Day 20

英文重现

Finally, older production technologies often continue to generate toxic wastes that were not regulated when the technology was first adopted. New regulations have imposed extensive compliance costs on companies still using older industrial coal-fired burners that generate high sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide outputs, for example, whereas new facilities generally avoid processes that would create such waste products.

——GMAT OG 2015, Reading Comprehension, Passage 13

解析

1.“that were not regulated when the technology was first adopted”是定语从句，修饰前面的“toxic wastes”，此处的“the technology”指的就是上文出现的“older production technologies”。“when the technology was first adopted”是“when”引导的时间状语从句，修饰“regulate”。

2.第二个句子的骨干结构是连词“whereas”连接的“仍使用老设备的公司”和“新的工厂”的对比：“New regulations have imposed extensive compliance costs on companies, whereas new facilities generally avoid processes that would create such waste”。“whereas”用于陈述相反的话，引出对比、对立或者直接相反的状语从句，需要注意的是，“whereas”引导的从句与主句在意义上是对立和相反的，结构上却是并列的。

3.词组“impose A on B”意思是“把A强加在B上；对B征收A”。

4.“still using…burners”是现在分词短语作定语，修饰“companies”；“that generate…oxide outputs”则是定语从句，修饰“burners”。

词义辨析

参考翻译

最后，较老的生产技术通常会继续产生有害废物，这些有害废物在该技术（即这些较老的技术）首次被采用的时候并没有受到（规章制度）管理。新的制度针对一些公司征收了大量的合规成本，这些公司仍然在使用较老的、会产生大量诸如二氧化硫及氧化氮等废物的工业燃煤火炉（即仍然在使用较老的技术），而新的工厂通常会避免产生这些废物的过程。

实战演练

...Finally, older production technologies often continue to generate toxic wastes that were not regulated when the technology was first adopted. New regulations have imposed extensive compliance costs on companies still using older industrial coal-fired burners that generate high sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide outputs, for example, whereas new facilities generally avoid processes that would create such waste products. By realizing that they have discretion and that not all industries are affected equally by environmental regulation, environmental managers can help their companies to achieve a competitive edge by anticipating regulatory pressure and exploring all possibilities for addressing how changing regulations will affect their companies specifically.

According to the passage, which of the following statements about sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide outputs is true?

(A) Older production technologies cannot be adapted so as to reduce production of these outputs as waste products.

(B) Under the most recent environmental regulations, industrial plants are no longer permitted to produce these outputs.

(C) Although these outputs are environmentally hazardous, some plants still generate them as waste products despite the high compliance costs they impose.

(D) Many older plants have developed innovative technological processes that reduce the amounts of these outputs generated as waste products.

(E) Since the production processes that generate these outputs are less costly than alternative processes, these less expensive processes are sometimes adopted despite their acknowledged environmental hazards.

答案：C

答案解析

题目问关于二氧化硫和氧化氮输出，以下哪一项是正确的。

选项A“较老的生产技术不能被改造，以便降低废品的输出”在文中未被提及。

选项B“在最新的环境制度下，工厂不再被允许生产这些废物”错在文中虽然提到“新的制度会（对使用老设备的工厂）征收费用”（New regulations have imposed extensive compliance costs on companies still using older industrial coal-fired burners），但是并没有说

“不允许这些工厂产生废物”。

选项C“尽管这些输出物（即废品）对环境有危害，有些工厂仍然会产生这些废物，尽管它们会带来高昂的合规成本”与原文“New regulations have imposed extensive compliance costs on companies still using older industrial coal-fired burners that generate high sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide outputs”意思相符，为正确答案。

选项D“很多较老的工厂已经开发了新的技术工序，这些工序能够降低废物的输出量”错误，文中并未提及较老工厂开发了新技术。

选项E“因为会产生这些废物的生产工序比替代工序所需的费用低，这些价格较低的工序有时候会被采用，尽管它们有公认的环境危害”错误，文中并未提及“alternative processes”，也没有将二者的费用进行比较。