Section B

　　Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

　　Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?

　　[A] For many years I have studied global agricultural, population, environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global civilization.

　　[B] I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible.

　　[C] As demand for food rises faster than supplies are growing, the resulting food-price inflation puts severe stress on the governments of many countries. Unable to buy grain or grow their own, hungry people take to the streets. Indeed, even before the steep climb in grain prices in 2008, the number of failing states was expanding. If the food situation continues to worsen, entire nations will break down at an ever increasing rate. In the 20th century the main threat to international security was superpower conflict; today it is failing states.

　　[D] States fail when national governments can no longer provide personal security, food security and basic social services such as education and health care. When governments lose their control on power, law and order begin to disintegrate. After a point, countries can become so dangerous that food relief workers are no longer safe and their programs are halted. Failing states are of international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons and refugees(难民), threatening political stability everywhere.

　　[E] The surge in world grain prices in 2007 and 2008—and the threat they pose to food security——has a different, more troubling quality than the increases of the past. During the second of the 20th century, grain prices rose dramatically several times. In 1972, for instance, the Soviets. I recognizing their poor harvest early, quietly cornered the world wheat market. As a result, wheat prices elsewhere more than doubled, pulling rice and com prices up with them. But this and other price shocks were event-driven——drought in the Soviet Union, crop-shrinking heat in the U.S. Corn Belt. And the rises were short-lived: prices typically returned to normal with the next harvest.

　　[F]In contrast, recent surge in world grain prices is trend-driven, making it unlikely to reverse without a reversal in the trends themselves. On the demand side, those trends include the ongoing addition of more than 70 million people a year, a growing number of people wanting to move up the food chain to consume highly grain-intensive meat products, and the massive diversion(转向)of U.S. grain to the production of bio-fuel.

　　[G]As incomes rise among low-income consumers, the potential for further grain consumption is huge. But that potential pales beside the never-ending demand for crop-based fuels. A fourth of this year's U.S. grain harvest will go to fuel cars.

　　[H]What about supply? The three environmental trends——the shortage of fresh water, the loss of topsoil and the rising temperatures——are making it increasingly hard to expand the world's grain supply fast enough to keep up with demand. Of all those trends, however, the spread of water shortages poses the most immediate threat. The biggest challenge here is irrigation, which consumes 70% the world's fresh water. Millions of irrigation wells in many countries are now pumping water out of underground sources faster than rainfall can refill them. The result is falling water tables(地下水位)in countries with half the world's people, including the three big grain producers——China, India and the U.S.

　　[I]As water tables have fallen and irrigation wells have gone dry, China's wheat crop, the world's largest, has declined by 8% since it peaked at 123 million tons in 1997. But water shortages are even more worrying in India. Millions of irrigation wells have significantly lowered water tables in almost every state.

　　[J]As the world's food security falls to pieces, individual countries acting in their own self-interest are actually worsening the troubles of many. The trend began in 2007, when leading wheat-exporting countries such as Russia and Argentina limited or banned their exports, in hopes of increasing local food supplies and thereby bringing down domestic food prices. Vietnam banned its exports for several months for the same reason. Such moves may eliminate the fears of those living in the exporting countries, but they are creating panic in importing countries that must rely on what is then left for export.

　　[K]In response to those restrictions, grain-importing countries are trying to nail down long-term trade agreements that would lock up future grain supplies. Food-import anxiety is even leading to new efforts by food-importing countries to buy or lease farmland in other countries. In spite of such temporary measures, soaring food prices and spreading hunger in many other countries are beginning to break down the social order.

　　[L]Since the current world food shortage is trend-driven, the environmental trends that cause it must be reversed. We must cut carbon emissions by 80% from their 2006 levels by 2020, stabilize the world's population at eight billion by 2040, completely remove poverty, and restore forests and soils. There is nothing new about the four objectives. Indeed, we have made substantial progress in some parts of the world on at least one of these——the distribution of family-planning services and the associated shift to smaller families.

　　[M]For many in the development community, the four objectives were seen as positive, promoting development as long as they did not cost too much. Others saw them as politically correct and morally appropriate. Now a third and far more significant motivation presents itself: meeting these goals may necessary to prevent the collapse of our civilization. Yet the cost we project for saving civilization would amount to less than $200 billion a year, 1/6 of current global military spending. In effect, our plan is the new security budget.

　　36.The more recent steep climb in grain prices partly results from the fact that more and more people want to consume meat products.

　　37.Social order is breaking down in many countries because of food shortages.

　　38.Rather than superpower conflict, countries unable to cope with food shortages now constitute the main threat to world security.

　　39.Some parts of the world have seen successful implementation of family planning.

　　40.The author has come to agree that food shortages could ultimately lead to the collapse of world civilization.

　　41.Increasing water shortages prove to be the biggest obstante to boosting the world's grain production.

　　42.The cost for saving our civilization would be considerably less than the world's current military spending.

　　43.To lower domestic food prices, some countries limited or stopped their grain exports.

　　44.Environmental problems must be solved to case the current global food shortage.

　　45.A quarter of this year's American grain harvest will be used to produce bio-fuel for cars.

　　Section C

　　Passage One

　　Attitudes toward new technologies often along generational lines. That is, generally, younger people tend to outnumber older people on the front end of a technological shift.

　　It is not always the case, though. When you look at attitudes toward driverless cars, there doesn't seem to be a clear generational divide. The public overall is split on whether they'd like to use a driverless car. In a study last year, of all people surveyed, 48 percent said they wanted to ride in one, while 50 percent did not.

