As we enter the 21st century, a new global economy draws nations ever closer. But our growing interdependence (1) on much more than technology and trade. For we are linked intrinsically (本质地) by the physical and biological webs that (2) life on our planet—and, increasingly, by the threat of their unraveling (散开). Indeed, (3) we reach across borders and face this threat together, the next century may (4) an Earth in ecological crisis, with half of all (5) gone, and our grandchildren enduring deadly floods, drought and disease (6) by global warming.When millions across America (7) the first Earth Day 30 years ago, our focus understandably was our own backyard. Our rivers were (8) on fire, and our skylines were disappearing behind a (9) of smog. America’s remarkable environmental progress in the years (10) is powerful testament (证明) to our national will, our technological prowess (超凡技术) and our (11) in a better future. Protecting the environment is today a bedrock (基本的) American value, (12) important to us as safe neighborhoods and good schools. What’s more, three decades of experience have (13) the naysayers (反对的人) wrong. Tending to the environment has not (14) our economy. (15) , our air and water are the cleanest they have been in a generation, even as we enjoy the longest economic (16) in our nations’ history.America’s responsibility now, as we mark the first Earth Day of a new millennium (一千年), is to bring these lessons to bear against new, more (17) environmental challenges. We must look well (18) our own cities and countryside, make environment a core foreign policy (19) and provide the leadership needed to put all nations on a cleaner, more sustainable path to (20) . Reed the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D.2()
A. retain
B. contain
C. revive
D. sustain
A huge population of red fire ants has bedeviled Texas farmers for years. By some estimates the insectscost state businesses close to $1 billion a year due to crop and machinery destruction. Killing the ants and their nests has not proven easy. Texas A&M researchers have discovered that the phorid fly from South America will lay eggs on the red fire ants and the maggots which are hatched eat away at the ant’s brains, eventually causing their heads to fall off. Someone at the university was willing to underwrite the work to solve a problem. That investment was almost certainly much less than the $1 billion a year that fire ants cost businesses in the state. A recession does not stop advancements in technology. It just makes companies so frightened of risk that they choose not to make the investment in the red fire ant projects. In the last week, the two most successful technology companies in the world, IBM and Google have announced major new products. IBM released "stream computing" applications that allow businesses to look at and analyze huge amounts of data in real time. The most important product of Google allows the company’s customers to take very large amounts of search data and organize it into spreadsheets. These are developments that will probably help the firms take business away from their competitors. The shares of Google and IBM have handily outperformed those of all the other large tech companies based in the U. S. such as Hewlett Packard (HPQ), Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSCO), and Oracle (ORCL). Each of the companies is blessed with substantial earnings and technology staffs in the tens of thousands. But the firms are not all viewed the same, at least by investors who trade tens of millions of their shares each day. In most ways, IBM and Google are not like one another at all. IBM makes its money selling expensive hardware, client services, and software to companies, most of which are very large, and to governments. Google has millions of customers who pay nothing to use its services. It has millions of advertisers who spend money to reach people who look at search results and most of these marketers are very small. What the companies do have in common is a willingness to take risks, probably risks with long odds in order to launch new products. These products may be failures, but they are well enough researched and designed that they have a good chance of keeping IBM and Google ahead of the competition even if that does not immediately involve significant new revenue. The red fire ant problem never goes away. Unsolved problems in every industry cost companies money. Sometimes companies do not even know that their problems can be solved. The phorid fly is an obscure species. So is software that can analyze huge amounts of data in real time. In what way is IBM like Google
A. They sell client excellent services to earn money.
B. Their customers are mostly large-size companies.
C. They are willing to invest in new technology.
D. They never launch new products which may fail.