【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[听力原文] 11-15
M: Dr. Emily Gardiner is an economist from Lancashire University. She specializes in the study of cereal production in tropical areas and spends a great deal of time abroad. Recently she went on a two-week trip to study the grain trade in a third-world country where she experienced a flood disaster at first hand. Dr. Gardiner, tell us what happened.
W: Well, when I was met at the airport, I was given a very tight timetable which involved travel to the provinces, all over the country in fact, although we started off in the capital. After about three or four days, my very good local guide and interpreter came with rather downcast faces and said that they didn't think we'd be able to go on our first trip to the East because the main city was waist-deep in water and the ferries that crossed the big rivers were unable to cross. So, we decided to go to the South instead. Now I'm rather glad that I never got there because the day after that, the main rail link was cut off and the lines dangling limply into a really swollen river, which kept on rising.
M: How did it affect you, I mean, were you marooned?
W: I was very lucky to be staying with a British family in the capital but the house where I was living was quite seriously affected. The first day the water rose about half a meter, and the children paddled in it. Worms fled from it but were finally drowned and then eaten by big black ants which invaded the house.
M: Were you able to get around? Did you have to take a boat?
W: No, I waded, well, walked around actually, without any shoes! At first I was told that I was a fool because of snakes and, of course a lot of deaths have been because of snake bites. But we were quite a long way from the rice-fields where the snakes abound, so I bargained on the fact that there wouldn't be too many!
M: You were, as you say, staying in a rich area of the capital, did you see what was happening in the poorer areas?
W: I did indeed, and I felt very involved with it because we could see what was happening on the lower ground. The houses are really like tents made of rush matting supported by bamboo poles and as the flood water gets deeper, people are forced to move to higher and higher land taking their houses with them.
M: And what about food supplies?
W: Well, I was of course studying the merchants and it was quite impressive how they had managed to move all their stock well above and were able to double prices in some areas of the capital that were cut off. The price of grain varied by about a hundred percent, depends on where you were in the city. Now what the government tries to do in these circumstances is two things: one is to try to sell some of its stock on the open market at low prices in an effort to bring down prices, but this turned out to be in vain, and the other thing is to organize and soup kitchens in conjunction with the international charities.
M: How did you manage to get out because the airport was under water for a lot of time and there just weren't any flights?
W: I, of course, double reconfirmed my ticket out. But on the day itself I was told that the flight didn't exist and really only got out because there' was a spare seat on another flight. As we taxied for take-off, the wings of the F28, which is by no means a large plane, were actually over the flood waters on the runway, which didn't inspire a great deal of confidence. SO it was one of the most spirited rake-offs I've ever had.
M: But you lived to tell the tale.
W: Yes.
11. Dr. Emily Gardiner is an economist and university lecturer. What is her area of research?