Question

Some of the world’s most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food riots(暴乱) and hunger make news, but the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world’s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.

The authors take a vast number of data pointing for the four most important crops； rice, wheat, corn and soybeans. They find that on between 24 and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.

There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world's most populous(人口多的) countries，India and China.

Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.

Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soybeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods’ accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soybeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.

The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organization has argued. Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed (耕）up for crops might be able to revert to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen.

1.Which crops are mentioned in the text?

A. Rice，corn，soybeans and wheat.

B. Rice，corn, wheat and peas.

C. Wheat，corn，soybean and potatoes.

D. Corn，wheat, tomatoes and soybeans.

2.What does the author try to draw attention to?

A. Food riots and hunger in the world.

B. The decline of the grain yield growth.

C. News headlines in the leading media*

D. The food supply in populous countries.

3.Why does the author mention India and China in particular?

A. Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.

B. Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years.

C. Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns.

D. Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.

4.What does the underlined word “revert” mean in the last paragraph?

A. grow worse

B. put in the place of another

C. gain through experience

D. go back to a previous state

Answer

1.A

2.B

3.A

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：作者分析了明尼苏达大学和蒙特利尔麦克吉尔大学的一项新研究，并指出了关于粮食方面的一些问题。

1. 细节理解题。根据第二段就可以知道是水稻、小麦、玉米和大豆四种作物。故选A。

2. 推理判断题。根据第一段This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world’s major crops.以及全文内容可知，作者关注粮食产量增长率的下降。故选B。

3. 细节理解题。根据第三段Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets.可知，两国粮食自足是世界粮食市场稳定的至关重要的基础。故选A。

4. 词义猜测题。根据thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed (耕）up for crops might be able to revert to forest or wilderness.（幸亏人口增长放缓，目前很多耕地可以恢复到森林和原野状态）可知，此处是指“退耕还休”，故选D项。

【名师点睛】

猜测词义题。事实上，阅读材料中的每个词与它前后的词语或句子甚至段落都有联系。我们可以利用语境（各种已知信息）推测、判断某些生词的词义。做这种类型的题，要根据词、词组、句子所在的语境来判断其意义。因此熟练掌握一些猜词技巧是做好这类题的关键。命题者在出这类题时惯用常规词义来麻痹考生，我们要特别注意熟词生义，切不可脱离语境想当然。在句子或段落中，我们可以利用熟悉的词语，根据语言环境所表示的关系推断生词词义。5.

考点：考查政治经济类阅读