夜雨聆风C
In recent years, researchers from diverse fields have agreed that short-termism is now a significant problem in industrialised societies. The inability to engage with longer-term causes and consequences leads to some of the world’s most serious problems: climate change, biodiversity collapse, and more. The historian Francis Cole argues that the West has entered a period where “only the present exists, a present characterised at once by the cruelty of the instant and by the boredom of an unending now”.
It has been proved that people have a bias (偏向) towards the present, focusing on loud attractionsin the moment at the expense of the health, well-being and financial stability of their future selves or community. In business, this bias surfaces as short-sighted decisions. And on slow-burning problems like climate change, it translates into the unwillingness to make small sacrifices (牺牲) today that could make a major difference tomorrow. Instead, all that matters is next quarter’s profit, or satisfying some other near-term desires.
These biased perspectives cannot be blamed on one single cause. It is fair to say, though, that our psychological biases play a major role. People’s hesitancy to delay satisfaction is the most obvious example, but there are others. One of them is about how the most accessible information in the present affects decisions about the future. For instance, you might hear someone say: “It’s cold this winter, so I needn’t worry about global warming.” Another is that loud and urgent mattersare given too much importance, making people ignore longer-term trends that arguably matter more. This is when a pop star draws far more attention than, say, gradual biodiversity decline.
As a psychologist once joked, if aliens (外星人) wanted to weaken humanity, they wouldn’t send ships; they would invent climate change. Indeed, when it comes to environmental transformations, we can develop a form of collective “poor memory”, and each new generation can believe the state of affairs they encounter is nothing out of the ordinary. Older people today, for example, can remember a time with insect-covered car windscreens after long drives. Children, on the other hand, have no idea that insect population has dropped dramatically.
28．The author quotes Francis Cole mainly to ______.
A．draw a comparisonB．introduce a topic
C．evaluate a statementD．highlight a problem
29．What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A．Climate change has been forgotten.
B．Lessons of history are highly valued.
C．The human mind is bad at noting slow change.
D．Humans are unwilling to admit their shortcomings.
30．What does the author intend to tell us?
A．Far-sighted thinking matters to humans.
B．Humans tend to make long-term sacrifices.
C．Current policies facilitate future decision-making.
D．Bias towards the present helps reduce near-term desires.
整体评价：
本篇是议论文，文章难度不大，主旨清晰，对基础中等的学生极为友好。
北京卷高考阅读C 篇的典型题材。第一段开头就提出了文章的核心问题：短期主义是工业化社会重大问题。第二段从个人，商业层面，以及环境问题层面解释普遍存在的“偏重当下”的问题。第三段分析原因—心理偏见是主要因素。并具体给出两种表现，一种是目前能够获取的信息影响对未来的判断。另一种是人们给与进击的事情太多注意力，从而忽略更重要的长期趋势。第四段从气候变化层面，分析另一个原因，“集体的失忆”。每一代人把自己亲眼所见的现状当作常态，对缓慢发生的变化感知弱。
题目解析：
28题：答案为C。考察推断作者意图。第一段第一句就提出了文章的核心问题，接下来引用历史学家的观点，为了突出作者在本文的核心问题：短期主义问题严重，所以C答案突出一个问题正确。这题容易错选B选项，学生容易凭主观臆断，认为第一段都是introduce a topic, 但是本文开头第一句就是文章的核心，所以不可能是引出话题。
29题：答案为C。这是一道推断题。本段第二句：当说到气候变化时，人们有一种集体的失忆。第三句：每一代人把自己亲眼所见的现状当作常态，对缓慢发生的变化感知弱。所以C选项“人类大脑不善于察觉缓慢发生的变化”正确。易错选项A“气候变化已经被遗忘”，而第四段最后两句：如今的老年人会记得过去长途驾车后，汽车挡风玻璃上会布满昆虫。而现在的孩子们完全不知道昆虫的数量已经大幅减少。所以年轻人不是 “忘了昆虫曾经很多” 这件事，而是从来没有经历过那个时代，意识不到变化已经发生，并不是遗忘已知事物。
30题：答案为A。此题考查作者的写作意图，也就是议论文作者的写作目的。文章的篇章逻辑。第一段提出问题“短期主义”，第二段进一步解释，第三和第四段分析原因。所以只要抓住了第一段第一句：short-termism is now a significant problem in industrialised societies。就能理顺这篇议论文的论点。所以A选项正确。