题目内容

The promise of finding long-term technological solutions to the problem of world food shortages seems difficult to fulfill Many innovations that were once heavily supported and publicized have since fallen by the wayside. The proposals themselves were technically feasible, but they proved to be economically unenviable and to yield food products culturally unacceptable to their consumers.One characteristic common to unsuccessful food innovations has been that, even with extensive government support, they often have not been technologically adapted or culturally acceptable to the people for whom they had been developed. A successful new technology, therefore, must fit the entire sociocultural system in which it is to find a place Security of crop yield, practicality of storage, and costs are much more significant than what had previously been realized by the advocates of new technologies.The adoption of new food technologies depends on more than these technical and cultural considerations; economic factors and governmental policies also strongly influence the ultimate success of any innovation. Economists in the Anglo-American tradition have taken the lead in investigating the economics of technological innovation. Although they exaggerate in claiming that profitability is the key factor guiding technical change -- they completely disregard the substantial effects of culture—they are correct in stressing the importance of profits. Most technological innovations in agriculture can be fully used only by large landowners and are only adopted if these profit-oriented business people believe that the innovation will increase their incomes, Thus innovations that carry high rewards for big agribusiness groups will be adopted even if they harm segments of the population and reduce the availability of food in a country. Further, should s new technology promise to alter substantially the profits and losses associated with any production system, those with economic power will strive to maintain and improve their own positions. Therefore, although technical advances in food production and processing will perhaps be needed to ensure food availability, meeting food needs will depend much more on equalizing economic power among the various segments of the populations within the developing countries themselves. We learn from the third paragraph that ().

A. economists in the Anglo-American tradition hold the opinion that profitability is the key factor guiding technical change
B. the theory of the economists in the Anglo-American tradition is substantially wrong
C. innovations that carry high rewards for big agribusiness groups will harm segments of the population and reduce the availability of food in a country
D. most technological innovations in agriculture can be fully used by large landowners if the innovation will increase their incomes

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M: Hi, Claire. How does it feel to be back on campusW: Hi, Gee. Well, to tell you the truth, I have mixed feelings.M: Oh, whyW: I have this great summer job that I really hated to leave I worked at the wild life research center in Maryland.M: That makes sense for a genetic major. What did you do Clean the cagesW: This is a wild life center, not a zoo. This place breeds endangered species and tries to prepare them for life in the wild.M: You mean the endangered species like the tiger and the pandaW: Well, endangered species, yes. But not tigers or pandas. I work with whooping cranes and sandhill cranes. I taught the baby crane how to eat and drink, and I help the vets to give medical check-ups.M: I can see it was hard to leave that job. But how did you teach a bird how to eat and drinkW: We covered ourselves up with cloth and used puppets made out of stuffed crones to show the baby chicks what to do. Then the chicks copied what the puppets did.M: Cloth Puppets Sounds like fun.W: It was. The cloth and puppets are the key tools. We all covered ourselves up, the scientists, the vets, the junior staff, everybody. You see, baby cranes will become attached to their caretakers.M: So if the caretaker is a person, the crane will stay in places where people are.W: Yeah. And their chances for survival aren’t very good. But by covering ourselves and using cloth and puppets the chicks are more likely to seek out other birds rather than people. And their transition to the wild has a better chance of being successful.M: A chance of being successful Hasn’t this been done beforeW: It’s been done with sandhill cranes and everyone is optimistic about its work with whooping cranes too.M: If this works, it should increase the number of cranes in the wild.W: Yeah. It’s exciting, isn’t it What was the woman’s job()

A. Counting wildlife.
B. Cleaning cages.
C. Training baby birds.
D. Making puppets.

If I look back now and size up honestly the situation I was in at the time, I have to conclude that in the West, in a free society, I probably would not have been able to write the novel known by readers today as Fateless, the novel singled out by the Swedish Academy for the highest honor. No, I probably would have aimed at something different. Which is not to say that I would not have tried to get at the truth, but perhaps at a different kind of truth. In the free marketplace of books and ideas, I, too, might have wanted to produce a showier fiction. For example, I might have tried to break up time in my novel, and narrate only the most powerful scenes. But the hero of my novel does not live his own time in the concentration camps, for neither his time nor his language, not even his own person, is really his. He doesn’t remember; he exists. So he has to languish, poor boy, in the dreary trap of linearity, and cannot shake off the painful details. Instead of a spectacular series of great and tragic moments, he has to live through everything, which is oppressive and offers little variety, like life itself.

