2013年考研考试英语--阅读三(共2页).doc

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1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上2013年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）试题 阅读32013-01-05 18:402013年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）试题万学海文 教研中心英语教研室Text 3Up until a few decades ago, our visions of the future were largely - though by no means uniformly - glowingly positive. Science and technology would cure all the ills of humanity, leading to lives

2、of fulfillment and opportunity for all. Now utopia has grown unfashionable, as we have gained a deeper appreciation of the range of threats facing us, from asteroid strike to epidemic flu and to climate change. You might even be tempted to assume that humanity has little future to look forward to. B

3、ut such gloominess is misplaced. The fossil record shows that many species have endured for millions of years - so why shouldn't we? Take a broader look at our species' place in the universe, and it becomes clear that we have an excellent chance of surviving for tens, if not hundreds, of tho

4、usands of years . Look up Homo sapiens in the "Red List" of threatened species of the International Union for the Conversation of Nature (IUCN) ,and you will read: "Listed as Least Concern as the species is very widely distributed, adaptable, currently increasing, and there are no maj

5、or threats resulting in an overall population decline." So what does our deep future hold? A growing number of researchers and organisations are now thinking seriously about that question. For example, the Long Now Foundation has its flagship project a medical clock that is designed to still be

6、 marking time thousands of years hence . Perhaps willfully , it may be easier to think about such lengthy timescales than about the more immediate future. The potential evolution of today's technology, and its social consequences, is dazzlingly complicated, and it's perhaps best left to scie

7、nce fiction writers and futurologists to explore the many possibilities we can envisage. That's one reason why we have launched , a new publication dedicated to the near future. But take a longer view and there is a surprising amount that we can say with considerable assurance. As so often, the

8、past holds the key to the future: we have now identified enough of the long-term patterns shaping the history of the planet, and our species, to make evidence-based forecasts about the situations in which our descendants will find themselves. This long perspective makes the pessimistic view of our p

9、rospects seem more likely to be a passing fad. To be sure, the future is not all rosy. But we are now knowledgeable enough to reduce many of the risks that threatened the existence of earlier humans, and to improve the lot of those to come. 31. Our vision of the future used to be inspired by A our desire for lives of fulfillmentB our faith in science and technologyC our awareness of potential risksD our belief in equal opportunity 专心-专注-专业