首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
【F1】It is the world’s fourth-most-important food crop, after maize, wheat and rice, which provides more calories, more quickly,
【F1】It is the world’s fourth-most-important food crop, after maize, wheat and rice, which provides more calories, more quickly,
admin
2016-03-22
45
问题
【F1】
It is the world’s fourth-most-important food crop, after maize, wheat and rice, which provides more calories, more quickly, using less land and in a wider range of climates than any other plant.
It is, of course, the potato.
The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato. It hopes that greater awareness of the merits of potatoes will contribute to the achievement of its Millennium Development Goals, by helping to alleviate poverty, improve food security and promote economic development. It is always the international year of this or month of that.【F2】
But the potato’s unusual history means it is well worth celebrating by readers of The Economist because the potato is intertwined with economic development, trade liberalisation and globalisation.
Unlikely though it seems, the potato promoted economic development by underpinning the industrial revolution in England in the 19th century. It provided a cheap source of calories and was easy to cultivate, so it liberated workers from the land. Potatoes became popular in the north of England, as people there specialised in livestock farming and domestic industry, while farmers in the south(where the soil was more suitable)concentrated on wheat production.【F3】
By a happy accident, this concentrated industrial activity in the regions where coal was readily available, and a potato-driven population boom provided ample workers for the new factories.
Friedrich Engels even declared that the potato was the equal of iron for its "historically revolutionary role".
The potato promoted free trade by contributing to the abolition of Britain’s Corn Laws—the cause which prompted the founding of The Economist in 1843. The Corn Laws restricted imports of grain into the United Kingdom in order to protect domestic wheat producers.【F4】
Landowners supported the laws, since cheap imported grain would reduce their income, but industrialists opposed them because imports would drive down the cost of food, allowing people to spend more on manufactured goods.
Ultimately it was not the eloquence of the arguments against the Corn Laws that led to their abolition—and more’ s the pity. It was the tragedy of the Irish potato famine of 1845, in which 1 million Irish perished when the potato crop on which they subsisted succumbed to blight.【F5】
The need to import grain to relieve the situation in Ireland forced the government, which was dominated by landowners who backed the Corn Laws, to reverse its position.
This paved the way for liberalisation in other areas, and free trade became British policy. As the Duke of Wellington complained at the time, "rotten potatoes have done it all."
【F5】
选项
答案
爱尔兰需要进口粮食来缓解灾情,这迫使由支持《谷物法》的土地拥有者组成的政府不得不改弦易辙。
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/zpsZ777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
TescoistheclosestthingthatEuropehastoWal-Mart.TheU.K.’sleadingfoodandhousehold-goodsretailersellseverything
Americansbelievenoonestandsstill.Ifyouarenotmovingahead,youarefallingbehind.Thisattituderesultsinanationof
Americansbelievenoonestandsstill.Ifyouarenotmovingahead,youarefallingbehind.Thisattituderesultsinanationof
Whiletravelingforvariousspeakingengagements,Ifrequentlystayovernightinthehomeofafamilyandamassignedtooneof
TheGuide导游Writeanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)e
WhenTechnologyDoesEverythingforUs当技术为我们做一切事情Writeanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshou
Itwassupposedtobethenew-mediaelection.E-mail,blogging,socialnetworkingandtweetingwereexpectedtosurgeinimporta
WithJapan’swelfaresystembucklingunderthedemandsofanageingsociety,theworld’soldestmanapologizedyesterdayforhis
Prewritingreferstostrategiesyoucanusetogenerateideasbeforestartingthefirstdraftofapaper.Prewritingtechniques
随机试题
By2012,themodernuseofelectroniceducationaltechnology(alsocallede-learning)hadgrownat14timesoftherateoftra
在半波整流电路中,交流电压在()个周期内只有半个周期导通。
符合缺铁潜伏期的是
下颌阻生牙拔除的适应证不包括
根据房屋完损等级分类,下列属于一般损坏房屋特征的有()。
合成氨生产工艺流程及产污节点图中,可以表示出()。
依据《中华人民共和国节约能源法》,关于节能政策,下列说法中,错误的是()。
大型建设工程项目的结构分析中,一级工作任务目录,将整个()划分成若干个子系统。
Oversizecupidsinpink,furryoutfitshandoutheart-shapedballoonswith"IDo"writtenonthem(inEnglish)atawedding-th
RuiningtheRuinsAcidrain(酸雨)isnowafamiliarproblemintheindustrializedcountriesinEurope.Harmfulgasesareproduc
最新回复
(
0
)