6.
the paragraph below is an excerpt from kim stanley robinson's article, "a colony in the sky," about "terraforming" mars—that is, turning it into a planet that humans could live on.
some people may believe that such a project is too large or slow or presumptuous for humanity to undertake. but consider our current situation on earth. there are nearly six billion of us now, and the number may double, though we have no good idea how many of us the earth can support. many larger species are in danger of extinction unless we protect them from us. we have rearranged much of the land, and we have altered the atmosphere to the point where the global climate in the future will be a matter of legislation and industrial practice. in other words, we are already starting to terraform earth by necessity to keep it livable. given this situation, the attempt to terraform mars does not look so outlandish. doing it could be regarded as a valuable experiment, with mars as a giant lab or university, in which we learn how to steward a planet's biosphere for long-term sustainability.
which of the following sentences supports robinson's statement, "in other words, we are already starting to terraform earth by necessity to keep it livable"?
"but consider our current situation on earth."
"there are nearly 6 billion of us now, and the number may double, though we have no good idea how many of us the earth can support."
"some people may believe that such a project is too large or slow or presumptuous for humanity to undertake."
"we have rearranged much of the land, and we have altered the atmosphere to the point where the global climate in the future will be a matter of legislation and industrial practice."
7.
the passage below is an excerpt from kim stanley robinson's article, "a colony in the sky," about "terraforming" mars—that is, turning it into a planet that humans could live on. read the two paragraphs and answer the question that follows.
terraforming mars would take 300 years at least. it's not a time scale we often think about, and it does seem unlikely that any society could persist in anything for so long. luckily, the process will not depend on our consistent backing, but on the people who settle there and pursue it as their own closest interest.
as for us, here on earth in the age of the quarterly statement, it is probably a good thing occasionally to contemplate a really long-term project. humanity's existence on this earth is a long-term project, after all, and it's important to remember what that means. people will be living here 500 years from now, and they will all be our relatives. these distant children of ours deserve to be given a livable planet to care for in their turn. for their sake we need to work out a sustainable way of life on earth. going to mars will be part of that larger environmental project, and terraforming it will be an education that we will apply at home as we learn it—pausing, from time to time, to look up at our wilderness garden in the sky.
what can you infer about what robinson thinks the earth will be like five hundred years from now?
he thinks that there will be fewer people on earth.
he thinks that the earth will be smaller.
he thinks that the earth will be unable to sustain life.
he thinks that people will continue to live on earth.
8.
the passage below is an excerpt from kim stanley robinson's article, "a colony in the sky," about "terraforming" mars—that is, turning it into a planet that humans could live on. read the two paragraphs and answer the question that follows.
terraforming mars would take 300 years at least. it's not a time scale we often think about, and it does seem unlikely that any society could persist in anything for so long. luckily, the process will not depend on our consistent backing, but on the people who settle there and pursue it as their own closest interest.
as for us, here on earth in the age of the quarterly statement, it is probably a good thing occasionally to contemplate a really long-term project. humanity's existence on this earth is a long-term project, after all, and it's important to remember what that means. people will be living here 500 years from now, and they will all be our relatives. these distant children of ours deserve to be given a livable planet to care for in their turn. for their sake we need to work out a sustainable way of life on earth. going to mars will be part of that larger environmental project, and terraforming it will be an education that we will apply at home as we learn it—pausing, from time to time, to look up at our wilderness garden in the sky.
what observation can you make about current human beings from this passage?
we have taken on a lot of long-term projects.
we don't have enough money to terraform mars yet.
we have not undertaken projects of this length or magnitude before.
we will enjoy doing terraforming mars.