题目内容
Although the Solar Decathlon's purpose is to advertise the benefits of electricity-generating solar panels and other residential solar gadgets, the bad weather has made it hard to ignore the limitations. As fate so amply demonstrated, not every day is a sunny day, and indeed DOE's "Solar Village on the National Mall" has received very little of what it needs to nm.
Since solar is not an always available energy source, even a community consisting entirely of solar homes and businesses would still need to be connected to a constantly-running power plant (most likely natural gas or coal fired) to provide reliable electricity. For this reason, the fossil fuel savings and environmental benefits of solar are considerably smaller than many proponents suggest.
Washington, D.C. gets its share of sunny days as well, but even so, solar equipment provides only a modest amount of energy in relation to its cost. In fact, a $5,000 rooftop photovoltaic system typically generates no more than $100 of electricity per year, providing a rate of return comparable to a passbook savings account.
Nor do the costs end when the system is installed. Like anything exposed to the elements, solar equipment is subject to wear and storm damage, and may need ongoing maintenance and repairs. In addition, the materials that turn sunlight into electricity degrade over time. Thus, solar panels will eventually need to be replaced, most likely before the investment has fully paid itself off in the form. of reduced utility bills.
Solar energy has always had its share of true believers willing to pay extra to feel good about their homes and themselves. But for homeowners who view it as an investment, it is not a good one. The economic realities are rarely acknowledged by the government officials and solar equipment manufactures involved in the Solar Decathlon and similarly one-sided promotions. By failing to be objective, the pro-solar crowd does consumers a real disservice.
The Solar Decathlon is most probably the name of a ______.
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What can be concluded form. the passage about the characteristics of oratorios？
African elephants have been slaughtered at alarming rate over the past decade, largely because they are the primary source of the world's ivory. Their population has been dwindled from 1.3 million in 1979 to just 625,000 today, and the rate of killing has been accelerating in recent years because many of the older, bigger tusked animals have already been destroyed. "The poachers now must kill times as. many elephants to get the same quantity of ivory. "explained Curtis Bohlen, Senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund.
Though its record on the environment has been spotty so far, the government last week took the lead in a major conservation issue by imposing a ban on ivory imports into the US. The move came just four days after a consortium of conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation International, called for that kind of action, and it made the US the first nation to forbid imports of both raw and finished ivory. The ban, says Bohlen, sends a very clear message to the ivory poachers that the game is over.
In the past African nations have resisted an ivory ban, but increasingly they realized that the decimation of the elephant herds poses a serious threat to their tourist business, Last month Tanzania and several other African countries called for an amendment to the 102 nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that would make the ivory trade illegal world wide. The amendment is expected to be approved at an October meeting in Geneva and to go into effect next January. But between now and then, conservationists contend, poachers may go on a rampage, killing elephants wholesale, so nations should unilaterally forbid imports right away. The US government brought that argument, and by week's end the twelve nation European Community had followed with its own ban.
Which of the following is the best title for the passage？
Naturally the audiences that support various kinds of music are not identical. There are separate audiences, of widely differing tastes and musical receptivity, for opera, symphony and chamber music. The oratorio audience is a very special group made up of the most conservative tastes and opinions. One suspects that it is recruited largely from friends and families of the singers. Now a stage full of happy and earnest oratorio singers must represent considerable potential ticket sales, and, if this is true, it does not malt much difference what work the singers select to perform. Anyone who has ever sung in a chorus knows what fun it is to sing Handel. The music is easy to grasp, fits the voice well, and fine effects are achieved with a minimum of professional skill. The plan of the Handel oratorio is ideal for the ordinary amateur singing group. All the hard parts are taken by professional soloists, who can be imported for the occasion. Therefore the chorus can make a public appearance after long, leisurely preparation and add on at the last moment the final professional touches. Thus the never-ending vogue of the oratorio and its unchanging aspect must be attributed, at least partially, to the amateur choral societies that are to be found in almost every community.
What does the passage mainly discuss？
In her 26 years of teaching English, Shannon McCuire has seen countess misplaced commas, misspelled words and sentence fragments.
But the instructor at US's Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge said her job is getting harder every day.
"I kid you not, the number of errors that I've seen in the past few years have multiplied five times," she said.
Experts say e-mail and instant messaging are at least partly to blame for an increasing indifference toward the rules of grammar, spelling and sentence structure.
They say the problem is most noticeable in college students and recently graduates.
"They used to at least feel guilty (about mistakes)," said Naomi Baron, professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C. "They didn't necessarily write a little better, but at least they felt guilty."
Ironically, Baron's latest book, "Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading," became a victim of sloppy proofreading. The book's title is capitalized differently on the cover, spine and title page. "People used to lose their jobs over this," she said. "And now they just say 'whatever.'"
"Whatever" describes Jeanette Henderson's attitude toward writing. The sophomore at the University of Louisiana at Monroe admits that her reliance on spellcheck has hurt her grades in English class. "Computer has spoiled us," she said.
But the family and consumer sciences major believes her future bosses won't mind the mistakes as much as her professor does. "They're not going to check semicolons, commas and stuff like that," Henderson said.
LSU's McGuire said she teaches her students to use distinct writing styles that fit their purpose.
She emphasizes that there's the informal language of an e-mail to a friend, but there's also the well thought out and structured academic or professional style. of writing.
It's not just e-mail and instant messaging that are contributing to slack writing habits.
Society as a whole is becoming more informal. Casual wear at work used to be reserved for Friday, for example, but is now commonplace at most offices. There's also a greater emphasis on youth culture, and youth tend to use instant messaging more than adults do.
English language has been neglected at different points in history but always rebounds. During Shakespearen times, for example, spoiling wasn't considered important, and early publishers rarely proofread.
There will likely be a social force that recognizes the need for clear writing and swings the pendulum back.
According to Shannon McGuire, what is making her job harder than before？
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