2021考研英语一阅读理解试题及答案解析（中公考研版）

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Last year marked the third year in a row of when Indonesia’s bleak rate of deforestation has slowed in pace. One reason for the turnaround may be the country’s antipoverty program.

In 2007, Indonesia started phasing in a program that gives money to its poorest residents under certain conditions, such as requiring people to keep kids in school or get regular medical care. Called conditional cash transfers or CCTs, these social assistance programs are designed to reduce inequality and break the cycle of poverty. ... In Indonesia, the program has provided enough food and medicine to substantially reduce severe growth problems among children.

But CCT programs don’t generally consider effects on the environment. In fact, poverty alleviation and environmental protection are often viewed as conflicting goals, says Paul Ferraro, an economist at Johns Hopkins University.

That’s because economic growth can be correlated with environmental degradation, while protecting the environment is sometimes correlated with greater poverty. However, those correlations don’t prove cause and effect. The only previous study analyzing causality, based on an area in Mexico that had instituted CCTs, supported the traditional view. There, as people got more money, some of them may have more cleared land for cattle to raise for meat, Ferraro says.

Such programs do not have to negatively affect the environment, though. Ferraro wanted to see if Indonesia’s poverty-alleviation program was affecting deforestation. ...

Ferraro analyzed satellite data showing annual forest loss from 2008 to 2012—including during Indonesia’s phase-in of the antipoverty program—in 7,468 forested villages across 15 provinces and multiple islands. Ferraro separated the effects of the CCT program on forest loss from other factors, ..., “we see that the program is associated with a 30 percent reduction in deforestation,” Ferraro says.

That’s likely because the rural poor are using the money as makeshift insurance policies against inclement weather, Ferraro says. Typically, if rains are delayed, people may clear land to plant more rice to supplement their harvests. With the CCTs, individuals instead can use the money to supplement their harvests.

Whether this research translates elsewhere is anybody’s guess. Ferraro suggests their results may transfer to other parts of Asia, due to commonalities such as the importance of growing rice and market access. And regardless of transferability, the study shows that what’s good for people may also be good for the environment, Ferraro says. Even if this program didn’t reduce poverty, he says, “the value of the avoided deforestation just for carbon dioxide emissions alone is more than the program costs.”

26. According to the first two paragraphs, CCT programs aim to ______.

A.  facilitate health care reform

B.  help poor families get better off

C.  improve local education systems

D.  lower deforestation rates

27. The study based on an area in Mexico is cited to show that ______.

A.  cattle rearing has been a major means of livelihood for the poor

B.  CCT programs have helped preserve traditional lifestyles

C.  antipoverty efforts require the participation of local farmers

D.  economic growth tends to cause environmental degradation

28. In his study about Indonesia, Ferraro intends to find out ______.

A.  its acceptance level of CCTs

B.  its annual rate of poverty alleviation

C.  the relation of CCTs to its forest loss

D.  the role of its forests in climate change

29. According to Ferraro, the CCT program in Indonesia is most valuable in that ______.

A.  it will benefit other Asian countries

B.  it will reduce regional inequality

C.  it can protect the environment

D.  it can boost grain production

30. What is the text centered on?

A.  The effects of a program.

B.  The debates over a program.

C.  The process of a study.

D.  The transferability of a study.