考前模擬：2008年12月閱讀真題及名師精講

　　3. established athletic footwear industry

　　根據(jù)題干中的Blue Ribbon Sports和North America定位到原文第三段第三句。 題干中提及公司沒有雇用專家是因為在北美缺少什么，短語the absence of 是對原文中的there was no的同義轉(zhuǎn)換。所以答案是established athletic footwear industry。

　　4. informally

　　此題的關(guān)鍵詞非常明確，就是communication，定位在文章倒數(shù)第四行：Communication was informal。題干中需要填寫動詞詞組carry out的修飾詞，應(yīng)該是副詞，所以答案為informally.

　　5. The team spirit and shared valves of the athletes.

　　根據(jù)題干結(jié)構(gòu)分析，可以得知答案應(yīng)該在句中充當(dāng)主語quality的修飾，即為定語，是名詞性或形容詞性結(jié)構(gòu)。根據(jù)題干關(guān)鍵詞Bowerman’s teams 和 the basis of Nike’s early management style，以及依次而下的順序出題原則，可以定位在文章結(jié)尾。

　　Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

　　Passage One

　　Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.

　　Sustainable development is applied to just about everything from energy to clean water and economic growth, and as a result it has become difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind it or the way the concept is put to use. This is especially true in agriculture, where sustainable development is often taken as the sole measure of progress without a proper appreciation of historical and cultural perspectives.

　　To start with, it is important to remember that the nature of agriculture has changed markedly throughout history, and will continue to do so .medieval agriculture in northern Europe fed, clothed and sheltered a predominantly rural society with a much lower population density than it is today. It had minimal effect on biodiversity, and any pollution it caused was typically localized. In terms of energy use and the nutrients(營養(yǎng)成分)captured in the product it was relatively inefficient.

　　Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution. Competition from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields. Throughout this period food became cheaper, safe and more reliable. However, these changes have also led to habitat(棲息地)loss and to diminishing biodiversity.

　　What’s more, demand for animal products in developing countries is growing so fast that meeting it will require an extra 300 million tons of grain a year by 2050.yet the growth of cities and industry is reducing the amount of water available for agriculture in many regions.

　　All this means that agriculture in the 21stcentury will have to be very different from how it was in the 20th.thiswill require radical thinking. For example, we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are inevitably more sustainable than new ones. We also need to abandon the notion that agriculture can be “zero impact”. The key will be to abandon the rather simple and static measures of sustainability, which centre on the need to maintain production without increasing damage.

　　Instead we need a more dynamic interpretation, one that looks at the pros and cons(正反兩方面)of all the various way land is used. There are many different ways to measure agricultural performance besides food yield: energy use, environmental costs, water purity, carbon footprint and biodiversity. It is clear, for example, that the carbon of transporting tomatoes from Spain to the UK is less than that of producing them in the UK with additional heating and lighting. But we do not know whether lower carbon footprints will always be better for biodiversity.