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 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(栖息地)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, whiich 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(正反两方面)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.
What is crucial is recognizing that sustainable agriculture is not just about sustainable food production.
1. How do people often measure progress in agriculture?
A) By its productivity C) By its impact on the environment
B) By its sustainability D) By its contribution to economic growth
2. Specialisation and the effort to increase yields have resulted in________.
A) Localised pollution C) competition from overseas
B) the shrinking of farmland D) the decrease of biodiversity
3. What does the author think of traditional farming practices?
A) They have remained the same over the centuries B) They have not kept pace with population growth
C) They are not necessarily sustainable D) They are environmentally friendly
4. What will agriculture be like in the 21st century
A) It will go through radical changes B) It will supply more animal products
C) It will abandon traditional farming practices D) It will cause zero damage to the environment
5 What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?
A) To remind people of the need of sustainable development
B) To suggest ways of ensuring sustainable food production
C) To advance new criteria for measuring farming progress
D) To urge people to rethink what sustainable agriculture is
Passage Two
Hawaii's native minority is demanding a greater degree of sovereignty over its own affairs. But much of the archipelago's political establishment, which includes the White Americans who dominated until the second world war and people of Japanese, Chinese and Filipino origins, is opposed to the idea.
The islands were annexed by the US in 1898 and since then Hawaii's native peoples have fared worse than any of its other ethnic groups. They make up over 60 percent of the state's homeless, suffer higher levels of unemployment and their life span is five years less than the average Hawaiians. They are the only major US native group without some degree of autonomy.
But a sovereignty advisory committee set up by Hawaii's first native governor, Joahn Waihee, has given the natives' cause a major boost by recommending that the Hawaiian natives decide by themselves whether to reestablish a sovereign Hawaiian nation.
However, the Hawaiian natives are not united in their demands. Some just want greater autonomy within the state -- as enjoyed by many American Indian natives over matters such as education. This is a position supported by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), a state agency set up in 1978 to represent the natives' interests and which has now become the moderate face of the native sovereignty movement. More ambitious is the Ka Lahui group, which declared itself a new nation in 1987 and wants full, official independence from the US.
But if Hawaiian natives are given greater autonomy, it is far from clear how many people this will apply to. The state authorities only count as native those people with more than 50 percent Hawaiian blood.
Native demands are not just based on political grievances, though. They also want their claim on 660,000 hectares of Hawaiian crown land to be accepted. It is on this issue that native groups are facing most opposition from the state authorities. In1933, the state government paid the OHA US 136 million in back rent on the crown land and many officials say that by accepting this payment the agency has given up its claims to legally own the land. The OHA has vigorously disputed this.
1. Hawaii's native minority refers to _________________.
A. Hawaii's ethnic groups
B. people of Filipino origin
C. the Ka Lahui group
D. people with more than 50% Hawaiian blood
2. Which of the following statements is true of the Hawaiian natives?
A. Sixty percent of them are homeless or unemployed.
B. their life span is 5 years shorter than average Americans.
C. Their life is worse than that of other ethnic groups in Hawaii.
D. They are the only native group without sovereignty.
3. Which of the following is NOT true of John Waihee?
A. He is Hawaii's first native governor.
B. He has set up a sovereignty advisory committee.
C. He suggested the native people decide for themselves.
D. He is leading the local independence movement.
4. Which of the following groups holds a less radical attitude on the matter of sovereignty?
A. American Indian natives.
B. Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
C. The Ka Lahui group.
D. The Hawaiian natives.
5. Various native Hawaiians demand all the following EXCEPT ____________.
A. a greater autonomy within the state
B. more back rent on the crown land
C. a claim on the Hawaiian crown land
D. full independence from the US
Passage Three
The percentage of immigrants (including those unlawfully present) in the United states has been creeping upward for years. At 12.6 percent, it is now higher than at any point since the mid1920s.
We are not about to go back to the days when Congress openly worried about inferior races polluting America’s bloodstream. But once again we are wondering whether we have toomany of the wrong sort newcomers. Their loudest critics argue that the new wave of immigrants cannot, and indeed do not want to, fit in as previous generations did.
We now know that these racist views were wrong. In time, Italians, Romanians and members of other so-called inferior races became exemplary Americans and contributed greatly, in ways too numerous to detail, to the building of this magnificent nation. There is no reason why these new immigrants should not have the same success.
Although children of Mexican immigrants do better, in terms of educational and professional attainment, than their parents UCLA sociologist Edward Telles has found that the gains don’t continue. Indeed, the fouth generation is marginally worse off than the third James Jackson, of the University of Michigan, has found a similar trend among black Caribbean immigrants, Tells fears that Mexican-Americans may be fated to follow in the footsteps of American blacks-that large parts of the community may become mired(陷入)in a seemingly permanent state of poverty and Underachievement. Like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans are increasingly relegated to (降入)segregated, substandard schools, and their dropout rate is the highest for any ethnic group in the country.
We have learned much about the foolish idea of excluding people on the presumption of the ethnic/racial inferiority. But what we have not yet learned is how to make the process of Americanization work for all. I am not talking about requiring people to learn English or to adopt American ways; those things happen pretty much on their own, but as arguments about immigration hear up the campaign trail, we also ought to ask some broader question about assimilation, about how to ensure that people , once outsiders , don’t forever remain marginalized within these shores.
