【時事聚焦】時下，低碳生活已經成為一種時尚，人們開始從生活的點點滴滴中來減少能源消耗，可實際上我們很多時候往往只關注于少量的能源消耗，如及時關燈，卻忽視了我們的大型家用電器對能源的消耗，如加熱器和干洗機等。具體請看以下《經濟學家》周刊網(wǎng)站的一則相關報道：

People habitually underestimate their energy consumption

Environmental asceticism has created a vogue for upgrading light-bulbs and tweaking thermostats. But according to a new piece of research, many of these actions—however virtuous—arise from faulty perceptions of energy savings.

Shahzeen Attari of Columbia University and her colleagues used Craigslist, an online marketplace, to recruit 505 volunteers from across America. Each was asked to estimate the energy consumption of nine household devices (such as stereos and air conditioners) as well as the energy savings incurred by six green activities (like swapping incandescent bulbs for fluorescent ones). The researchers then compared the volunteers’ estimates with the actual energy requirements or savings in question.

Their results, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that although people do grasp basic energy trends, they are decidedly hazy on the details. On average, participants underestimated both energy use and energy savings by a factor of 2.8—mostly because they undervalued the requirements of large machines like heaters and clothes dryers. As a result, they failed to recognise the huge energy savings that can come from improving the efficiency of such appliances.

Miscalculations like these hinder conservation efforts. When asked to rank the single most effective way to save energy, participants typically endorsed activities with small savings, such as turning off lights, while ignoring what they could economise on larger devices. This suggests that people misallocate their efforts, fretting over an unattended lamp (at 100 watts) while neglecting the energy they could save by nudging their washer settings from “hot” to “warm” (4,000 watt-hours for each load of laundry).

A quirk of human psychology could help to explain these persistent underestimates. When calculating such things, people often adopt a familiar unit as a mental yardstick and then generate predictions based on that unit. As a side-effect, their estimates cluster too closely around the yardstick measure—a phenomenon called “anchoring”. In Dr Attari’s study, for example, the survey provided a reference measure by stating the amount of energy used by a standard light bulb. Participants may have responded by unconsciously anchoring their estimates to this value, compressing their predictions into the relatively low range of an incandescent bulb.

This suggests an obvious criticism: by providing the light-bulb figure, the researchers primed their subjects to underestimate energy consumption. But the authors argue that rather than introducing a methodological flaw, they simply acknowledged a shared point of reference. When it comes to an accessible, quantitative measure of energy, consumers are uniquely familiar with the 100W bulb. As a result, Dr Attari expects bulbs to exert an anchoring effect on the general population as well as on her volunteers, contributing to widespread underestimates of the energy demands of large appliances.

Fortunately, increased information seems to combat such miscalculations. In the study those who were better at maths made more accurate predictions, as did those with broadly pro-environmental attitudes. Ways of making energy consumption clearer, such as devices that constantly monitor household appliances, could therefore help people make better decisions about how to save energy.

【熱點話題】根據(jù)上文所述，人們從自身做起，保護環(huán)境，節(jié)省能源，如：不用白熾燈，改用熒光燈，再到主動關燈?？墒?，人們確實忽視了一些大型的電器卻正在大肆地消耗著我們的能源。自從09年12月份的哥本哈根會議的召開，節(jié)能、低碳這些環(huán)保的名稱成為時下的熱點話題，相應也是雅思考試比較熱衷的考試主題。所以，建議2010年的考生對諸如此類話題千萬不能忽視。再者，這類的話題對于考生來說既不陌生但似乎又有些陌生，對于這方面的文章，大家應該增加閱讀量，儲存必備的背景知識，做到有備無患。對于這樣的文章，學生也可能會碰到比較生僻和難的詞匯、句型、文章結構，當然廣泛閱讀也無疑能夠幫助考生提高閱讀速度，改善理解。

【難句詞匯】雅思考生的閱讀難點之一就是詞匯量和句型掌握程度的不同，如果學生的詞匯量不足，那么文章將看不懂，我們從上文中就可以學到很多的句型和詞匯。

Each was asked to estimate the energy consumption of nine household devices (such as stereos and air conditioners) as well as the energy savings incurred by six green activities (like swapping incandescent bulbs for fluorescent ones).

插入語：（? ）

household devices家庭電器

stereos 立體音響

swapping交換

incandescent bulbs 白熾燈泡

fluorescent: 熒光的

as well as = and ：和

When asked to rank the single most effective way to save energy, participants typically endorsed activities with small savings, such as turning off lights, while ignoring what they could economise on larger devices.

When引導的時間短語作整個句子的狀語和while引導表對比的非謂語動詞短語

rank v. 將……列為……

endorse 贊同

economise v. 節(jié)約、節(jié)省