小编为托福考生们准备了托福综合写作TPO22,希望各位考生们在TPO写作真题里能够得到锻炼，祝广大托福考生能够取得理想成绩。
TPO 22
Reading
Ethanol fuel, made from plants such as corn and sugar cane, has been
advocated by some people as an alternative to gasoline in the United States.
However, many critics argue that ethanol is not a good replacement for gasoline
for several reasons.
First, the increased use of ethanol fuel would not help to solve one of the
biggest environmental problems caused by gasoline use: global warming. Like
gasoline, ethanol releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it is burned
for fuel and carbon dioxide is greenhouse gas: it helps trap heat in the
atmosphere. Thus, ethanol offers no environmental advantage over gasoline.
Second, the production of significant amounts of ethanol would dramatically
reduce the amount of plants available for uses other fuel. For example, much of
the corn now grown in the United States is used to feed farm animals such as
cows and chickens. It is estimated that if ethanol were used to satisfy just 10
percent of the fuel needs in the United States, more than 60 percent of the corn
currently grown in the united stated would have to be used to produce ethanol.
If most of the corn were used to produce ethanol, a substantial source of food
for animals would disappear.
Third, ethanol fuel will never be able to compete with gasoline on price.
Although the prices of ethanol and gasoline for the consumer are currently about
the same, this is only because of the help in the form of tax subsidies given to
ethanol producers by the United States government. These tax subsidies have cost the United States government over $11 billion in the past 30 years. If the United States government were to stop helping producers in this way, the price of ethanol would increase greatly. Listening
Ethanol actually is a good alternative to gasoline, although you just read three reasons why it’s not a good alternative, not one of these three reasons is convincing.
First, the increased use of Ethanol fuel will not add to global warming. It’s true that, when Ethanol is burned, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but as you read, Ethanol is often made from plants such as corn. Well, the process of growing the plants counteracts this release of carbon dioxide. Let me explain. Every growing plant absorbs carbon dioxide from the air as part of its nutrition. So growing plants for Ethanol production actually removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Second, large scale production of Ethanol doesn’t have to reduce the sources of food for animals. That’s because we can produce Ethanol using cellulose, cellulose is the main component of plants’ cell walls, and you’ll find most cellulose in those parts of plants that are not eaten by animals. So, since we can produce Ethanol from the plant parts that aren’t eaten, the amount of animal feed that is available will not be reduced.
Third, in the future, Ethanol will be able to compete with gasoline in
terms of price. It’s true that government subsidies make Ethanol cheaper than it would normally be, but this support won’t always be needed. Once enough people
start buying Ethanol, Ethanol producers will increase their production of Ethanol. Generally, increased production of products leads to a drop in its price. So the price of Ethanol will go down as more of it becomes available. Studies show that, if Ethanol production could be three times greater than it is now, the cost of producing a unit of Ethanol will drop by forty percent.