2007北京太奇培訓學校考研英語強化班授課講義(十一)

II. 選擇搭配題

Directions:The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For Questions 41-- 45, you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list A-E to fill in each numbered box. The first and the last paragraphs have been placed for you in Boxes. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.  (10 points)

[A] The world has 800 million hungry people. Until now, food supplies have been increased by improved varieties, pesticides and artificial fertilizers: the green revolution. Now we’re on the edge of a new revolution: a genetic one.

[B] As we move into this new era of agriculture we’re embarking on an experiment. But remember that the world has seen any number of experiments before. We have been refining species of wheat for several thousand years. Genetic engineers like me are not doing anything as dramatic as making a cabbage into a cauliflower—as has been done by plant breeders in the past. We’re simply tapping into the whole gene pool, rather than concentrating on one species at a time.

[C] It may well be that in the long term it is the developing world that benefits most from GM foods. It’s true that for the next ten years or so GM crops may be too expensive. But the lesson of personal computers is applicable here—once the technology has been developed for money-spinning crops, like maize, soya beans and cotton, it will filter down and become affordable for all. This doesn’t mean, unfortunately, that famines will disappear, but severity and duration will be helped by an improved ability to produce and distribute food.

[D] The reason GM food will not go away is that we need a three-fold increase in food production by the year 2050 to keep pace with the world’s predicted population growth to ten or eleven billion. It’s not just a question of more mouths to feed either. What is often forgotten is that all these extra people will take up space, reducing the overall land available for agriculture.

[E] Currently there are some 20,000 chemicals in use, but the scientists only have detailed information on around 1,000 of them. To see the advantages of GM food you have only to consider the recent press revelation that the average lettuce receives eleven pesticide applications before it reaches the supermarket shelf. I’m sure chemicals and their role in disease will become a big issue in the next century as the population of the developed world worries increasingly about its health.

[F] There will be movement of genes between species that could not be crossed by conventional breeding methods, and there may be problems with some crops. There were mistakes during the Green Revolution, like DDT. No doubt there will be some mistakes with GM crops too. But then, mankind has always made mistakes. It shouldn’t put us off progress.

[G] Genetically-modified foodstuffs are here to stay. That’s not to say that food produced by conventional agriculture will disappear, but simply that food-buying patterns will polarize: there will be a niche market for conventional foodstuffs just as there is for organic food. It may even be that GM food will become the food of preference because consumers come to appreciate the health benefits of reduced pesticide use.

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