单选题 The long year of food shortage in this country have suddenly given way to apparent abundance. Stores and shops are choked with food. Rationing (定量供应 ) is virtually suspended, and overseas suppliers have been asked to hold back deliveries. Yet, instead of joy, there is widespread uneasiness arid confusion. Why do food prices keep on rising, when there seems to be so much more food about? Is the abundance only temporary, or has it come to stay?Does it mean that we need to think less now about producing more food at home? No one knows what to expect.
The recent growth of export-surpluses on the world food market has certainly been unexpectedly great, partly because a strange sequence of two successful grain harvests in North America is now being followed by a third. Most of Britain's overseas suppliers of meat, too, are offering more this and home production has also risen.
But the effect of all this on the food situation in this country has been made worse by a simultaneous rise in food prices, due chiefly to the gradual cutting down of government support for food. The shops are overstocked with food not only because there is more food available, but also because people, frightened by high prices, are buying less of it.
Moreover, the rise in domestic prices has come at a time when world prices have begun to fall, with the result that imported food, with the exception of grain, is often cheaper than the home -produced variety. And now grain prices, too are falling. Consumers are beginning to ask why they should not be enabled to benefit from this trend.
The significance of these developments is not lost on farmers. The older generation have seen it all happen before. Despite the present price and market guarantees, farmers fear they are about to be squeezed between cheap food imports and a shrinking home market. Present production is running at 51 per cent above pre-war levels, and the government has called for an expansion to 60 per cent by 1956; but repeated ministerial advice is carrying little weight and the expansion program is not working very well.

单选题 Why does the author mention "there is wide-spread uneasiness and confusion" (Line 4, Para. 1)? ______
A. The abundant food supply is not expected to last
B. Britain is importing less food
C. Despite the abundance, food prices keep rising
D. Britain will cut back on its production of food
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第一段第三、四句指出,然而,高兴之余,更多的是蔓延的不安和迷惑。为什么食品价格不断上涨,而食品看起来越来越多?
单选题 It is clear that the main reason for the rise in food prices is that______
A. people are buying less food
B. the government is providing less financial support for agriculture
C. domestic food production has decreased
D. imported food is driving prices higher
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】第三段第一句指出,而在这个国家中对食品的所有影响却因同期食品价格上涨而减弱,主要是由于政府对食品支持的经费逐渐在削减。
单选题 The reason for the government's expansion program working not so well is______.
A. because the farmers were uncertain about the financial support the government guaranteed
B. because the farmers were uncertain about the benefits of expanding production
C. because the farmers were uncertain whether foreign markets could be found for their produce
D. because the older generation of farmers were strongly against the program
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】第五段第三、四句指出,尽管有当前价格和市场的保证,农民们害怕他们受到进口低价食品和收缩的国内市场的挤压。当前生产以高于战前51%的水平进行,而政府号召到
1956年扩展到60%;然而政府反复的忠告没有太大影响,扩展计划进行得并不顺利。
单选题 The drop of the world food prices was a result of______.
A. a sharp fall in the purchasing power of the consumers
B. a sharp fait in the cost of food production
C. the overproduction of food in the food-importing countries
D. the overproduction on the part of the main food-exporting countries
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】第二段指出,出乎意料的全球食品市场出口过剩近来极大增长,部分是因为奇怪的连续两年粮食大丰收。北美目前看来还会有第三次丰收。大多数英国的国外肉类供应商今年也供货更多,国内生产也上升。
单选题 The future for Britain's food production at that time looked like that______.
A. the fall in world food prices would benefit British food producers
B. an expansion of food production was at hand
C. British food producers would receive more government financial support
D. it looks depressing despite government guarantees
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】从题3分析可知:第五段第三、四句指出,尽管有当前价格和市场的保证,农民们害怕他们受到进口低价食品和收缩的国内市场的挤压。当前生产以高于战前51%的水平进行,而政府号召到1956年扩展到60%;然而政府反复的忠告没有太大影响,扩展计划进行得并不顺利。