剑桥雅思真题15阅读答案解析：Environmental practices of big businesses

剑桥雅思真题15阅读答案解析：Environmental practices of big businesses

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Environmental practices of big businesses

The environmental practices of big businesses are shaped by a fundamental fact that for many of us offends our sense of justice. Depending on the circumstances, a business may maximize the amount of money it makes, at least in the short term, by damaging the environment and hurting people. That is still the case today for fishermen in an unmanaged fishery without quotas, and for international logging companies with short-term leases on tropical rainforest land in places with corrupt officials and unsophisticated landowners. When government regulation is effective, and when the public is environmentally aware, environmentally clean big businesses may out-compete dirty ones, but the reverse is likely to be true if government regulation is ineffective and if the public doesn't care.

It is easy for the rest of us to blame a business for helping itself by hurting other people. But blaming alone is unlikely to produce change. It ignores the fact that businesses are not charities but profit-making companies, and that publicly owned companies with shareholders are under obligation to those shareholders to maximize profits, provided that they do so by legal means. US laws make a company's directors legally liable for something termed 'breach of fiduciary responsibility' if they knowingly manage a company in a way that reduces profits. The car manufacturer Henry Ford was in fact successfully sued by shareholders in 1919 for raising the minimum wage of his workers to $5 per day: the courts declared that, while Ford's humanitarian sentiments about his employees were nice, his business existed to make profits for its stockholders.

Our blaming of businesses also ignores the ultimate responsibility of the public for creating the conditions that let a business profit through destructive environmental policies. In the long run, it is the public, either directly or through its politicians, that has the power to make such destructive policies unprofitable and illegal, and to make sustainable environmental policies profitable.

The public can do that by suing businesses for harming them, as happened after the Exxon Valdez disaster, in which over 40,000 m3 of oil were spilled off the coast of Alaska. The public may also make their opinion felt by preferring to buy sustainably harvested products; by making employees of companies with poor track records feel ashamed of their company and complain to their own management; by preferring their governments to award valuable contracts to businesses with a good environmental track record; and by pressing their governments to pass and enforce laws and regulations requiring good environmental practices.

In turn, big businesses can exert powerful pressure on any suppliers that might ignore public or government pressure. For instance, after the US public became concerned about the spread of a disease known as BSE, which was transmitted to humans through infected meat, the US government's Food and Drug Administration introduced rules demanding that the meat industry abandon practices associated with the risk of the disease spreading. But for five years the meat packers refused to follow these, claiming that they would be too expensive to obey. However, when a major fast-food company then made the same demands after customer purchases of its hamburgers plummeted, the meat industry complied within weeks. The public's task is therefore to identify which links in the supply chain are sensitive to public pressure: for instance, fast-food chains or jewelry stores, but not meat packers or gold miners.

Some readers may be disappointed or outraged that I place the ultimate responsibility for business practices harming the public on the public itself. I also believe that the public must accept the necessity for higher prices for products to cover the added costs, if any, of sound environmental practices. My views may seem to ignore the belief that businesses should act in accordance with moral principles even if this leads to a reduction in their profits. But I think we have to recognize that, throughout human history, in all politically complex human societies, government regulation has arisen precisely because it was found that not only did moral principles need to be made explicit, they also needed to be enforced.

To me, the conclusion that the public has the ultimate responsibility for the behavior of even the biggest businesses is empowering and hopeful, rather than disappointing. My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong, admirable or selfish, a good guy or a bad guy. In the past, businesses have changed when the public came to expect and require different behavior, to reward businesses for behavior that the public wanted, and to make things difficult for businesses practicing behaviors that the public didn't want. I predict that in the future, just as in the past, changes in public attitudes will be essential for changes in businesses' environmental practices.

Questions 27-31

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-J, below.

Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

Big businesses

Many big businesses today are prepared to harm people and the environment in order to make money, and they appear to have no 27………….. . Lack of 28………….. by governments and lack of public 29………….. can lead to environmental problems such as 30………….. or the destruction of 31………….. .

Questions 32-34

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 32-34 on your answer sheet.

32 The main idea of the third paragraph is that environmental damage

A requires political action if it is to be stopped.

B is the result of ignorance on the part of the public.

C could be prevented by the action of ordinary people.

D can only be stopped by educating business leaders.

33 In the fourth paragraph, the writer describes ways in which the public can

A reduce their own individual impact on the environment.

B learn more about the impact of business on the environment.

C raise awareness of the effects of specific environmental disasters.

D influence the environmental policies of businesses and governments.

34 What pressure was exerted by big business in the case of the disease BSE?

A Meat packers stopped supplying hamburgers to fast-food chains.

B A fast-food company forced their meat suppliers to follow the law.

C Meat packers persuaded the government to reduce their expenses.

D A fast-food company encouraged the government to introduce legislation.

Questions 35-39

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 35-39 on your answer sheet, write

YESif the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NOif the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVENif it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

32 The public should be prepared to fund good environmental practices.

33 There is a contrast between the moral principles of different businesses.

34 It is important to make a clear distinction between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

35 The public have successfully influenced businesses in the past.

36 In the future, businesses will show more concern for the environment.

Question 40

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D:

Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.

