研究生精读教程（第三版）PPT下册Unit 7 A Bet on Planet Earth教学教材.ppt

《研究生英语精读教程》(第三版下);Unit Seven;A Bet on Planet Earth;stake※ n. bet赌注 ultimate adj. final最终的;One saw pesticide seeping into groundwater; the other saw farm silos* brimming with record harvests. One saw rain forests being decimated*; the other saw people living longer. ［2］Today, these men lead two intellectual schools ... sometimes called the doomsters and the boomsters - that debate whether the world is getting better or going to the dogs.;［5］The economist, Julian L. Simon①, 59, is a professor at the University of Maryland. His views have helped shape policy in Washington for the past decade, but he has never enjoyed Ehrlich‘s academic success or popular appeal*. He is the optimist.;［6］Simon believes that population growth constitutes not a crisis but a boon* that will ultimately mean a cleaner environment and a healthier humanity. Tomorrows world will be better because it will have more people producing more bright ideas. Progress can go on indefinitely because the planets resources are not finite.; ［7］When Simon wrote about his happy vision of the future in Science magazine in 1980, his article attracted a slew of angry letters. An irate Ehrlich provided the simple arithmetic: the planet‘s resources had to be divided among a population then growing at the rate of 75 million people a year, outstripping* the earths carrying capacity - its supplies of food, fresh water and minerals.;As resources became scarcer, it was inevitable* that commodities must become expensive. ［8］Simon responded with a challenge. Pick any natural resource - grain, oil, coal, timber, metals - and any future date. If the resource were to become scarcer as the worlds population grew, then its price should rise. Simon wanted to bet that the price would instead decline.; ［9］Ehrlich accepted Simon‘s offer. In October 1980 he bet $1 000 on five metals – chrome*, copper, nickel, tin and tungsten. If the 1990 combined prices, corrected for inflation, turned out to be higher