　　The face that attitudes toward self-driving cars appear to be so steady across generations suggests how transformative the shift to driverless cars could be. Not everyone wants a driverless car now-and no one can get one yet-but among those who are open to them, every age group is similarly engaged.

　　Actually, this isn't surprising. Whereas older generations are sometime reluctant to adopt new technologies, driverless cars promise real value to these age groups in particular. Older adults, especially those with limited mobility or difficulty driving on their own, are one of the classic useeases for driverless cars.

　　This is especially interesting when you consider that younger people are generally more interested in travel-related technologies than older ones.

　　When it comes to driverless cars, differences in attitude are more pronounced based on factors not related to age. College graduates, for example, are particularly interested in driverless cars compared with 　　those who have less education, 59 percent of college graduates said they would like to use a driverless car compared with 38 percent of those with a high-school diploma or less.

　　Where a person lives matters, too. More people who lives in cities and suburbs said they wanted to try driverless cars than those who lived in rural areas.

　　While there's reason to believe that interest in self-driving cars is going up across the board, a person's age will have little to do with how self-driving cars can be becoming mainstream. Once driverless cares are actually available for safe, the early adopters will be the people who can afford to buy them.

　　46.What happens when a new technology emerges?

　　A.It further widens the gap between the old and the young.

　　B.It often leads to innovations in other related fields.

　　C.It contribute greatly to the advance of society as a whole.

　　D.It usually draws different reactions from different age groups.

　　47.What does the author say about the driverless car?

　　A.It does not seem to create a generational divide.

　　B.It will not necessarily reduce road accidents.

　　C.It may start a revolution in the car industry.

　　D.It has given rise to unrealistic expectations.

　　48.Why does the driverless car appeal to some old people?

　　A.It saves their energy.

　　B.It helps with their mobility.

　　C.It adds to the safety of their travel.

　　D.It stirs up their interest in life.

　　49.What is likely to affect one's attitude toward the driverless car?

　　A.The location of their residence.

　　B.The amount of their special interest

　　C.The amount of training they received.

　　D.The length of their driving experience.

　　50.Who are likely to be the first to buy the driverless car?

　　A.The senior.

　　B.The educated.

　　C.The weaIthy.

　　D.The tech fans.

　　Passage Two

　　In agrarian(农业的),pre-industrial Europe, "you'd want to wake up early, start working with the sunrise, have a break to have the largest meal, and then you'd go back to work," says Ken Albala, a professor of history at the University of the Pacific, "Later, at 5 or 6, you'd have a smaller supper."

　　This comfortable cycle, in which the rhythms of the day helped shape the rhythms of the meals, gave rise to the custom of the large midday meal, eaten with the extended family, "Meal are the foundation of the family,' says Carole Couniban. a professor at Millersville University in

　　Peensylvania, "so there was a very important interconnection between eating together" and strength-eating family ties.

　　Since industrialization, maintaining such a slow cultural metabolism has been much harder. With the long midday meal shrinking to whatever could be stuffed into a lunch bucket or bought at a food stand. Certainly, there were benefits. Modern techniques for producing and shipping food led to greater variety and quantity, including a tremendous, increase in the amount of animal protein and dairy products available, making us more vigorous than our ancestors.

　　Yet plenty has been lost too, even in cultures that still live to eat. Take Italy. It's no secret that the Mediterranean diet is healthy, but it was also a joy to prepare and cat. Italians, says Counihan, traditionally began the day with a small meal. The big meal came at around 1 p.m. In between the midday meal and a late, smaller dinner came a small snack. Today, when time zones have less and less meaning, there is little tolerance for offices' closing for lunch, and worsening traffic in cities means workers can't make it home and back fast enough anyway. So the formerly small supper after sundown becomes the big meal of the day. the only one at which the family has a chance to get together. "The evening meal carries the full burden that used to be spread over two meals" says Counihan.

　　51.What do we learn from the passage about people in pre-industrial Europe?

　　A.They had to work from early morning till late at night.

　　B.They were so busy working that they only ate simple meals.

　　C.Their daily routine followed the rhythm of the natural cycle.

　　D.Their life was much more comfortable than that of today.

　　52.What does Professor Carole Counihan say about. pre-industrial European families eating meals together?

　　A.It was helpful to maintaining a nation's tradition.

　　B.It brought family members closers to each other.

　　C.It was characteristic of the agrarian culture.

　　D.It enabled families to save a lot of money.

　　53.What does "cultural metabolism"(Line 1 ,Para. 3) refer to?

　　A.Evolutionary adaptation.

　　B.Changes in lifestyle.

　　C.Social progress.

　　D.Pace of life.

　　54.What does the author think of the food people eat today?

　　A.Its quality is usually guaranteed.

　　B.It is varied, abundant and nutritious.

　　C.It is more costly than what our ancestors ate.

　　D.Its production depends too much on technology.

　　55.What does the author say about Italians of the old days.

　　A.They enjoyed cooking as well as eating.

　　B.They ate a big dinner late in the evening.

　　C.They ate three meals regularly every day.

　　D.They were expert at cooking meals.

　　Part IV Translation (30 minutes)

　　Directions： For this part， you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English。 You should write your answer on the ANSWER SHEET 2。

　　乌镇是浙江的一座古老水镇，坐落在京杭大运河畔。这是一处迷人的地方，有许多古桥、中式旅店和餐馆。在过去的一千年里，乌镇的水系和生活方式并未经历多少变化，是一座展现古文明的博物馆。乌镇所有房屋都用石木建造。数百年来，当地人沿着河边建起了住宅和集市。无数宽敞美丽的庭院藏身于屋舍之间，游客们每到一处都会有惊喜的发现。