2020年PETS-3考试教材第十六单元：时事

Unit 16 Current Affairs

Conversations：

part 1

Tow students are discussing some cocial problems.

With the rapid developmets,more and more problems are coming out.

Just think of the population explosion.

If that continues at the present rate,we'll all be starving in future.

Oh,don't say that.

Most countries are developing family planning programs now.

At least there is a solution to the population explosion.

It's all very well to say that population growth will be controlled,but I don't think the figures show any real improvement yet,and all the people alive now obviously want to have children.

You may be right.But there are other things that need controlling.

Take pollution for example,as the population increases,it waste materials;and industry waste a lot of pollution.

Yes,because industry is using up the world's natural resources faster and faster,especially energy.

Do you know millions of tons of oil are spilt into the sea every year?

It's terrible!

Yes,I agree,oil is a dreadful problem.

Let's hope the scientists can develop new sources of energy.

Tang and his foreign teacher Victor are exchanging ideas about the science of clone.

I read from the paper that an American physicist said he was ready to clone a human being and hoped to produce the first human duplicate within the next 18 months.

You have read a lot.

The scientist also said that if the United States does outlaw human cloning,he would set up his operation elsewhere.

I first learnt about the clone from the cloning of Dolly,a sheep created using genetic material from an adult cell.

It's said that the difference between that and cloning a human being was not that great.

Many experts said that is was not a fear of science but of how to control the technology.

Yes,I agree.

And it seems to me that is touches on a central theme--search for immortality.

Huh,huh,quite right.

Everybody seems to believe that you'd just be a younger version of who you are today and could use all your experience and shape your life because you now know better.

But the reality is that you'd go through another likfe and it wouldn't be you.

So it's hard to see the future of teh human cloning.

True.In fact,technology is neither good nor evil.

It's just the use of it.

part 3

Sarah and Matthew are talking about problems related to the equality of women and men.

It strikes me that here in Britain women have already got as much freedom as they could possibly want.

They've got the vote,they can go to university,they can compete with men in the professions on equal terms.

I agree,but not many.

Most of them are still housewives.

Can you imagine the monotony,the boredom,the frustration?

I can imagine it easily enough.

But don't forget that a lot of men have equally boring jobs and less freedom to do them in their own way.

Most housewives,in my experience,are content to be housewives.

Take my wife Lisa for example,she's not bored or frustrated;

She finds her life quite satisfying;she cleans,cooks,gardens...

Oh,I'm aware of that.

That's becuase over the centuries men have trained and educated women to consider themselves inferior and to accept their position.

You men they've been conditioned to accept an inferior position?

Exactly,they've been brainwashed.

It's the job of the women's Lib Movement to open their eyes to the way they have been fooled and dominated and exploited all these years.

I believe the housework and the bringing up the children should be shared equally.

Well,I do that at my house;and I fill up the stove and mow the lawn and dig the garden.

Anyway I do quite a lot of the shopping.

Fancy that!

And in my time I've bathed a few babies,changed nappies and washed them.

Well,all I can say is you must be pretty unusual.

My husband's never touched a nappy in his life.

part 4

On Free Birth Control.

Peter,what sections of the population do you think free birth control techniques should be available to?

They should be...available to all sections fo the community,er...things are getting to such a pitch taht I personally think that...er...not only should birth control methods be available to all sectilons of the community,but indeed should be compulsory.

There should be some kind of law which says that a family should not have more than three children,a complete maximum of three children,if they have three children,then they must be lbliged by law,almost to use birth control,if not have er...various kinds of operation which...um...make conception impossible.

But surely this is very er...explosive in social terms.

It's very...it's a very totalitarian notion,but the alternative...if we look around us in the world outside is millions of people starving to death in places,and people suffering from malnutrition in...in other parts of the underdeveloped world and indeed even in parts of the so-called developed world.

Passage China Scare,Is It Real?

America's love-hate relationship with China develops speedily.

The latest setback in the bilateral relation is another fearsome"China Scare".

Actually,though,in America it is nothing new.

The United States'politics seems to need a"China Scare"from time to time.

Recall that nearly a storm started around the book

The Coming Cnflict with China in 1997.

Its author was two US journalists frmerly working i Beijing.

The debate was anything but positive about the Sino-US relationship.

It is true that China's strategic aims in Asia are not completely the same with those of the US.

However,the authors seemed to worry far too much by putting much emphasis on China's military strength.

American interest groups are afraid of competing with Chinese imports,because more and more American consumers bigin to find Chinese goods an much cheaper choice.

So they held this political view that China's rapid growth is not a blessing for all concerned.

Instead it was being thought as a force threatening other Asia economies and America's too.

President George W.Bush"encourages the transfer of money,industrial capacity and technology to China that will help its development but sill threaten the US and its allies",charges William Hawkins,a supporter for protecting US business and industry.

Then there's also people saying that China's gain is basically on every one else's loss.

An increasingly globalized and modernized nation of 1.3 billion is not a win-win for almost everyone.

It's a losing situation for everyone,but for China.

That's absurd,I think.

Sure,China's neighbors in Asia are worried about Chinese competition and they know they have to work harder in order to compete with China.

However,it si unnecessarily sending scare by imagining that economic growth will be greatly reduced,domestic stock markets will get fuined and employment levels will become lower.

Certainly,China's economic progress will cause some tense moments.

But,on the whole,

Asia and the rest of the world will benefit from China's success.

Surely,China's entry into World Trade Organization and its globalization will not be botally smooth.

Some people on the mainland who want to protect Chinese industries would interfere to slow down market opening.

On the other hand,the Bush administration's decision to cut down on import quotas on foreign steel brought about world wide anger.

