Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
【真题来源：2015年6月大学英语四级真题（第一套）Part Ⅲ，Section C，第61-65题】
Passage Two
Some of the world's most significant problems never hit headlines.One example comes from agriculture. Food riots and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world's major crops.A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.
The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops: rice, wheat corn and soybeans(大豆). They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that tood place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.
There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world's most populous(人口多的) countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.
Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soyabeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soyabeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that “we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.”
The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organisation has argued.
Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughted up for crops might be able to revert(回返)to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen.
What does the author try to draw attention to?
第一段有明显的转折词But，前面描述了大众常常关注的粮食方面的问题，后面转折引出作者关注的焦点：decline in the growth inyields of some of the world's major crops，C选项是对其进行的原意改写，注意crop对应grain！A选项是大众关注的焦点，答非所问；C选项偏离文章“粮食问题”的主旨；D选项是报告的发现，干扰信息来自第三段，不仅偏离考点信息，而且答非所问。
Why does the author mention India and China in particular?
根据关键词India and China定位到文章第三段的第二句，后一句为提到India and China的解释，A选项是对其进行的原意改写，注意vital对应important，同义词替换是考察重点！B选项具有一定干扰性，但是它只是现象本身，并没有解释原因；C选项无中生有，文中根本没有提到worldwide concerns；D选项反向干扰，文中并没有对India and China下定论。
What does the new study by the two universities say about recent crop improvement efforts?
根据关键词crop improvement定位到第四段的倒数第二行，注意该句话的主语为The author，也就是the new study的作者哦，所以他的观点也就是study的观点。而引号内为一个长难句，解读该句的关键是理解rather than，rather than是否定其后面的内容而肯定其前面内容，那就是说“我们更专注于喂养动物而忽略了喂饱人类”？正好对应D选项！A选项无中生有；B、C都是反向干扰。
What does the Food and Agriculture Organisation say about world food production in the coming decades?
根据关键词Food and Agriculture Organisation定位到文章的倒数第二段，该段前部分即为FAO的观点，D选项是对其进行的原意改写。B选项拼凑细节，而A、C都是无中生有！
How does the author view the argument of the Food and Agriculture Organisation?
题干问的是作者观点态度，利用余下的最后一段解题。最后一段前一句为report的观点，后两句为作者的点评：could表“可能”，表现了作者的怀疑态度，最后一句中的定语从句更加表现作者对该预测的假设抱有怀疑态度（which may not actually happen）。纵观四个选项，只有B表现了作者的怀疑态度。