Renewable energy captured from the wind, sun, Earth’s heat, tides, and from small dams is drawing record levels of investment as poor villagers and entire nations alike seek clean, abundant ways to fuel economic growth. Global investment in renewable energy set a new record of $30 billion in 2004, according to a new report from the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). Technologies such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and small hydro now provide 160 gigawatts of electricity generating capacity – about four per cent of the world total – the report said. They are growing at rates of around 20-30 per cent per year, however, compared to two or three per cent for oil and gas.
“Renewable energy has become big business,” said Eric Martinot, lead author of the study, “Renewables 2005: Global Status Report”. Martinot, a senior fellow at the Washington, DC-based think tank Worldwatch Institute and a lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said renewable energy has attracted some of the world’s largest companies, including General Electric, Siemens, Sharp, and Royal Dutch Shell. The report estimated that nearly 40 million households worldwide heat their water with solar collectors, most of them installed in the last five years. Altogether, renewable energy industries provide 1.7 million jobs, most of them skilled and well paid.
Martinot and 100-plus researchers in more than 20 countries assessed several renewable technologies: small hydro (meaning small dams), modem biomass (agricultural waste, for example), wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels such…
Questions 1–4
The text has 9 paragraphs (A – I). Which paragraph contains each of the following pieces of information?
1.Cases where the use of renewable fuels is in competition with non-renewable ones
In rich countries, girls now do better at school than boys, more women are getting university degrees than men arc, and females arc filling most new jobs. Arguably, women are now the most powerful engine of global growth. In 1950, only one third of American women of working age had a paid job. Today two thirds do, and women make up almost half of America’s workforce. Since 1950, men’s employment rate has slid by 12 percentage points, to 77%. In fact, almost everywhere more women are employed and the percentage of men with jobs has fallen – although in some countries, the feminisation of the workplace still has far to go: in Italy and Japan, women’s share of jobs is still 40% or less.
The increase in female employment in developed countries has been aided by a big shift in the type of jobs on offer. Manufacturing work, traditionally a male preserve, has declined, while jobs in services have expanded. This has reduced the demand for manual labour and put the sexes on a more equal footing. In the developing world, too, more women now have paid jobs. In the emerging East Asian economics, forever)’ 100 men in the labour force there are now 83 women, higher even than the average in OECD countries. Women have been particularly important to the success of Asia’s export industries, typically accounting for 60- 80% of jobs in many export sectors, such as textiles and clothing.
Of course, it is misleading to talk of women’s “entry” into the workforce. Besides formal employment, women have always worked in the home, looking after children, cleaning or cooking, but because this is…
Questions 14–17
The text has 8 paragraphs (A – H). Which paragraph does each of the following headings best fit?
A few years ago, at the height of the dotcom boom, it was widely assumed that a publishing revolution, in which the printed word would be supplanted by the computer screen, was just around the corner. It wasn’t: for many, there is still little to match the joy of cracking the spine of a good book and settling down for an hour or two of reading. A recent flurry of activity by big technology companies – including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo! – suggests that the dream of bringing books online is still very much alive.
The digitising of thousands of volumes of print is not without controversy. On Thursday, November 3, Google, the world’s most popular search engine, posted a first instalment of books on Google Print, an initiative first mooted a year ago. This collaborative effort between Google and several of the world’s leading research libraries aims to make many thousands of books available to be searched and read online free of charge. Although the books included so far are not covered by copyright, the plan has attracted the ire of publishers.
Five large book firms are suing Google for violating copyright on material that it has scanned and, although out of print, is still protected by law. Google has said that it will only publish short extracts from material under copyright unless given express permission to publish more, but publishers are unconvinced. Ironically, many publishers are collaborating with Google on a separate venture, Google Print Publisher, which aims to give readers an online taste of books that are commercially available. The searchable…
Questions 27–30
For each question, only ONE of the choices is correct. Write the corresponding letter in the appropriate box on your answer sheet.
27.A few years ago, it was widely thought that
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Answers & explanations
Every answer is available. The first 3 explanations are free; PrepGo Premium unlocks the rest.
40 answers3 explanations open
1
C
After skimming, we can find that information of Q1 should be found in paragraph C as: paragraph A tells us about the growth of renewable energy, paragraph B mainly refers to the fact that renewable energy has become big business, paragraph C mentions the assessment of several renewable technologies and non-renewable ones (this is the information we are searching for). Considering every details in Q1 and in the passage, we can conclude that the answer is C.
2
G
The keyword is REN21. After scanning, we find that REN21 appears in paragraph A, E, G. Paragraph A and E doesn't indicate anything relating to the membership of REN21. In paragraph G, we can find information about the members of REN21. For that reason, we can conclude that the answer is G.
3
A
After skimming, we can guess that clue to answer Q3 should be in paragraph A, as paragraph A is mainly about the growth of renewable energy. All thing considered, we can conclude that the answer for Q3 is A.
4
I
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5
agricultural waste
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6
targets
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7
coal
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8
a vast market
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9
NOT GIVEN
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10
NOT GIVEN
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11
NOT GIVEN
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12
FALSE
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13
NOT GIVEN
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14
D
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15
H
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16
E
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17
B
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18
B
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19
C
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20
F
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21
G
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22
H
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23
B
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24
C
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25
B
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26
B
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27
A
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28
B
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29
C
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30
A
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31
legal problems
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32
market for e-books
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33
retailers and publishers
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34
book world
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35
manga comic books
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36
FALSE
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37
TRUE
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38
FALSE
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39
FALSE
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40
TRUE
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Understand why, not only what.
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