To Survive or toVanish

Over 3.6 billionyears ago,the first creature was born in the world.Since then,the earth startedits era with life.The history of life on earth has been a history ofinteraction

between livingthings and their surroundings.To a large extent,the physical form and thehabits of the earth's vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the

environment.Considering the whole span of earthly time,the opposite effect,in which lifeactually modifies its surroundings,has been relatively slight. Only in thepresent

century has onespecies一man acquiredsignificant power to alter the nature of his world.

2.During the past 25years,this power has not only become increasingly great but it has changed incharacter. The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is

the contamination ofair,earth,rivers,and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. Thispollution is for the most part irrecoverable.In this now universalcontamination of

theenvironment,chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation in changing thevery nature of the world the very nature of its life. Chemicals sprayed oncroplands or forests

or gardens lie longin soil,entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chainof poisoning and death.Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams

until they emergeand combine into new forms that kill vegetation,sicken cattle,and work unknownharm on those who drink from once pure wells."Man can hardly even

recognize the devilsof his own creation,"as a scientist has said.

3.Hundreds ofmillions of years have passed before the globe produced the life that nowinhabits the earth.Given time not in years but in millennia life adjusts,and abalance

has been reached.Butin the modern world there is no time.

4.The quick steps ofchange follows the impetuous pace of man rather than the deliberate pace ofnature.Radiation is now the unnatural creation of man's tampering with the

atom.The chemicalsare the synthetic creations of man's inventive mind,having no counterparts innature.

5.To survive thesechemicals would require not merely the years of one man's life but the life ofgenerations.And even this,were it by some miracle possible,would be

futile,for the newchemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream;almost five hundredannually find their way into actual use in the United States alone.Among

them are many thatare used in man's war against nature.Since the mid l940's over 200 basicchemicals have been created for use in killing insects,weeds,and otherorganisms

describedas"pests".

6.It is not mycontention that chemical insecticides must never he used.I do contend that wehave put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the

hands of personslargely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm. We have subjectedenormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons,without their consent

and often withouttheir knowledge.I contend,furthermore,that we have allowed these chemicals tobe used with little or no advance investigation of their effect on

soil,water,wildlife,andman himself. Future generations are unlikely to forgive our lack of concern forthe integrity of the natural world that supports all life.Paragraph 1_______

A.Man should be cautiousin chemical use.

B.It takesgenerations for mankind to adapt themselves to the chemicals.

C.Chemicals arehuman's invention

D.Human's powerincreases and has changed its character in the past quarter century.

E.The new change inthe relationship between earth and its creature一human's power playing a greater role in changing theworld