(1) A year has passed since Chile’s 33 trapped miners were hauled to freedom

游客2024-08-24 6

问题 (1) A year has passed since Chile’s 33 trapped miners were hauled to freedom in the Atacama Desert. By and large, it’s been a relatively safe year in the country’s mines. The number of deaths from mining accidents has fallen sharply, from 27 in the first half of 2010 to 12 in the same period this year. Although it is too early to tell how much of that improvement will stick, the days when mining claimed hundreds of Chilean lives each year are thankfully gone. The government has increased the number of inspectors at Chile’s mines from 18 at the time of last year’s accident to 45 now. Those officials have carried out more than 3800 inspections in Chile’s 8000 mines so far this year. In July the government sent a draft bill to Parliament to overhaul mine safety regulation, describing it as the most important legislation in the area in 30 years.
(2) Despite this good work, however, there is one glaring anomaly that needs to be addressed: Chile has yet to ratify (正式批准) the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 176 on mining safety. The convention has been around for 13 years, and has been adopted by 25 countries from Albania to Zimbabwe. It establishes workers’ rights to refuse work they consider unsafe, to leave a mine they consider dangerous and to elect their own health and safety representatives. In the days after last year’s remarkable rescue Sebastian Pinera, the President, promised to ratify the convention. But today his government still seems hesitant to do so. It has asked the ILO for more information on how the measures would affect the mining industry, which accounts for around a fifth of the country’s GDP.
(3) Even though all 33 people trapped in the San Jose mine were rescued, last year was still the deadliest in Chile’s mines for over a decade: 45 miners were killed at work. It’s no coincidence that it was also the year in which the copper price averaged a record high of over $3.40 a pound ($7.50 per kg). When the price of Chile’s chief export is high, accidents happen. That’s because an army of part-time, unsupervised miners, often with little experience, head out into the Atacama Desert in search of the mineral. Mines that closed long ago because they were unprofitable suddenly find they can make money again and reopen, often with no better safety standards than when they closed. The reverse is also true: when the copper price is low, the accident rate falls. The safest year in the history of Chilean mining was 1999, with just 0. 09 deaths for every million hours worked. That year copper sold for just 72 cents a pound.
(4) This year copper has averaged over $4 a pound. Mining is booming. All the more reason, therefore, to reflect on the extraordinary events of last year at the San Jose mine, and to invest a little more of the industry’s handsome profits in safety improvements. (本文选自 The Economist) [br] The author’s tone in writing the passage is________.

选项 A、critical and cynical
B、objective and urging
C、partial and harsh
D、scientific and indifferent

答案 B

解析态度题。本文开篇点出去年阿塔卡马沙漠矿井事故，介绍并肯定了事故发生后智利政府采取的一系列提高采矿安全监管的举措；第二段指出，智利政府迟迟不批准国际劳工组织关于采矿安全的第176号公约，并用事实证明了采取此项措施的必要性；第三段介绍了智利采矿业的安全局势仍然严峻，并指出采矿事故与铜的价格变动之间的关系；最后敦促智利政府加大投资以改善采矿业的安全设施。综上所述，作者陈述了客观事实，并提出自己的建议，言辞客观、恳切，故B“客观的和敦促的”为正确答案。

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