles.

　　60. Compared with cars using gas, electric cars __________

　　A) do not burn fuel and more environmental.

　　B) are toxic and it is difficult for nature to clean it up when their batteries are buried in one spot.

　　C) are very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated

　　D) are poisonous for a long time and will eventually end up in a landfill.