Day 4

英文重現

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”在這里是“暗示；表明”的意思，其后的賓語從句用陳述語氣，表示已經存在的真實情況；另外“suggest”作“提議”講時，后面的賓語從句要用虛擬語氣，表示從句的內容是建議要做的事情，也就是說從句描述的內容尚未成為事實，此時謂語用“should +動詞原形”，“should”可以省略，如“I suggest we (should) have lunch now”（我建議我們現在吃午飯）意味著我們還沒吃午飯。

2. 在“suggest”后面的賓語從句中，“adopting ecoefficiency innovations”是動名詞結構作主語，而不是現在分詞結構作狀語，因為該結構后面接的是情態動詞加動詞原形（賓語從句的謂語），而不是一個句子。

3. 前面有“no”和“not”等否定詞出現時，后面再出現否定，可用“nor”表達，表示“也不……”，nor后面的句子需采用倒裝語序，例如：

I don't like football. Nor does Tom.

我不喜歡足球。湯姆也是。

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

這頓飯不太貴，也不太好吃。

此處的“nor the waste”就相當于“nor will they alter the number of the waste”。

4.“waste”后面的“generated from their use and discard”為過去分詞短語作定語，對“waste”進行修飾。過去分詞作定語時，分詞與被修飾的詞語之間是被動的關系。

詞義辨析

參考翻譯

Peter Senge和Goran Carstedt認為這一發展值得稱贊，但是暗示只采用生態有效型革新事實上可能會在未來使環境壓力進一步增大。這種革新能減少生產廢料，但是不能改變生產出來的產品數量，也不能改變產品被使用和被拋棄后產生的廢料數量；事實上，很多公司在生態效率改善方面投資是為了提高利潤，促進增長。

實戰演練

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

由題目“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”，該句指出“adoption of innovations”的后果是“worsen environmental stresses”，而隨后的一句話給出了會加大環境壓力的原因（do not alter the number of products manufactured nor the waste generated from their use and discard），由此可以選出選項B“這種由革新帶來的成本節約而促進的公司發展可能會允許該公司去生產更多的產品，這些產品會被使用、被丟棄，從而加大環境壓力”。

其他幾個選項意思分別是：

A.公司通過此種革新獲得的利潤可能會被再次投入公司，但無法保證公司會繼續在生態效率方面做出改善。

C.一個沒能通過這些革新來實現成本節約的公司可能會沒有動力繼續去降低它的生產過程對環境造成的影響。

D.一個依靠這種革新來提升利潤，促進發展的公司，在全球市場上面對來自老式的非生態有效型公司的競爭時，可能會很脆弱。

E.達到生態效率目標的公司不可能將增加的利潤投入到新的生態效率措施的發展上。