Directions: In the following
article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most
suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There
are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks.
A great many articles and books discussing
environmental and resource problems begin with the proposition that there is an
environmental and resource crisis. If this means that the situation of humanity
is worse now than in the past, then the idea of a crisis-and all that follows
from it-is dead wrong. In almost every respect important to humanity, the trends
have been improving, not deteriorating. Our world
now supports 5.6 billion people. In the nineteenth century, the earth could
sustain only 1 billion. And 10,000 years ago, only 1 million people could keep
themselves alive. People are now living more healthily than ever before.
One would expect lovers of humanity-people who
hate war and worry about famine in Africa-to jump with joy at this extraordinary
triumph of the human mind and human organization over the raw forces of nature.
41．______ It is amazing but true that a resource
shortage resulting from population or income growth usually leaves us better off
than if the shortage had never arisen. 42．______
The prices of food, metals, and other raw materials have been declining by
every measure since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and as far back as
we know; that is, raw materials have been getting less scarce throughout
history, defying the common sense notion that if one begins with an inventory of
a resource and uses some up, there will be less left. This is despite, and
indirectly because of, increasing population. 43．______
Also, we do not say that a better future happens automatically or without
effort. 44．______ We are confident that the nature
of the physical world permits continued improvement in humankind’s economic lot
in the long run, indefinitely. Of course, there are always newly arising local
problems, shortages, and pollution, resulting from climate or
increased population and income and new technologies. Sometimes temporary
large-scale problems arise. 45．______That is the great lesson to be learned from
human history. [A] If firewood had not become scarce in
seventeenth-century England, coal would not have been developed. If coal and
whale oil shortages hadn’t loomed, oil wells would not have been dug.
[B] But the world’s physical conditions and the
resilience ( power of recovering quickly) of a well-functioning economic and
social system enable us to overcome such problems, and the solutions usually
leave us better off than if the problem had never arisen.
[C] The recent extraordinary decrease in the death rate-to my mind, the
greatest miracle in history-accounts for the bumper crop of humanity. In
the last 200 years, life expectancy in the advanced countries jumped from the
mid-30’s to 70’s. [D] Instead, they lament (feel sorrow
for) that there are so many human beings, and wring their hands ( indicate
despair) about the problems that more people inevitably bring, and the problem
that resources will be further diminished. [E] It will
happen because men and women -- sometimes as individuals, sometimes as
enterprises working for profit, sometimes as voluntary nonprofit groups, and
sometimes as governmental agencies-will address problems with muscle and mind,
and will probably overcome, as has been usual through history.
[F] Statistic studies show that population growth doesn’t lead to slower
economic growth, though this defies common sense. Nor is high population density
a drag on economic development. [G] We don’t say that all
is well everywhere, and we don’t predict that all will be rosy in the future.
Children are hungry and sick; people live out lives of physical or intellectual
poverty and lack of opportunity; war or some other pollution may do us in.