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  3. Hunger is no novelty. We can discount legends of golden ages, lands of Cockayne, and Me-gasthenes’ statement that before Alexand

Hunger is no novelty. We can discount legends of golden ages, lands of Cockayne, and Me-gasthenes’ statement that before Alexand

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问题     Hunger is no novelty. We can discount legends of golden ages, lands of Cockayne, and Me-gasthenes’ statement that before Alexander’ s invasion of India, there had never been famine or food shortage there. Trustworthy historical records show that during the Renaissance one year in ten in Britain, and one in five in Europe, was a famine year. China, with a greater area and more diverse climate, had a famine in some regions every year.
    Famine is a state of. affairs in which people are dying in the streets. It therefore attracts the notice of historians and is recorded. The fact that it strikes people who are aware of having been properly fed and well is more important. Not only are the survivors more adjustable, they are also angry at the breakdown of the system and eager to do something about it though it is obvious from the record that they do not always have the means. Malnutrition is much more underhanded. It is a chronic state in which the total food supply or, more often, the supply of certain components such as protein or some of the vitamins, is inadequate. It seems probable that, either constantly or seasonally , it used to be the usual condition of mankind and was regarded as normal. The unhealthy appearance of the figures in medieval paintings and drawings is often put down to the incompetence of the artist; it is as likely that most people really did look like that. The plentifulness with which poets greeted the merry month of May, in our dull climate, have had a climatic basis; it is just as likely that in May, after six months’ shortage, there was now an adequate vitamin supply. The promptness with which some sailors died of scurvy(坏血病)after leaving port suggests that they were normally on the edge of scurvy and needed only a slight worsening of conditions to get it acutely. Others will think of other examples. Hunger and malnutrition are components of a classic example of a vicious circle. They lead to enfeeblement or unfeelingness in which nothing either can be done, or seems to be worth doing, to alter the state of affairs; this leads to more hunger and malnutrition. There is good reason to think that, in much of the developing world, if the circle could once be broken, it need never return.
The writer suggests that famine is different from malnutrition because______.
选项 A、it is a far more widespread problem
B、it causes rather more people to die
C、it arouses a desire for action rather than mere unfeelingness
D、it tends to affect the rich and well-fed more than the poor
答案C
解析 第二段，作者对famine和malnutrition分别作了详细介绍，指出people are angry at thebreakdown of the system“对饥荒造成的人类体系破坏感到气氛”，并eager to do some-thing about it“渴望能做点儿什么(来改变这一状况)”；关于malnutrition，不管是连续的，还是季节性的，人们则regard it as normal“认为它很平常”，并不采取什么措施。通过对比可知，famine会激起人们采取措施的愿望，而对于malnutrition，人们则无动于衷，认为它是常事。选项C正确。
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