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  3. In 1798 the political economist Malthus predicted that in time mankind would face starvation, having outgrown the available food

In 1798 the political economist Malthus predicted that in time mankind would face starvation, having outgrown the available food

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问题     In 1798 the political economist Malthus predicted that in time mankind would face starvation, having outgrown the available food supplies. Today, a century and a half later, there are still experts who forecast the same global disaster—unless urgent measures are taken to prevent it.
    By the end of the present century there may well be over five thousand million people living on this globe, an increase of over fifty percent on today’s figure. In order to keep pace with this increase in mankind the farmers of the world will have to step up their production of food by at least two percent every year. Such a rate of increase has never been maintained in any country by conventional methods of agriculture, despite modern mechanization and the widespread use of fertilizers. There are no large worthwhile reserves of potential farmland remaining, and good fertile land is continually being changed into industrial use. Moreover, erosion of the soil takes a constant toll (损失).
    Intensive research, carried out over many years in all manners of climate conditions, has produced a revolutionary method of growing crops without using any soil at all. Hydroponics (水栽 法), as this technique is called, may well be the answer to all our food worries; already it has accomplished wonders in producing huge crops. Hydroponics was once a complicated and expensive business, now it is well out of the experimental stage. Labor costs are far lower than when normal methods of agriculture are employed. In fact, it is a completely automatic system. There is no hard manual work, no digging or ploughing, and no weeding to speak of. Yields can be far higher than they are in soil.
Which of the following best sums up the whole passage?
选项 A、Malthus’ prediction has been proved to be correct by modern experts.
B、Hydroponics is a new development in agriculture.
C、Hydroponics may be the answer to the world food shortage in the future.
D、Conventional methods of agriculture should be improved so as to step up food production by two percent every year.
答案C
解析 本题问下面哪个选项可以最好地概括全文内容。利用浏览式阅读法，根据文章第一段和第三段：早在1798年，政治经济学家马尔萨斯就预言，人类总有一天会由于人数增长超过了可获取的食物资源而面临挨饿的危险。一个半世纪后的今天，仍有专家预测说除非采取紧急措施来阻止这一灾难，否则的话，仍会面临全球性的灾难。而经过多年在各种气候条件下的广泛研究，研究人员已研制出一种具有革命性的种植方法，无土栽培法也称为水栽法。这种方法可能会缓解我们对粮食的焦虑，而且这种方法已经成功地栽培出了许多大型庄稼，创造了奇迹。因此，全文的主题是介绍水栽法可能是解决未来世界粮食短缺问题的一个好办法。所以，本题的正确答案应是C。
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