That decision has made US strategic and economic allies in Asia and Europe angrier at America than at anything China has done lately.

So who is the greater threat--China or the United States

--to the world economy?

Let's just say that what continues to be needed in America's relationship with China is not another"red scare",but the three facts all too often missing:common sense,political maturity and intellectual honesty.

Words and Expressions:

speedy setback bilateral

adj.快速的n.挫折adj.双边的

fearsome scare recall

adj.可怕的n.恐慌v.回想

conflict author journalist

n.冲突n.作者n.记者

formerly debate positive

adv.从前，以前n.辩论adj.乐观

strategic emphasis military

adj.战略的n.强调adj.军事的n.军队

compete import consumer

v.竞争n.进口n.消费者

concern transfer charge

v.关系，关于n.转让v.指责

globalize modernize absurd

v.全球化v.现代化adj.荒谬的

competition domestic stock

n.竞争adj.国内的n.股票

entry globalization interfere

n.进入n.全球化v.干涉

administration quota maturity

n.政府，政权n.配额n.成熟

intellectual honesty

adj.知识的;理性的n.诚实，真诚

Exercises Section I Listening Comprehension

Listen to the record.

Answer each question by choosing A,B,C or D from the four possible choices.

A 1.This bike doesn't have brake,and paintings on it have come off.

It's not worth buying at all.

That's not a bad-looking bike.

I'd like to have it so long as it can run.

What's in the headlines today?

It says here that one war is ending in the Middle East

And that another one is starting in Africa.

Most couontries are developing family planning programs now.

It's all very well to say that population growth will be controled,but I don't think the figures show any real improvement.

I first learnt about the clone from the cloning of Dolly,a sheep created using genetic material from an adult cell.

It's said that the difference between that and cloning a human being was not that great.

So it's hard to see the future of the human cloning.

True.In fact,technology is neither good nor evil.

It's just the use of it.

B I heard that the country o f Saudi Arabia is suffering from energy shortages just like we are here in China.

I heard that,too.

Who would eve thought that Saudi Arabia would have an energy shortage?

That country produces more oil than any other antion in the world.

Their energy shortage is lack of electricity.

It has been reported that new office buildings and homes have stood empty for months waiting for power hookups.

I heard that a member of the royal family paid$30 000 in order to get a power hookup in his new home.

The solution to problem seems simple.

Why don't they just build more power plants and use that enormous supply of oil they have?

I guess they have found the solution to be more complicated than that.

It seems that cash is tight and the demand for electricity is growing three times as fast as the economy.

For a long time the Saudis have resisted outside control of sensitive industries,but now they are hatching plans for private utilities with some foreign participation to help supply electricity.

It seems that problems and solutions are the same the world over.

That's true.

One of the princes who is pushing a private utility plan has an interesting slogan,"To the market,for the market,by the market."

C Are you worried by the rising crime rate?

If you are,then you probably know that your house,possessions and person are increasingly in danger of suffering from the tremendous rise in the cases of burglary and assault.

Figures indicate an ever-increasing crime rate but it is only too easy to imagine

"It will never happen to me".

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Supplementary Reading

Human Activity Threating Mount Qomolangma

Asenior scientist warned on Sunday that human carelessness is putting the delicate ecological balance of Mount Qomolangma in peril.

China Association for Scientific Expedition President

Gao Dengyi revealed an alarming that 615 tons of waste were dumped by visitors to the peak between 1921 and 1999.

Gao asked the central government to establish a national station to strengthen environmental monitoring and research on the world's highest peak.

"The effort will not only benefit China but the rest of the world,"said Gao,

Adding that data collected on the mountain could shed more light on global environmental and climate change trends.

Gao,whose team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has researched the mountain since the 1960s,said:"We need the government's backing to continue the effort."

Further activities are required to increase environmental awareness and cut pollution on the mountain.

The greater popularity of the mountain is taking its toll,with its snow becoming increasingly contaminated by DDT and lead.

"We have monitored more and more poisonous elements on the mountain,"Gao said.

"The waste left behind has resulted in a worse environment there,"warned Gao.

Gao,who has also been conducting environmetal research on the Qinghai-

Tibet Plateau since the 1960s,said that the hole in the ozone layer over the plateau has not expanded in recent years.

"Ozone depletion over the plateau was not caused by human activity,so it didn't change much during previous years,"said Gao.

"In fact,there is no'hole'over the region and the amount of ozone is just less that other parts of the world,excluding the Antarctic and Arctic,"Gao said.

"So far,the ozone layer above the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau can ward off ultraviolet radiation,"said Gao.

"But the ozone holes above the North and South poles are extending,"said Gao.

Each spring,when the sun rises over Antarctica,chemical reactions involving chlorine and bromine from man-made CFCs and bromine-containing compounds occur in the stratosphere and destroy ozone,causing the ozone hole.

This also happens over the Arctic."But the ozone depletion area over China's sky is caused by meteoric and geological factors."

The low ozone area over the plateau has been formed by atmospheric convergence and divergence near the plateau's surface and in the sky,scientific data has shown since 1987.

Despite that,China has been working with international community to protect the world's ozone layer for many years.With the help of funds donated by the international community and measures taken by the Chinese government,the country has achieved a great deal in stopping the roduction and consumption of ozone depleting substances.

For example,figures from the State Environmental Protection Administration whow that the production of CFCs in China now stands at nearly 30 000 tons a year,down from 45 000 tons in 1999,when the country started to phase out CFC production.

By 2010---as agreed by the Montreal Protocal--

China will have ended CFC production.

China has received US$450 Million from the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of Montreal Protocol since 1992 and more than 200 projects have been started.