单选题
Because agriculture is so important to a nation's
well-being, governments have always been concerned with it. For example, the
United States and Canada have long produced surpluses that complicate their
economies. Surpluses tend to lower prices to farmers and seriously endanger the
agriculture industry. Governments have instituted systems of price supports to
maintain a fair price when surpluses cause prices to drop. The system in the
United States is a good example. A government program supports the prices paid
to farmers for grains, and other agricultural products. Support
prices are based on parity, which is the ratio between the prices farmers
receive for their crops and the prices they must pay for things they need. The
government selected the period from 1910 to 1914 as a time when farm prices were
in a fair ratio with farming costs. This is the base period now used to
determine parity prices. The idea is to assure farmers that
what they get for a bushel of wheat will buy the same amount of, say, seed as it
did in the years of the base period; if prices drop too far below this ideal the
government can help in a number of ways. For example, it may buy much of a
surplus at parity prices. Governments have instituted a wide variety of other
controls for prices and, also, for farm output, mainly at the request of the
farmers themselves. Farm prices tend to fluctuate more than other prices do, and
the incomes of farmers fluctuate along with farm prices.
Various measures for maintaining farm prices and incomes include tariff or
import levies, import quotas, export subsidies, direct payment to farmers, and
limitations on production. All of these measures are useful and are used to some
extent by most developed countries. An important example of such a program is
the soil-bank plan, which aimed at limiting production while improving
farmland. The European Economic Community (EEC) established a
common agricultural policy (CAP) for its member nations, called the Common
Market countries. The aim is to create free trade for individual commodities
within the community. When production of a commodity exceeds EEC consumption,
the EEC may buy the excess for storage, pay to have it reprocessed, or export it
to countries outside the Common Market. In this way the EEC can maintain its
members' farm prices at levels equal to or even higher than those in such
market-competitive nations as the United States and Canada.
单选题
By saying that a country's agricultural surpluses often "complicate"
its economy, the author means ______.
A. they throw the country into great disorder
B. they entail more expenditure on the part of the government
C. they usually involve direct governmental support price
D. the government has to set up special pricing systems
单选题
It can be inferred that the common agricultural policy aims to ______.
A. avoid competition among its member nations
B. limit production and improve farmland
C. ensure a balance between production and consumption
D. encourage free competition among its member nations
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】这是一道推论题。题干中的信号词为the common agricultural policy，出自于第五段第一句话中。文章第五段指出：欧共体为其成员国制定了共同农业政策，其目的是在共同体内部实现农产品的自由贸易。由此可知，共同农业政策的目的就是避免共同体内的竞争。A说“避免成员国之间的竞争”，这与文章的意思符合。与 B有关的信息是第四段的最后一句话，文中是说“这些计划的一个典型例子就是保持地力计划，其目的是限制生产，改善农田”，这是在说稳定农产品价格和收入的措施，与共同农业政策没有关系，所以B不对。与C有关的信息是第五段的第三句话，文中是说“如果某种产品的生产超过了共同体的消费需要，共同体就可能将剩余产品买下储存起来，付酬将这些剩余产品再加工，或者将其出口到共同体以外的国家”，这是明确指出的，不必推论就可知结果，所以C不对。D与文章的意思相反。
单选题
Why do governments show special concern for agriculture?
A. Because farm prices go up and down constantly.
B. Because farmers usually earn less than other income groups.
C. Because there is not much arable farmland left.
D. Because farmers are confronted with fiercer competition.