Questions 7 and 8 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news. What can be inferred from what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said

A. The healthcare reform has realized the final accomplishments.
B. President Obama praised progress on the healthcare issue.
C. All the Americans will be happy about the healthcare reform.
D. Americans have been dominated by the health insurance industry.

For many years it was common in the United States to associate Chinese Americans with restaurants and laundries. People did not realize that the Chinese had been driven into these occupations. The first Chinese to reach the United States came during the California Gold Rush of 1849. Like most of the other people there, they had come to search for gold. In that largely unoccupied land, the men staked a claim for themselves by placing marks in the ground. However, either because the Chinese were so different from the others or because they worked so patiently that they sometimes succeeded in turning a seemingly worthless mining claim into a profitable one, they became the scapegoats of their envious competitor. They were harassed in many ways. Often they were prevented from working their claims; some localities even passed regulations forbidding them to own claims. The Chinese, therefore, started to seek out other ways of earning a living. Some of them began to do the laundry for the white miners; others set up small restaurants. (There were almost no women in California in those days, and the Chinese filled a real need by doing this "woman’s work".) Some went to work as farmhands or as fishermen. In the early 1860’s many more Chinese arrived in California. This time the men were imported as work crews to construct the first transcontinental railroad. They were sorely needed because the work was so strenuous and dangerous, and it was carried on in such a remote part of the country that the railroad company could not find other labourers for the job. As in the case of their predecessors, these Chinese were almost all males; and like them, too, they encountered a great deal of prejudice. The hostility grew especially strong after the railroad project was complete, and the imported labourers returned to California—thousands of them, all out of work. Because there were so many more of them this time, these Chinese drew even more attention than the earlier group did. They were so very different in every respect: in their physical appearance, including a long "pigtail" at the back of their otherwise shaved heads; in the strange, non-Western clothes they wore; in their speech (few had learned English since they planned to go back to China); and in their religion. They were contemptuously called "heathen Chinese" because there were many sacred images in their houses of worship. When times were hard, they were blamed for working for lower wages and taking jobs away from white men, who were in many cases recent immigrants themselves. Anti-Chinese riots broke out in several cities, culminating in arson and bloodshed. Chinese were barred from using the courts and also from becoming American citizens. Californias began to demand that no more Chinese be permitted to enter their state. Finally, in 1882, they persuaded Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped the immigration of Chinese labourers. Many Chinese returned to their homeland, and their numbers declined sharply in the early part of this century. However, during the World War Ⅱ, when China was an ally of the United States, the exclusion laws were ended; a small number of Chinese were allowed to immigrate each year, and the Chinese could become American citizens. In 1965, in a general revision of our immigration laws, many more Chinese were permitted to settle here, as discrimination against Asian immigration was abolished. Chinese Americans retain many aspects of their ancient culture, even after having lived here for several generations. For example, their family ties continue to be remarkably strong (encompassing grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and others). Members of the family lend each other moral support and also practical help when necessary. From a very young age children are imbued with the old values and attitudes, including respect for their elders and a feeling of responsibility to the family. This helps to explain why there is so little juvenile delinquency among them. The high regard for education which is deeply embedded in Chinese culture, and the willingness to work very hard to gain advancement, are other noteworthy characteristics of theirs. This explains why so many descendants of uneducated labourer have succeeded in becoming doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. (Many of the most outstanding Chinese American scholars, scientists, and artists are more recent arrivals, who come from China’s former upper class and who represent its high cultural traditions. ) Which of the following Chinese characteristics is NOT mentioned in the passage

A. Patience.
B. Willingness to work hard.
C. Sense of responsibility.
D. Modesty.

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