That is a much larger question than what should happen with undocumented workers, or how best to secure the border, and it is one that affects not only newcomers but groups that have been here for generations. It will have more impact on our future than where we decide to set the admissions bar for the latest ware of would-be Americans. And it would be nice if we finally got the answer right.
1. How were immigrants viewed by U.S. Congress in early days?
A) They were of inferior races.
B) They were a Source of political corruption.
C) They were a threat to the nation’s security.
D) They were part of the nation’s bloodstream.
2. What does the author think of the new immigrants?
A) They will be a dynamic work force in the U.S.
B) They can do just as well as their predecessors.
C) They will be very disappointed on the new land.
D) They may find it hard to fit into the mainstream.
3. What does Edward Telles’ research say about Mexican-Americans?
A) They may slowly improve from generation to generation.
B) They will do better in terms of educational attainment.
C) They will melt into the African-American community.
D) They may forever remain poor and underachieving.
4. What should be done to help the new immigrants?
A) Rid them of their inferiority complex.
B) Urge them to adopt American customs.
C) Prevent them from being marginalized.
D) Teach them standard American English.
5. According to the author, the burning issue concerning immigration is_______.
A) How to deal with people entering the U.S. without documents
B) How to help immigrants to better fit into American society
C) How to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border
D) How to limit the number of immigrants to enter the U.S.
Passage Four
Early in the age of affluence (富裕) that followed World War Ⅱ，an American retailing analyst named Victor Lebow proclaimed, “Our enormously productive economy...demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate." Americans have responded to Lebow's call, and much of the world has followed. Consumption has become a central pillar of life in industrial lands and is even embedded in social values. Opinion surveys in the world's two largest economics-Japan and the United States-show consumerist definitions of success becoming ever more prevalent. Overconsumption by the world's fortunate is an environmental problem unmatched in severity by anything but perhaps population growth. Their surging exploitation of resources threatens to exhaust or unalterably spoil forests, soils, water, air and climate. Ironically, high consumption may be a mixed blessing in human terms, too. The time-honored values of integrity of character, good work, friendship, family and community have often been sacrificed in the rush to riches. Thus many in the industrial lands have a sense that their world of plenty is somehow hollow, that misled by a consumerist culture, they have been fruitlessly attempting to satisfy what are essentially social, psychological and spiritual needs with material things. Of course, the opposite of overconsumption, poverty, is no solution to either environmental or human problems. It is infinitely worse for people and bad for the natural world too. Dispossessed (被剥夺得一无所有的) peasants slash, and burn their way into the rain forests of Latin America, and hungry nomads (游牧民族) turn their herds out onto fragile African grassland, reducing it to desert. If environmental destruction results when people have either too little or too much, we are left to wonder how much is enough .What level of consumption can the earth support ?When dose having more cease to add noticeably to human satisfaction?
1. The emergence of the affluent society after World War II .
A) led to the reform of the retailing system
B) resulted in the worship of consumerism
C )ve rise to the dominance of the new egoism
D) gave birth to a new generation of upper class consumers
2. Apart from enormous productivity, another important impetus to high consumption is
A) the people's desire for a rise in their living standards
B) the concept that one's success is measured by how much they consume
C) the imbalance that has existed between production and consumption
D) the conversion of the sale of goods into rituals
3. Why does the author say high consumption is a mixed blessing?
A) Because poverty still exists in an affluent society.
B) Because overconsumption won't last long due to unrestricted population growth.
C) Because traditional rituals are often neglected in the process of modernization.
D) Because moral values are sacrificed in pursuit of material satisfaction.
4. According to the passage, consumerist culture .
A) will not alleviate poverty in wealthy countries
B) will not aggravate environmental problems
C) cannot thrive on a fragile economy
D) cannot satisfy human spiritual needs
5. It can be inferred from the passage that .
A) human spiritual needs should match material affluence
B) whether high consumption should be encouraged is still an issue
C) how to keep consumption at a reasonable level remains a problem
D) there is never an end to satisfying people's material needs
Passage Five
Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind’s long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the idea of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant dam projects threaten todo more harm than good.
The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn’t help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypt’s leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey’s bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.
But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left — all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.
And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself.
Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmental destruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed.
Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the costs and benefits of controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation are possible without building monster dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. You don’t need a dam to be saved.
1. The third sentence of paragraph 1 implies that ____.
A. people would be happy if they shut their eyes to reality
B. the blind could be happier than the sighted
C. over-excited people tend to neglect vital things
D. fascination makes people lose their eyesight
2. In paragraph 5, “the powerless” probably refers to ____.
A. areas short of electricity B. dams without power stations
C. poor countries around India D. common people in the Narmada Dam area
3. What is the myth concerning giant dams?
A. They bring in more fertile soil. B. They help defend the country.
C. They strengthen international ties. D. They have universal control of the waters.
4. What the author tries to suggest may best be interpreted as ____.
A. “It’s no use crying over spilt milk” B. “More haste, less speed”
C. “Look before you leap” D. “He who laughs last laughs best”
[ 结 束 ]
