Abreakthrough(突破)intheprovisionofenergyfromthesunfortheEuropeanEconomicCommunity(EEC)couldbebroughtfrowardbyuptotwodecades,ifamodestincreasecouldbeprovidedintheEEC’sresearcheffortinthisfield,accordingtotheseniorEECscientistsengagedinexperimentsinsolarenergyatEEC’sscientificlaboratoriesatIspra,nearMilan.
TheseniorWestGermanscientistinchargeoftheCommunity’ssolarenergyprogramme,Mr.JoachimGretz,toldjournaliststhatatpresentlevelsofresearchspendingitwasmostunlikelythatsolarenergywouldprovideasmuchasthreepercentoftheCommunity’senergyrequirementsevenaftertheyear2000.Buthesaidthatwithamodestincreaseinthepresentsums,devotedbytheEECtothisworkitwaspossiblethatthebreakthroughcouldbeachievedbytheendofthenextdecade.
Mr.GretzcalculatesthatifsolarenergyonlyprovidedthreepercentoftheEEC’sneeds,thiscouldstillproduceasavingofaboutabillionpoundsinthepresentbillforimportedenergyeachyear.AndhebelievesthatwiththepossibilityofutilizingmoreadvancedtechnologyinthisfielditmightbepossibletosatisfyamuchbiggershareoftheCommunity’sfutureenergyneeds.
AtpresenttheEECspendsabout$2.6millionsayearonsolarresearchatIspra,oneoftheEEC’sofficialjointresearchcentres,andanother$3millionsayearinindirectresearchwithuniversitiesandotherindependentbodies.
练习题：
Choosecorrectanswerstothequestion:
1.Thephrase"bebroughtforward"(Line2,Para.1)mostprobablymeans"______".
A.beexpected
B.becompleted
C.beadvanced
D.beintroduced
2.Somescientistsbelievethatabreakthroughintheuseofsolarenergydependson______.
A.sufficientfunding
B.furtherexperiments
C.advancedtechnology
D.well-equippedlaboratories
3.AccordingtoMr.Gretz,thepresentsumofmoneywillenablethescientiststoprovide_____.
A.morethan3%oftheEEC’sneedsaftertheyear2000
B.only3%oftheEEC’sneedsbeforetheyear2000
C.lessthan3%oftheEEC’sneedsbeforetheyear2000
D.3%oftheEEC’sneedsaftertheyear2000
4.WhichofthefollowingisNOTtrueaccordingtothepassage
A.TheEECspendsonebillionpoundsonimportedenergyeachyear.
B.Atthepresentlevelofresearchspending,itisdifficulttomakeanysignificantprogressintheprovisionofenergyfromthesun.
C.Thedesiredbreakthroughcouldbeobtainedbytheendofthenextdecadeifinvestmentwereincreased.
D.ThetotalyearlyspendingoftheEEConsolarenergyresearchamountedtoalmost6million.
5.Theapplicationofadvancedtechnologytoresearchinsolarenergy______.
A.wouldleadtoabigincreaseinresearchfunding
B.wouldmakeitunnecessarytoimportoil
C.wouldmakeitpossibletomeetthefutureenergyneedsoftheEEC
D.wouldprovideamuchgreaterproportionoftheCommunity’sfutureenergyneeds
参考答案
1.[C]本题可以采用排除法。A项“期望(突破)”不合逻辑;B项complete不能跟breakthrough搭配;D项“引出(突破)”句义不通。故只能选C。
3.[C]第2段首句提到，如果科研经费保持目前的水平，即使到2000年太阳能也不可能供应欧共体所需能源的3%，C与之相符。
4.[A]根据第3段第1句可知，10亿英镑是在太阳能提供给EEC所需能源的3%这一前提下，每年可在能源进口省下来的钱，故A表述错误。本题也可以采用排除法：B、C两项的内容出现在了第2段;D出现在第4段中，均可排除。
5.[D]根据第3段第2句可知，利用先进的技术能更大地满足欧共体未来的能源需求，故选D。