单选题 Malthusian fears that population growth will outstrip food supplies have been widely discounted as food production has kept well ahead of growing human numbers in the last half century. While population doubled, food supply tripled, and life expectancy increased from 46 in the 1950s to around 65 today. But more recently, some experts have once again been sounding the alarm about a possible food crisis.
The reason lies in the combined impact of many factors including climate change, forest denudation, land degradation, water shortage, declining oil supplies, species extinction, destruction of coastal ecosystems and the growing demands for a meat-rich diet from newly developed parts of the world.
At the root of all these problems has been the ruthless exploitation of the earth's resources, fuelled by growing affluence in some parts of the world and desperate poverty in others. Between 1980 and 2000, global population rose from 4.4 billion to 6.1 billion, while food production increased 50 per cent. By 2050, the population is expected to reach 9 billion.
Data shows that while grain yields per acre have been increasing, the rate of increase has been slowing since the days of the Green Revolution in the 1970s. Most of the benefits of irrigation, machinery, fertilizer and plant breeding have already been realized. The production of grain per acre is close to the maximum obtainable through photosynthesis.
To keep up with the growth in human population, more food will have to be produced over the next 50 years than has been during the past 10,000 years combined, said the participants of the recent UN-backed forum in Iceland on sustainable development. It is, of course, possible that new technologies, smart environmental management and sensitive social policies will combine to good effect to usher in a new green revolution. But as grain reserves have fallen to their lowest level for many years, this cannot be guaranteed.
At the 1996 World Food Summit political leaders from 186 countries pledged to halve the number of hungry people in the world by the year 2015, or a reduction of 20 million each year. At that time, about 800 million people were reported to suffer from under- nourishment. In 2007 estimates from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggest that there are 854 million people who do not get enough to eat every day. "Far from decreasing, the number of hungry people in the world is currently increasing," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. (Of course, world population has increased by some 800 million in that time, so food supplies have kept up relatively well, but have failed to reach an increasing number, let alone reduce the total going hungry.)

单选题 What's the author's attitude towards Malthusian theory?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[试题类型] 观点态度题。
[解题思路] 作者在第一段提到了Malthusian，该段第一句指出Malthusian fears that population growth will outstrip food supplies，即马尔萨斯人口论担心人口增长将超过粮食供给。接着作者指出，由于上半个世纪粮食增长超过了人口增长的数量，因此人们对Malthusian理论普遍不再相信，(Malthusian fears...have been widely discounted...)，但段末作者笔锋一转，指出一些专家再一次敲响粮食危机的警钟(But...some experts have once again been sounding the alarm about a possible food crisis)，接着作者在第二、三段分析了导致粮食危机的原因，并分析了目前的粮食供给状况，最后指出缓解全球粮食危机任重而道远，由此可见，作者对Malthusian theory持支持态度(mildly supportive)，故选项[A]正确。
[干扰排除] 选项[B]“有些漠不关心的”，选项[C]“有点吃惊的”，选项[D]“貌似客观的”，都没有准确概括作者的态度，故排除。

单选题 The food crisis may come as a result of______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[试题类型] 具体信息题。
[解题思路] 本题针对粮食危机产生的原因设问。第二段首句指出，粮食危机是多种因素综合作用的结果(The reason lies in the combined impact of the many factors)，包括气候变化、土壤剥蚀、水资源短缺等。由此可见，选项[C]the joint forces of a variety of factors正是对该段句首the combined impact of many factors的同义改写，故正确。
[干扰排除] 文中第三段提到1980年到2000年，全球人口从4亿增加到6.1亿，但是粮食产量也增加了50%，并且作者强调人口增长速度快于粮食增长时才会引发粮食危机，故仅“人口数量比以前多”这一方面不一定会引发粮食危机，放排除选项[A]。选项[B]不符合常识，文中也没有提及专家夸大事实能导致粮食危机，故排除。义中也没有提及“人类忽视现状”是造成粮食危机的原因，故排除选项[D]。

单选题 According to the passage, the Green Revolution in the 1970s______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[试题类型] 具体信息题。
[解题思路] 根据题干关键词the Green Revolution in the 1970s可定位至文章第四段。该段首句指出，自从70年代绿色革命之后，粮食产量增长的比率一直在下降。紧接着指出灌溉、施肥等现代化手段的最大成效已经基本实现了。由此可以推知，在绿色革命时代，人们采取了许多革新措施提高粮食产量，故选项[B]正确。
[干扰排除] 选项[A]根据第四段首句中the rate of increase has been slowing设置干扰，根据本句内容，粮食增长量的下降是绿色革命之后的事情(since the days of the Green Revolution in the 1970s)，故排除。选项[C]中the environmental situation degraded对应文章第二段的climate change, forest denudation...destruction of coastal ecosystems，但自然环境的恶化是导致粮食危机的原因，并不是随着环境恶化才出现绿色革命，故排除选项[C]。选项[D]中的a record high是根据第四段末句the maximum设置的干扰。该句指出，现在粮食产量接近通过光合作用可达到的最高值，而不是指70年代绿色革命时期粮食产量达到最高值，且由该段首句中grain yields per acre have been increasing可知，粮食产量一直在增长，因此70年代绿色革命时期的粮食产量不会是最高纪录，故排除选项[D]。

单选题 From the passage, it can be inferred that a new green revolution______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[试题类型] 推理引申题。
[解题思路] 根据题干关键词a new green revolution可定位至文章第五段。该段第二句指出，新技术等手段可能开启一场新的绿色革命(It is...possible that new technologies...will combine to good effect to usher in a new green revolution)，紧接着作者表示，但这场革命不是一定会实现(...this cannot be guaranteed)，this指代上文中的a new green
revolution，故选项[D]正确。
[干扰排除] 选项[A]、[B]和[C]的信息在文中并未提及，且文中指出并不能确保新的绿色革命能够实现(...this cannot be guaranteed)，因此这场革命将增加每亩粮食产量、带来新变化、有助于生产更多粮食的说法都过于绝对，故均排除。

单选题 According to the last paragraph, what happened in the year of 2007?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[试题类型] 推理引申题。
[解题思路] 根据题干关键词the last paragraph可定位至文章最后一段。该段第二句指出，2007年全球约有8.54亿人每天吃不饱饭(In 2007 ...there are 854 million people who do not get enough to eat every day)，与上一句讲到的1996年全球有8亿人营养不良(At that time, about 800 million people ...under-nourishment)相对比可知，2007年营养不良的人数增长了。同时，联合国粮食与农业组织主席雅克·迪乌夫当时也指出，世界饥饿人口持续增长了(...the number of hungry people in the world is currently increasing)，故选项[C]正确。
[干扰排除] 根据最后一段第一句可知，每年减少2000万饥饿人口是1996年世界粮食首脑峰会的目标，2007年是否实现了这一目标还不得而知，并且选项[A]偷换概念，将文中的hungry people换为poor people，故排除。将文中的两组数据1996年8亿和2007年8.54亿相比较可知，选项[B]计算错误，故排除。根据文章末尾的信息可知，2007年粮食供给增长了(food supplies have kept up relatively well)，但作者并未指出粮食供给量上升是由于新技术的应用(due to the application of new technologies)，故排除选项[D]。