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  3. The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a looming hung

The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a looming hung

admin2022-12-06  138
问题     The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a looming hunger crisis in poor countries and a looming energy crisis worldwide, world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis. Wheat, corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years, and oil prices have more than tripled since the start of 2004. These food-price increases combing with soaring energy costs will slow if not stop economic growth in many parts of the world and will even undermine political stability, as evidenced by the protest riots that have erupted in places like Haiti, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso. Practical solutions to these growing woes do exist, but we’ll have to start thinking ahead and acting globally.
    The crisis has its roots in four interlinked trends. The first is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries, caused by their inability to pay for seeds, fertilizers and irrigation. The second is the misguided policy in the U.S. and Europe of subsidizing the diversion of food crops to produce biofuels like corn-based ethanol. The third is climate change; take the recent droughts in Australia and Europe, which cut the global production of grain in 2005 and 2006. The fourth is the growing global demand for food and feed grains brought on by swelling populations and incomes. In short, rising demand has hit a limited supply, with the poor taking the hardest blow.
    So, what should be done? Here are three steps to ease the current crisis and avert the potential for a global disaster. The first is to scale-up the dramatic success of Malawi, a famine-prone country in southern Africa, which three years ago established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and high-yield seeds. Malawi’s harvest doubled after just one year. An international fund based on the Malawi model would cost a mere $10 per person annually in the rich world, or $10 billion in all. Such a fund could fight hunger as effectively as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria is controlling those diseases.
    Second, the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of subsidizing the conversion of food into biofuels. The U.S. government gives farmers a taxpayer-financed subsidy of 51 cents per gal of ethanol to divert corn from the food and feed-grain supply. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods—tree crops (like palm oil), grasses and wood products—but there’s no case for doling out subsidies to put the world’s dinner into the gas tank. Third, we urgently need to weatherproof the world’s crops as soon and as effectively as possible. For a poor farmer, sometimes something as simple as a farm pond—which collects rainwater to be used for emergency irrigation in a dry spell—can make the difference between a bountiful crop and a famine. The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation Fund to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet upon the promise.
    [A] poor countries.
    [B] all the world.
    [C] the Climate Adaptation Fund.
    [D] the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
    [E] Bangladesh.
    [F] Malawi.
    [G] the US and Europe.
Anti-hunger campaigns are successful in
选项
答案F
解析 复现结构+无关词排除法。本题左栏中的信息是一个不完整的句子，即Anti-hunger campaigns are successful in(反饥饿运动在________是成功的)，而右栏的信息均是地点(国家)和机构组织的名称，由此可知是要为左栏的信息匹配一个地点，即“反饥饿运动在哪个地方是成功的”。考生首先把握左栏句子信息中的关键线索点，即Anti-hunger campaigns和successful，然后去原文利用复现结构进行对比查找，看原文哪个地方含有“反饥饿运动是成功的”的信息。首先，本题可以应用无关词排除法缩小答案的范围。考生关注一下右栏中给出的七个有关地点(国家)和机构组织的名称，根据左栏的句子信息“Anti-hunger campaigns are successful in (反饥饿运动在________是成功的)”，可以直接排除G项the US and Europe(美国和欧洲)，因为根据常识，美国和欧洲作为发达国家不会出现本文所讨论的饥荒问题。也可以排除B项all the world (全世界)，因为如果反饥饿运动在全世界是成功的，本篇文章就没有存在的理由了，因为本文的主题就是探讨全球面临的粮食危机问题。然后可以继续排除C项the Climate Adaptation Fund (气候调节基金)和D项the Global Fund to Fight AIDS，TB and Malaria(全球抗艾滋病、肺结核和疟疾基金)，因为从逻辑上基金与左栏“Anti-hunger campaigns are successful in(反饥饿运动在________是成功的)”是不搭配的。因此，本题的答案范围缩小在A项poor countries(贫穷国家)、Bangladesh(孟加拉)和Malawi(马拉维)中。然后，考生再去扫读一下原文，发现原文是一篇典型的“先提出问题，再给出问题解决方案”的文章。根据左栏的句子“Anti-hunger campaigns are successful in(反饥饿运动在________是成功的)”，此概念首先不会出现在文章的前半部分，即“提出问题”的部分，而应该出现在“给出问题解决方案”的部分，考生应该把搜索范围确定在文章的后半部分。文章在第三段的段首给出了一个句子，即so，what should be done?这明显是文章前半部分“提出问题”和后半部分“给出问题解决方案”的分界线，考生需要重点去文章第三段及之后的段落进行对比定位。此时考生马上注意到在第三段中出现了success of Malawi的信息，考生围绕此信息点稍微细读一下就会发现该部分阐述的就是非洲国家马拉维如何从饥荒国家变成粮食丰产国家的内容，这处原文信息与本题左栏信息“Anti. hunger campaigns are successful in(反饥饿运动在________是成功的)”表达的是相同的意思，并且原文此处之后的信息没有再提及贫穷国家，而是继续阐述了the U. S. and Europe应该如何等。因此可以确定本题的答案为F项Malawi。
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