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Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten
statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of
the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.
You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a
letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet
2.
Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
[A] For many years I have studied global agricultural, population,
environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects
of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown
of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food
shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global
civilization.
[B] I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with
the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy forces me
to conclude that such a collapse is possible.
[C] As demand for food rises faster than supplies are growing, the
resulting food-price inflation puts severe stress on the governments of many
countries. Unable to buy grain or grow their own, hungry people take to the
streets. Indeed, even before the steep climb in grain prices in 2008, the number
of failing states was expanding. If the food situation continues to worsen,
entire nations will break down at an ever increasing rate. In the 20th century
the main threat to international security was superpower conflict; today it is
failing states.
[D] States fail when national governments can no longer provide personal
security, food security and basic social services such as education and health
care. When governments lose their control on power, law and order begin to
disintegrate. After a point, countries can become so dangerous that food relief
workers are no longer safe and their programs are halted. Failing states are of
international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons
and refugees(难民), threatening political stability everywhere.
[E] The surge in world grain prices in 2007 and 2008—and the threat they
pose to food security——has a different, more troubling quality than the
increases of the past. During the second of the 20th century, grain prices rose
dramatically several times. In 1972, for instance, the Soviets. I recognizing
their poor harvest early, quietly cornered the world wheat market. As a result,
wheat prices elsewhere more than doubled, pulling rice and com prices up with
them. But this and other price shocks were event-driven——drought in the Soviet
Union, crop-shrinking heat in the U.S. Corn Belt. And the rises were
short-lived: prices typically returned to normal with the next harvest.
[F]In contrast, recent surge in world grain prices is trend-driven, making
it unlikely to reverse without a reversal in the trends themselves. On the
demand side, those trends include the ongoing addition of more than 70 million
people a year, a growing number of people wanting to move up the food chain to
consume highly grain-intensive meat products, and the massive diversion(转向)of
U.S. grain to the production of bio-fuel.
[G]As incomes rise among low-income consumers, the potential for further
grain consumption is huge. But that potential pales beside the never-ending
demand for crop-based fuels. A fourth of this year's U.S. grain harvest will go
to fuel cars.
[H]What about supply? The three environmental trends——the shortage of fresh
water, the loss of topsoil and the rising temperatures——are making it
increasingly hard to expand the world's grain supply fast enough to keep up with
demand. Of all those trends, however, the spread of water shortages poses the
most immediate threat. The biggest challenge here is irrigation, which consumes
70% the world's fresh water. Millions of irrigation wells in many countries are
now pumping water out of underground sources faster than rainfall can refill
them. The result is falling water tables(地下水位)in countries with half the world's
people, including the three big grain producers——China, India and the U.S.
[I]As water tables have fallen and irrigation wells have gone dry, China's
wheat crop, the world's largest, has declined by 8% since it peaked at 123
million tons in 1997. But water shortages are even more worrying in India.
Millions of irrigation wells have significantly lowered water tables in almost
every state.
[J]As the world's food security falls to pieces, individual countries
acting in their own self-interest are actually worsening the troubles of many.
The trend began in 2007, when leading wheat-exporting countries such as Russia
and Argentina limited or banned their exports, in hopes of increasing local food
supplies and thereby bringing down domestic food prices. Vietnam banned its
exports for several months for the same reason. Such moves may eliminate the
fears of those living in the exporting countries, but they are creating panic in
importing countries that must rely on what is then left for export.
[K]In response to those restrictions, grain-importing countries are trying
to nail down long-term trade agreements that would lock up future grain
supplies. Food-import anxiety is even leading to new efforts by food-importing
countries to buy or lease farmland in other countries. In spite of such
temporary measures, soaring food prices and spreading hunger in many other
countries are beginning to break down the social order.
[L]Since the current world food shortage is trend-driven, the environmental
trends that cause it must be reversed. We must cut carbon emissions by 80% from
their 2006 levels by 2020, stabilize the world's population at eight billion by
2040, completely remove poverty, and restore forests and soils. There is nothing
new about the four objectives. Indeed, we have made substantial progress in some
parts of the world on at least one of these——the distribution of family-planning
services and the associated shift to smaller families.
[M]For many in the development community, the four objectives were seen as
positive, promoting development as long as they did not cost too much. Others
saw them as politically correct and morally appropriate. Now a third and far
more significant motivation presents itself: meeting these goals may necessary
to prevent the collapse of our civilization. Yet the cost we project for saving
civilization would amount to less than $200 billion a year, 1/6 of current
global military spending. In effect, our plan is the new security budget.
36.The more recent steep climb in grain prices partly results from the fact
that more and more people want to consume meat products.
37.Social order is breaking down in many countries because of food
shortages.
38.Rather than superpower conflict, countries unable to cope with food
shortages now constitute the main threat to world security.
39.Some parts of the world have seen successful implementation of family
planning.
40.The author has come to agree that food shortages could ultimately lead
to the collapse of world civilization.
41.Increasing water shortages prove to be the biggest obstante to boosting
the world's grain production.
42.The cost for saving our civilization would be considerably less than the
world's current military spending.
43.To lower domestic food prices, some countries limited or stopped their
grain exports.
44.Environmental problems must be solved to case the current global food
shortage.
45.A quarter of this year's American grain harvest will be used to produce
bio-fuel for cars
参考答案：
36. 正确选项 F
37. 正确选项 K
38. 正确选项 C
39. 正确选项 L
40. 正确选项 B
41. 正确选项 H
42. 正确选项 M
43. 正确选项 J
44. 正确选项 L
45. 正确选项 G |
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发表于 2017-11-25 18:30:07