B

The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a potential hunger crisis in poor countries and an energy crisis worldwide, world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis. Wheat, corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years. And oil prices have increased more than three times since the start of 2004. These food-price increases, combined with increasing energy costs, will slow if not stop economic growth in many parts of the world and will even affect political stability. Practical solutions to these problems do exist, but we'll have to start thinking ahead and acting globally.

Here are three steps to ease the current food crisis and avoid the potential for a global crisis. The first is to promote the dramatic success of Malawi, a country in southern Africa, which three years ago established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and seeds with high productivity. Malawi’s harvest doubled after just one year. An international fund based on the Malawi model would cost a mere $10 per person annually in the rich world, or $10 billion altogether.

Second, the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of paying partly for the change of food into biofuels. The U.S. government gives farmers a taxpayer-financed payment of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol(乙醇) changed from corn. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods—tree crops, grasses and wood products—but there's no case for the government to pay to put the world's dinner into the gas tank.

Third, we urgently need to weather-proof the world's crops as soon and as effectively as possible. For a poor farmer, sometimes something as simple as a farm pond—which collects rainwater to be used in dry weather—can make the difference between a good harvest and a bad one. The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation hind to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet acted upon the promise.

46. What is the cause of global food crisis?

A. Hunger crisis in poor countries.

B. Increasing food prices.

C. World leaders’ failure to think ahead.

D. Increased energy costs.

47. An international fund based on the Malawi model would______.

A. cost each of the developed countries $10 billion per year

B. aim to double the harvest in southern African countries in a year

C. decrease the food prices as well as the energy prices

D. give poor farmers access to fertilizer and highly productive seeds

48. With the second step, the author expresses the idea that ______.

A. it is not wise to change food crops into gas

B. it is misleading to put tree crops into the gas tank

C. we should get alternative forms of fuel in any way

D. biofuels should be developed on a large scale

49. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. A rain-collecting pond is a simple safeguard against dry weather.

B. A Climate Adaptation Fund has been established to help poor farmers.

C. The world has made a serious promise to build farm ponds.

D. It makes a great difference whether we develop wood products or not.

50. In the passage, the author calls on us to______.

A. slow down but not to stop economic

B. develop tree crops, grasses and wood products

C. achieve economic growth and political stability

D. act now so as to relieve the global food shortage

答案：46—50 CDAAD

解析：46. C。细节理解题。文章第一段有“world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis”一句。47. D。参照第二段原文“…promote the dramatic success of Malawi…which…established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and seeds with high productivity.”。48. A。作者的观点很明确：“there's no case for the government to pay to put the world's dinner into the gas tank”。49. A。参考文中语句：“…a farm pond—which collects rainwater to be used in dry weather”。50. D。作者通过对现状的分析，提出“we'll have to start thinking ahead and acting globally”。

C

As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friend’s house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods,” with a tone of airy acceptance. It’s similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.

We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring. Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Italian burial mound.

Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly—tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.

It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us has reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence(青春期). In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that we really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.

51. The author and his fiends were often out in the woods to _______.

A. spend their free time

B. play golf and other sports

C. avoid doing their schoolwork

D. keep away from their parents

52. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?

A. The activities in the woods were well planned.

B. Human history is not the result of exploration.

C. Exploration should be a systematic activity.

D. The author explored in the woods aimlessly.

53. The underlined word “skeptical” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.

A. calm            B. doubtful            C. serious              D. optimistic

54. From the last paragraph, we can learn that ________.

A. the author and his friends are of the same age

B. they stopped going to the woods because they were adults now

C. they usually didn’t go to the woods in winter

D. all high school students would go dancing on Friday evenings

55. How does the author feel about his childhood?

A. Happy but short.                       B. Lonely but memorable.

C. Boring and meaningless.            D. Long and unforgettable.

答案：51—55 ADBCA

解析：51. A。细节判断题。文章开头就有““The woods” was our part-time address”一句。52. D。从文中第二段的“Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way”可知，作者在树林里的活动没有系统性，完全里came up along the way。53. B。由“does that successfully”与“could never climb high enough”可看出它们之间的对立性，所以对于“does that successfully”要doubtful。54. C。推理判断题。根据“the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter”一句的“again after winter”来判断。55. A。推理判断。通过文章前面和后面的“…do whatever we feel like for a while…all of a sudden…we really were rather big to be up in a tree”来推断。