37 What would be the best subheading for this passage?

A Will the world survive the threat caused by big businesses?

B How can big businesses be encouraged to be less driven by profit?

C What environmental dangers are caused by the greed of businesses?

D Are big businesses to blame for the damage they cause the environment?

答案解析

Question 27

答案：D

关键词：harm people, environment, make money

解题思路：通过定位词对应到文中第一段第二句，但是本句没有对应的答案。而第一段第一句说：大企业的环保行为受一个基本事实影响，而这个事实冒犯了我们大多数人的正义感。综合两句话的关系可知：第一段第一句说明有一个事实冒犯了我们的正义感，第二句给出事实，即企业为了赚钱而做出伤害人们的事情。这两句的句意表明这些企业没有道德准则。

Question 28&29

答案：E、F

关键词：governments, public, environmental problems

解题思路：文中说：当政府监管有效时，当公众有环保意识时，环境污染少的大企业可能会在竞争中战胜污染严重的企业，但如果政府监管无效并且公众不关心环保，情况就可能正好相反。这表明政府要有管制和公众要有意识才能解决环境问题，也就是说如果没有政府的管制和公众的意识就会导致环境问题。

Question 30&31

答案：H、B

关键词：destruction

解题思路：两个由or连接的并列结构的空格必然对应文中距离很近的并列关系的句子。这两道题目在文中的对应点位于前两道题目的文中对应点之前，这种乱序出题的方式可能会给部分考生带来困扰。文中说：今天这种情况依然发生在没有配额且缺乏管理的渔业的渔民当中;依然发生在那些对热带雨林拥有短期租约的国际伐木公司当中，这些地方的官员腐败并且土地所有者缺乏经验。 这说明环境问题包括捕鱼问题和破坏森林问题。

Question 32

答案：C

关键词：third paragraph

解题思路：A. 需要政治行动才能被阻止。 B. 是公众无视的结果。 C. 可以被普通民众的行动阻止。 D. 只有通过教育企业领导人才能阻止。 文中第三段总共两句话。第一句表明了我们的谴责忽视了公众的责任，虽然B选项可以对应这句话，但是这句话不是主要观点。第二句使用了强调句型来突出从长远来看，公众有能力阻止这一切。所以答案为C。

Question 33

答案：D

关键词：fourth paragraph

解题思路：A.减少他们对环境的个体影响。B.了解更多企业对环境的影响。C.增强具体环境灾难影响的意识。D.影响企业和政府的环境政策。第四段第一句就点出了公众可以起诉企业。第二句也说明公众可以做很多事情使自己的意见被听到，句中的四个并列结构全部表明相同的目的。而整段话中公众行为的目的就是第三段最后一句提到的“只有公众才能使可持续的环境政策变得有利可图”。所以答案为D。

Question 34

答案：B

关键词：BSE

解题思路：A. 肉类加工商停止向快餐连锁店供应汉堡包。B. 一家快餐公司迫使其肉类供应商遵从法律。C. 肉类加工商说服政府减少他们的费用。D. 一家快餐公司支持政府引入立法。 通过文中描述可知，原本肉类行业不遵从政府规定，后来购买肉类产品的快餐店业绩大幅下滑，迫使肉类行业服从规定。所以答案为B。

Question 35

答案：YES

关键词：good environmental practices

解题思路：文中的sound environmental practices对应题目中的good environmental practices。文中说：公众必须接受提高产品价格的必要性，以弥补健全的环保行为所增加的成本。所以和题目是完全相符的。

Question 36

答案：NOT GIVEN

关键词：moral principles

解题思路：第六段最后两句话都提到了moral principles，但是没有提到两个moral principles的对比和不同。

Question 37

答案：NO

关键词：acceptable and unacceptable behaviour

解题思路：第六段最后一句：但我认为我们必须认识到，在整个人类历史上，在所有政治环境复杂的人类社会中，政府监管之所以出现，正是因为人们发现，政府不仅需要明确道德原则，还需要强制执行这些原则。通过这句话可以看出作者强调重要的是执行。另外，第七段第二句：我的结论不是关于谁对谁错、谁值得钦佩谁自私、谁是好人谁是坏人的说教。通过这句话也可以看出作者的倾向。

Question 38

答案：YES

关键词：in the past

解题思路：文中说：在过去，当公众开始期望和要求不同的行为时，企业就会做出改变。这句话说明公众成功影响了企业。

Question 39

答案：NOT GIVEN

关键词：future

解题思路：文中无对应信息。

Question 40

答案：D

解题思路：A.世界会在大企业导致的威胁中存活下来吗? B. 大企业如何能变得不那么被利润驱动呢? C. 企业的贪婪导致了哪些环境危害呢? D. 对环境造成破坏的大企业应该受到谴责吗? 根据作者在全文中的观点可以看出，作者更倾向于认为环境破坏的主要原因是公众对企业的放任，以及公众缺少责任意识。