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  3. The night is not what it was. Once, the Earth was cast perpetually (永恒地) hal

The night is not what it was. Once, the Earth was cast perpetually (永恒地) hal

游客2024-02-21  15
问题     The night is not what it was. Once, the Earth was cast perpetually (永恒地) half in shadow. Man and beast slept beneath inky skies, dotted with glittering stars. Then came fire, candle, and the light bulb, gradually drawing back the curtain of darkness and giving us unprecedented control over our lives.
    But a brighter world, as is becoming increasingly clear, has its drawbacks. A study released last week finding that breast cancer is nearly twice as common in brightly-lit communities as in dark ones only added to a growing body of evidence that artificial light threatens public health, wildlife, and possibly even safety.
    Those findings are all the more troubling considering that an estimated 30 percent of outdoor lighting — plus even some indoor lighting — is wasted. Ill-conceived, ineffective, inefficient lighting costs U.S. about $10.4 billion a year, according to Bob Gent of the International Dark-Sky Association, a nonprofit that aims to control light pollution, and it generates 38 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
    Motivated by such trends, more than two dozen cities worldwide will go dim on March 29 in an hour-long demonstration. According to the World Wildlife Fund, which is organizing the event, an estimated 2.2 million Australians switched off their lights or took other action during "Earth Hour" last year in Sydney, briefly reducing that city’s energy use by more than 10 percent.
    A number of groups are trying to measure light pollution and assess its detrimental (有害 的) effects on the environment in the hope that people will reduce their own contribution to the problem. Last week, as part of an annual program called GLOBE at Night, thousands of students and amateur scientists stared up at the constellation Orion (猎户座星群) from locations across the country and reported how many of its stars they could see. No data are yet available, but in dark, rural areas, says Gent, about 2,000 stars are typically visible at night, compared with "maybe five" in a bright city square — and about 5,000 in centuries past.
    People who are working while others are stargazing may face the greatest risks. Nighttime exposure to white light can fuel the growth of tumors (肿瘤), experiments show. Two decades of research indicates that women who work night shifts have usually high rates of breast cancer. [br] What will people in some cities do on March 29 according to the passage?
选项 A、They will turn out some lights for an hour.
B、They will organize an event to have some fun.
C、They will hold a demonstration which will lasts for an hour.
D、They will gather together and count how many stars they can see.
答案 A
解析 根据题干中的March 29将本题出处定位到第四段。该段首句提到，3月29日，世界上超过24个城市将go dim一小时。结合下句提到的去年在悉尼的“地球一小时”活动中，约220万澳大利亚人熄灯或采取其他行动可知，an hour-long demonstration指的其实就是“Earth Hour”，go dim则应与switch offtheir lights同义，指熄灯，故答案为[A]。根据该段第二句的the World WildlifeFund，which is organizing the event可知，组织活动的是世界自然基金会，而非people in some cities，且[C]中的hold a demonstration指的是“抗议”而非“开展活动”，故排除[C]。
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