The Young Can't Wait
By Severn Cullies Suzuki
When you are little, it's not hard to
believe you can change the world. I remember my enthusiasm when, at the age of
12, I addressed the delegates at the Rio Earth Summit. “I am only a child,” I
told them. “Yet I know that if all the money spent on war was spent on ending
poverty（貧困） and
finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this would be. In school
you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others,
to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not to be greedy.
Then why do you go out and do the thing you tell us not to do? You grown-ups
say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect（反�。� your words.”
I spoke for six minutes and received a
standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had
reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur（刺激） action. Now, a decade（十年） from Rio, after I've sat
through many more conferences, I'm not sure what has been accomplished. My
confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual's voice to
reach them has been deeply shaken.
When I was little, the world was simple.
But as a young adult, I'm learning that as we have to make choices—education,
career, lifestyle—life gets more and more complicated. We are beginning to feel
pressure to produce and be successful. We are taught that economic growth is
progress, but we aren't taught how to pursue a happy, healthy or sustainable
way of living. And we are learning that what we wanted for the future when we
were 12 was idealistic and naive.
Today I'm no longer a child, but I'm worried
about what kind of environment my children will grow up in. I know change is
possible, because I am changing, still figuring out what I think. I am still
deciding how to live my life. The challenges are great, but if we accept
individual responsibility and make sustainable choices, we will rise to the
challenges, and we will become part of the positive tide of change.
60．The purpose of what the writer said at the age of 12 was to _______.
A．end poverty and make school beautiful
B．find environmental answers and keep the words that they always told
themselves
C．end poverty and solve the problems about environment
D．find a wonderful place and clean it up
61．What does the underlined word “ovation” in the second paragraph
refer to _____.
A．a(chǎn) long period of
laughing
B．a(chǎn) warm welcome
C．a(chǎn)n expression used for greeting D．a(chǎn) long period of clapping and
applause
62．It becomes clear that the writer is possibly _________ now.
A．in his teens B．in his twenties C．in his
thirties D．in his forties