Day 4

英文重现

Peter Senge and Goran Carstedt see this development as laudable but suggest that simply adopting ecoefficiency innovations could actually worsen environmental stresses in the future. Such innovations reduce production waste but do not alter the number of products manufactured nor the waste generated from their use and discard; indeed, most companies invest in ecoefficiency improvements in order to increase profits and growth.

——GMAT OG 2015, Reading Comprehension, Passage 2

解析

1. “suggest”在这里是“暗示；表明”的意思，其后的宾语从句用陈述语气，表示已经存在的真实情况；另外“suggest”作“提议”讲时，后面的宾语从句要用虚拟语气，表示从句的内容是建议要做的事情，也就是说从句描述的内容尚未成为事实，此时谓语用“should +动词原形”，“should”可以省略，如“I suggest we (should) have lunch now”（我建议我们现在吃午饭）意味着我们还没吃午饭。

2. 在“suggest”后面的宾语从句中，“adopting ecoefficiency innovations”是动名词结构作主语，而不是现在分词结构作状语，因为该结构后面接的是情态动词加动词原形（宾语从句的谓语），而不是一个句子。

3. 前面有“no”和“not”等否定词出现时，后面再出现否定，可用“nor”表达，表示“也不……”，nor后面的句子需采用倒装语序，例如：

I don't like football. Nor does Tom.

我不喜欢足球。汤姆也是。

The meal didn't cost much, nor was it very delicious.

这顿饭不太贵，也不太好吃。

此处的“nor the waste”就相当于“nor will they alter the number of the waste”。

4.“waste”后面的“generated from their use and discard”为过去分词短语作定语，对“waste”进行修饰。过去分词作定语时，分词与被修饰的词语之间是被动的关系。

词义辨析

参考翻译

Peter Senge和Goran Carstedt认为这一发展值得称赞，但是暗示只采用生态有效型革新事实上可能会在未来使环境压力进一步增大。这种革新能减少生产废料，但是不能改变生产出来的产品数量，也不能改变产品被使用和被抛弃后产生的废料数量；事实上，很多公司在生态效率改善方面投资是为了提高利润，促进增长。

实战演练

Ecoefficiency (measures to minimize environmental impact through the reduction or elimination of waste from production processes) has become a goal for companies worldwide, with many realizing significant cost savings from such innovations. Peter Senge and Goran Carstedt see this development as laudable but suggest that simply adopting ecoefficiency innovations could actually worsen environmental stresses in the future. Such innovations reduce production waste but do not alter the number of products manufactured nor the waste generated from their use and discard; indeed, most companies invest in ecoefficiency improvements in order to increase profits and growth…

The passage implies that which of the following is a possible consequence of a company's adoption of innovations that increase its ecoefficiency?

(A) Company profits resulting from such innovations may be reinvested in that company with no guarantee that the company will continue to make further improvements in ecoefficiency.

(B) Company growth fostered by cost savings from such innovations may allow that company to manufacture a greater number of products that will be used and discarded, thus worsening environmental stress.

(C) A company that fails to realize significant cost savings from such innovations may have little incentive to continue to minimize the environmental impact of its production processes.

(D) A company that comes to depend on such innovations to increase its profits and growth may be vulnerable in the global market to competition from old-style eco-inefficient industries.

(E) A company that meets its ecoefficiency goals is unlikely to invest its increased profits in the development of new and innovative ecoefficiency measures.

答案：B

答案解析

由题目“adoption of innovations”的意思定位到原文“Peter Senge and Goran Carstedt see this development as laudable but suggest that simply adopting ecoefficiency innovations could actually worsen environmental stresses in the future”，该句指出“adoption of innovations”的后果是“worsen environmental stresses”，而随后的一句话给出了会加大环境压力的原因（do not alter the number of products manufactured nor the waste generated from their use and discard），由此可以选出选项B“这种由革新带来的成本节约而促进的公司发展可能会允许该公司去生产更多的产品，这些产品会被使用、被丢弃，从而加大环境压力”。

其他几个选项意思分别是：

A.公司通过此种革新获得的利润可能会被再次投入公司，但无法保证公司会继续在生态效率方面做出改善。

C.一个没能通过这些革新来实现成本节约的公司可能会没有动力继续去降低它的生产过程对环境造成的影响。

D.一个依靠这种革新来提升利润，促进发展的公司，在全球市场上面对来自老式的非生态有效型公司的竞争时，可能会很脆弱。

E.达到生态效率目标的公司不可能将增加的利润投入到新的生态效率措施的发展上。