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1、2018年可锐考研英语阅读真题范文（二）Poor nations to bear brunt as world warmsThe world s richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked to global warming, are already spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst consequences, like drought and risi
2、ng seas.But despite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming, these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world s most vulnerable regions-most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly
3、 poor.Next Friday, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body that since 1990 has been assessing global warming, will underline this growing climate divide, according to scientists involved in writing it-with wealthy nations far from the equator not only e
4、xperiencing fewer effects but also better able to withstand them.Two thirds of the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide, a heat trapping greenhouse gas that can persist in the air for centuries, has come in nearly equal proportions from the United States and Western European countries. Those and ot
5、her wealthy nations are investing in windmill powered plants that turn seawater to drinking water, in flood barriers and floatable homes, and in grains and soybeans genetically altered to flourish even in a drought.In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the global emissions of carbo
6、n dioxide from fuel burning since 1900, yet its 840 million people face some of the biggest risks from drought and disrupted water supplies, according to new scientific assessments. As the oceans swell with water from melting ice sheets, it is the crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt, alo
7、ng with small island nations, that are most at risk.Like the sinking of the Titanic, catastrophes are not democratic, said Henry I. Miller, a fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A much higher fraction of passengers from the cheaper decks were lost. We ll see the same phenomeno
8、n with global warming.The inequity of this whole situation is really enormous if you look at who s responsible and who s suffering as a result, said Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations climate panel. In its most recent report, in February, the panel said that decades of warming and
9、rising seas were inevitable with the existing greenhouse gas buildup, no matter what was done about cutting future greenhouse gas emissions.Many other experts insist this is not an either or situation. They say that cutting the vulnerability of poor regions needs much more attention, but add that un
10、less emissions are curbed, there will be centuries of warming and rising seas that will threaten ecosystems, water supplies, and resources from the poles to the equator, harming rich and poor.二The falling dollarTHE dollar s tumble this week was attended by predictable shrieks from the markets; but a
11、s it fell to a 20 month low of $1.32 against the euro, the only real surprise was that it had not slipped sooner. Indeed, there are good reasons to expect its slide to continue, dragging it below the record low of $1.36 against the euro that it hit in December 2004.The recent decline was triggered b
12、y nasty news about the American economy. New figures this week suggested that the housing market s troubles are having a wider impact on the economy. Consumer confidence and durable goods orders both fell more sharply than expected. In contrast, German business confidence has risen to a 15 year high
13、. There are also mounting concerns that central banks in China and elsewhere, which have been piling up dollars assiduously for years, may start selling.Yet cyclical factors only partly explain why the dollar has been strong. At bottom, its attractiveness is based more on structural factors-or, more
14、 accurately, on an illusion about structural differences between the American and European economies.The main reason for the dollar s strength has been the widespread belief that the American economy vastly outperformed the world s other rich country economies in recent years. But the figures do not
15、 support the hype. Sure, America s GDP growth has been faster than Europe s, but that is mostly because its population has grown more quickly too. Dig deeper and the difference shrinks. Official figures of productivity growth, which should in theory be an important factor driving currency movements,
16、 exaggerate America s lead. If the two are measured on a comparable basis, productivity growth over the past decade has been almost the same in the euro area as it has in America. Even more important, the latest figures suggest that, whereas productivity growth is now slowing in America, it is accelerating in the euro zone.So, contrary to popular perceptions, America s economy has not significantly outperforme
