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  3. Nine months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the world’s economic crisis is still usually discussed as though it consisted

Nine months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the world’s economic crisis is still usually discussed as though it consisted

admin2012-06-02  56
问题     Nine months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the world’s economic crisis is still usually discussed as though it consisted of dire bank balance-sheets, falling exports and bankruptcies or job losses in the West. But at the other end of the trail that starts with financial woes in rich countries are underweight children and anaemic expectant mothers in poor ones. New research by the United Nations’ standing committee on nutrition gives a first estimate of how the crisis has hurt the group of people most affected by the crash: the very poorest.
    In 1990—2007, the number of hungry people rose by about 80m, though this was, by and large, a period of rising incomes in developing countries. In 2008 alone, the number rose a further 40m, to 963m — half as much in one year as during the previous 17. In other words, lots more children and pregnant women are not getting the food they need. The report reckons that the number of underweight children will rise from 121m to 125m by 2010, assuming no change in the size of the world economy (in fact, it is expected to shrink 2% this year). The World Bank has already estimated that until 2015 the crisis will lead to between 200, 000 and 400,000 more children dying every year.
    The poorest face two crises: the world recession and the resumption of food price rises. Food prices had been falling but even then, the global price fall did not translate into a comparable decline on local markets in most poor countries, so the poor did not benefit much. World prices bottomed out in December 2008 and have since risen 26%. In the poorest countries, a rise of 50% in the price of staples pushes up the family food budget from 50% to 60% of household income.
    Initially, people skimp on non-staple foods, cutting the quality and diversity of their intake; in the next stage, the quantity and safety of diets suffer. That in turn damages their health. Currently, around 50m, or 40%, of pregnant women in developing countries are anaemic. Anaemia in expectant mothers, which causes low birth weight and unhealthier babies, is likely to rise by a further 1. 2m in Asia and 700,000 in Africa.
    To make matters worse, this is happening at a time when the global slump is causing job losses or wage squeezes everywhere — worldwide unemployment rose to 6% in 2008 — so in some poor countries, it now takes an extra ten hours a week or more to feed a family of five.
    The resulting burden falls heavily on women. As the report says starkly: "Women are usually the last to benefit from increasing income but they are usually the first to make sacrifices when the financial situation deteriorates. "
By saying "they are usually the first to make sacrifices" (Line 2, Para. 6), the author means
选项 A、women are more susceptible to financial conditions.
B、women are willing to sacrifice their lives for their family.
C、women are usually the first victims of anaemia.
D、women tend to suffer more in bad economic situations.
答案D
解析 语义理解题。联系上文提到的“发展中国家大约有5千万或是40％的怀孕妇女息有贫血症”并且“这发生在全球大萧条正在引致大范围的失业及工资缩减时期”可知，妇女在经济情况恶劣时承受的痛苦较多，故[D]为答案。从“妇女往往是收入上涨最后的受益人”可知，[A]“妇女易受经济条件的影响”不正确；[B]表意肤浅，肤浅项往往不是解；旧项本身说法无依据，故排除。
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考研英语一

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