D. more efforts should be made to improve the quality of our material life.

22.The word “ proponents"(in Paragraph 3) probably means _______.

  A. arguments in support of something           

  B. disagreements

  C. people who argue for something

  D. people who argue against something

23.The passage is mainly about _______.

  A. the conflict between economists and the industrial business

  B. the present debate on economic growth

  C. the advantages and disadvantages of economic growth

  D. the importance of the debate on economic growth

24.We may infer from the passage that _______.

  A. the author describes the case as it is

  B. the author is for economic growth

  C. the author is against continued economic growth

  D. the author is very much worried about the problems caused by continued economic growth

Passage Two

Questions 25 to 27 are based on the following passage.

    It is clear that some chemicals can damage the health of animals and humans.However,this is not the only problem that can be caused by the careless use of chemicals.Chemicals can also disturb the ecological( 生态的 ) balance of the environment.If the ecological balance is disturbed,the consequences can be extremely serious.

    The history of DDT illustrates the problem.DDT,a chemical which kills insects,at first,seemed to be a perfect answer to many problems.It would control insects that caused dangerous diseases,as well as insects that caused billions of dollars of damage to crops every year.Governments permitted and even encouraged the use of DDT.Farmers in many countries began to spray it on their crops. The immediate results were good:Damage to crops went down,and profits went up.However,the chemical had effects which the scientists did not predict.First,it also killed insects which were the natural enemies of the harmful insects and which were therefore beneficial to farmers.Second,and perhaps worse,DDT did not kill every harmful insect.A few insects had natural resistance to the chemical.They survived and multiplied.In a few years there were large numbers of insects which were not affected by DDT,and there were fewer insects which could act as natural controls on these new “ super-insects".Finally,it became clear that DDT was not solving the insect problem.In fact,it was making the problem worse.It then became necessary to find a second cure for the effects of the first!

25.What is the purpose of the passage?

  A. To tell that DDT can not solve the insect problem.