For many environmentalists, the world seems tobe getting worse. They have developed a hitlist ofour main fears: natural resources are 1 out thepopulation is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat species are becoming 2 in vastnumbers, and the planet's air and water are becoming ever more polluted.

　　But a quick look at the facts shows a different picture. First, energy and other naturalresources have become more 3 not less so, since the book 'The Limits to Growth' waspublished in 1972 by a group of scientists. Second, more food is now produced per 4 of theworld's population than at any time in history. Fewer people are 5 . Third, although speciesare indeed becoming extinct, only about 0.7% of them are expected to disappear in the next50 years, not 25~50%, as has so often been 6 . And finally, most forms of environmentalpollution either appear to have been 7 , or are transient - associated with the early stages ofindustrialization and therefore best cured not by restricting economic growth, but by 8 it. Oneform of pollution - the release of greenhouse gases that causes global warming - doesappear to be a phenomenon that is going to extend well into our future, but its total impactis unlikely to 9 a devastating (令人心神不安的) problem. A bigger problem may well turn out tobe an inappropriate response to it.

　　Yet opinion polls suggest that many people nurture the belief that environmental standardsare declining and some factors seem to cause this disjunction between 10 and reality.

　　A) pose

　　B) exaggerated

　　C) accelerating

　　D) extinct

　　E) exist

　　F) perception

　　G) wealthy

　　H) magnified

　　I) starving

　　J) head

　　K) running

　　L) predicted

　　M) abundant

　　N) conception

　　O) reducing

　　答案解析：

　　1. K

　　2. D

　　3. M

　　4. J

　　5. I

　　6. L

　　7. B

　　8. C

　　9. A

　　10. F