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  3. The promise of finding long-term technological solutions to the problem of world food shortages seems difficult to fulfill. Many

The promise of finding long-term technological solutions to the problem of world food shortages seems difficult to fulfill. Many

admin2013-10-17  31
问题     The promise of finding long-term technological solutions to the problem of world food shortages seems difficult to fulfill. Many innovations that were once heavily supported and publicized, such as fish-protein concentrate and protein from algae grown on petroleum substrates, have since fallen by the wayside. The proposals themselves were technically feasible, but they proved to be economically unviable(not able to succeed) and to yield food products culturally unacceptable to their consumers.
    One characteristic common to unsuccessful food innovations has been that, even with extensive government support, they often have not been technologically adapted or culturally acceptable to the people for whom they had been developed. A successful new technology, therefore, must fit the entire sociocultural system in which it is to find a place security of crop yield, practicality of storage, and costs are more significant than had previously been realized by the advocates of new technologies.
    The adoption of new food technologies depends on more than these technical and cultural considerations; economic factors and governmental policies also strongly influence the ultimate success of any innovation. Economists in the Anglo-American tradition have taken the lead in investigating the economics of technological innovation. Although they exaggerate in claiming that profitability is the key factor guiding technical change—they completely disregard the substantial effects of culture—they are correct in stressing the importance of profits. Most technological innovations in agriculture can be fully used only by large landowners and are only adopted if these profit-oriented business believe that the innovation will increase their incomes. Thus, innovations that carry high rewards for big agribusiness groups will be adopted even if they harm segments of the population and reduce the availability of food in a country. Further, should a new technology promise to alter substantially the profits and losses associated with any production system, those with economic power will strive to maintain and improve their own position. Since large segments of the populations of many developing countries are close to the subsistence(ability to live)margin and essentially powerless, they tend to be the losers in this system unless they are aided by a government policy that takes into account the needs of all sectors (branches) of the economy. Therefore, although technical advances in food production and processing will perhaps be needed to ensure food availability, meeting food needs will depend much more on equalizing economic powers among the various segments of the populations within the developing countries themselves.
The primary purpose of the passage is to discuss______.
选项 A、means of assessing the extent of the world food shortage
B、difficulties of applying technological solutions to the problem of food shortages
C、cost of introducing a new good technology into a developing country
D、nature of the new technological innovations in the area of food production
答案B
解析 由首句和末句均可看出作者他认为解决粮食短缺问题很困难，而本文讨论的正是它困难的原因。A是评价世界粮食短缺程度的办法；C是发展中国家引进新食品技术的成本；D是食品生产新技术的本质，而这三项在原文中都没有提到。
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