单选题   Para. 1 ①The chicken industry is a dirty business, but it is also a profitable one. ②In the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, pork and beef consumption has remained unchanged since 1990. ③Chicken consumption has grown by 70%.
    Para. 2 ①Humans gobble so many chickens that the birds now count for 23 bn of the 30 bn land animals living on farms. ②According to a recent paper by Carys Bennett at the University of Leicester and colleagues, the total mass of farmed chickens exceeds that of all other birds on the planet combined. ③In London, some 50 miles west of Colchester, fried-chicken shops are ubiquitous. ④Many are named after American states (including Kansas and Montana, not to mention Kentucky). ⑤But schoolchildren and latenight partiers are unfazed by the strange names. ⑥Nor do they worry much about where their meal came from.
    Para. 3 ①And why should they? ②Chicken is cheap and delicious. ③A pound of poultry in America now costs $1.92, a fall of $1.71. ④Meanwhile the price of beef has fallen by $1.17 a pound to $5.80.
    Para. 4 ①It is not just fussy Western eaters who increasingly favour chicken. ②Rising incomes mean that demand for the meat is growing even faster in poorer countries. ③As a result, chickens are now the world's most widely traded meat. ④In economic terms they are, in effect, the opposite of cars. ⑤They are produced whole. ⑥But their value is maximized once they are broken up.
    Para. 5 ①The fact that different countries specialize in different kinds of production also boosts trade. ②America and Brazil, the world's two biggest chicken exporters, are agricultural powerhouses that grow huge amounts of feed, the main cost in poultry production. ③Thailand and China, in contrast, dominate the processed-meat market which requires cheap, skilled labour. ④Russia and Ukraine, once net importers of chicken, have become net exporters as their grain industries have grown.
    Para. 6 ①Producers that sell their meat abroad expose themselves to risks. ②Chicken has been a flashpoint in trade negotiations. ③China imposed tariffs on American birds and then banned all imports shortly after an outbreak of avian flu. ④Similarly, the European Union banned the import of chlorinated American chicken in 1997, owing to concern that a chlorine wash allows lower hygiene standards in farms.
    Para. 7 ①Although the chicken boom has been good for consumers, animal-welfare advocates worry that the meat industry's costcutting measures have come at the expense of the birds. ②Vicky Bond of the Humane League, an animal-welfare campaign group, says the size of modem chickens is the cause of the worst problems. ③Broilers have breast muscles which are too big for their bones to support, leading to lameness. ④In Colchester the chickens are so unresponsive to humans that they resemble zombies.
    Para. 8 ①Partly because of advocacy by animal welfare charities, and partly because meat has become so affordable, more consumers are now willing to pay for meat raised in better conditions. ②Sales of free-range and organic chickens, which—unlike most broilers—have access to the outdoors, are surging.
    Para. 9 ①Although larger numbers of people might be willing to pay more for organic or free-range products, most still prefer whatever is cheapest. ②And, despite growing interest in vegetarianism and veganism, surveys find little evidence that many people in the rich world are turning into herbivores. ③People may like flirting with plant-based diets. ④But what they really love is chicken.