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When the world was a simpler place, the rich were fat, the poor were thin, and right-thinking people worried about how to feed the hungry. Now, in much of the world, the rich are thin, the poor are fat, and fight-thinking people are worrying about obesity. Evolution is mostly to blame. It has designed mankind to cope with deprivation, not plenty. People are perfectly tuned to store energy in good years to see them through lean ones. But when bad times never come, they are stuck with that energy, stored around their expanding bellies. Thanks to rising agricultural productivity, lean years are rarer all over the globe. Modern-day Malthusians (马尔萨斯主义者), who used to draw graphs proving that the world was shortly going to run out of food, have gone rather quietly lately. Mankind has won what was, for most of his time on this planet, his biggest battle: to ensure that he and his offspring had had enough to eat. But every silver lining has a cloud, and the consequence of prosperity is a new plague that brings with it a host of interesting policy dilemmas. As a scourge of the modern world, obesity has an image problem. It is easier to associate with Father Christmas than with the four horses of the apocalypse (《启示录》), but it has a good claim to lumber along beside them, for it is the world’s biggest public-health issue today—the main cause of heart disease, which kills more people these days than AIDS, malaria, war; the principle risk factor in diabetes; heavily implicated in cancer and other diseases. Since the World Health Organization labeled obesity an "epidemic" in 2000, reports on its fearful consequences have come thick and fast. Will public-health warnings, combined with media pressure, persuade people to get thinner, just as they finally put them off tobacco Possibly. In the rich world, sales of healthier foods are booming and new figures suggest that over the past year Americans got very slightly thinner for the first time in recorded history. But even if Americans are losing a few ounces, it will be many years before the country solves the health problems caused by half a century’s dining to excess. And everywhere else in the world,people are still piling on the pounds. That’s why there is now a consensus among doctors that governments should do something to stop them.

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Time for another global-competitiveness alert. In the Third International Mathematics and Science Study--which last year tested a half-million students in 41 countries- American eighth graders 21 below the world average in math. And that’s not even 22 part. Consider this as you try to 23 which countries will dominate the technology markets of the 21st century: the top 10 percent of America’s math students scored about the same as the average kid in the global 24 , Singapore. It isn’t exactly a news flash these days 25 Americans score behind the curve on international tests. But educators say this study is 26 because it monitored variables both inside and outside the classroom. Laziness- the factor often 27 for Americans’ poor performance--is not the culprit here. American students 28 spend more time in class than pupils in Japan and Germany. 29 , they get more homework and watch the same amount of TV. The problem, educators say, is not the kids but a curriculum that is too 30 . The study found that lessons for U.S. eighth graders contained topics mastered by seventh graders in other countries. Teachers actually agree that Americans need to 31 their kids to more sophisticated math earlier. Unfortunately, experts say, the teachers don’t recognize that 32 these concepts are taught is as important as the concepts themselves. Most educators rely 33 on textbooks and rote learning (死记硬背) . While many textbooks cover 34 ideas, most do so superficially, 35 students with the techniques but not the mastery of the broader principles. 24()

A. village
B. leader
C. friend
D. country

Time for another global-competitiveness alert. In the Third International Mathematics and Science Study--which last year tested a half-million students in 41 countries- American eighth graders 21 below the world average in math. And that’s not even 22 part. Consider this as you try to 23 which countries will dominate the technology markets of the 21st century: the top 10 percent of America’s math students scored about the same as the average kid in the global 24 , Singapore. It isn’t exactly a news flash these days 25 Americans score behind the curve on international tests. But educators say this study is 26 because it monitored variables both inside and outside the classroom. Laziness- the factor often 27 for Americans’ poor performance--is not the culprit here. American students 28 spend more time in class than pupils in Japan and Germany. 29 , they get more homework and watch the same amount of TV. The problem, educators say, is not the kids but a curriculum that is too 30 . The study found that lessons for U.S. eighth graders contained topics mastered by seventh graders in other countries. Teachers actually agree that Americans need to 31 their kids to more sophisticated math earlier. Unfortunately, experts say, the teachers don’t recognize that 32 these concepts are taught is as important as the concepts themselves. Most educators rely 33 on textbooks and rote learning (死记硬背) . While many textbooks cover 34 ideas, most do so superficially, 35 students with the techniques but not the mastery of the broader principles. 21()

A. recorded
B. gained
C. climbed
D. scored

Passage ThreeEver since the 1750s, when the writer, satirist, statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin put political cartooning on the map by publishing the first cartoon of the genre in America, artists have combined their talent, wit and political beliefs to create cartoons that enrage, enlighten or simply engage the viewer. A picture may paint a thousand words, but a cartoon provokes, protests and entertains all at once. It is this that makes cartoonists so valuable and influential in times of crisis. Today, that crisis is climate change, and clever imagery can give new impetus to our struggle to combat global warming. The organizers of Earthworks 2008, a global cartoon competition, believe that art and humor are simple ways to get the environmental message across. "We set up the competition to give cartoonists around the world a platform on which to express themselves," says John Renard, one of the Earthworks organizers. "We hoped the competition would stimulate cartoonists to use their pens and wit to help combat environmental devastation and give new impetus to our desperate fight to stop global warming," he says. "After all, humor is often a valuable key in the struggle to win hearts and minds." But despite the sharp wit that pervades the cartoons, climate change is no laughing matter for their creators. The 50 or so countries from which the 600 competition entries were sent are all suffering the effects of global warming, some more dramatically than others. Two cartoons were sent from Burma, where in May this year a tropical storm tore through five regions along the western coast, killing at least 100,000 people, and leaving millions more without shelter, food, or clean water. Although governments around the world are reluctant to suggest, officially, that the disaster in Burma is a direct result of global warming, there’s little doubt that it will have added to the tropical storm’s destructive power. Studies published in the journals Nature and Science have demonstrated a link between rising sea temperatures and increased wind-speed of tropical storms and hurricanes, and even US-government-funded organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration admit that a warming of the global climate will affect the severity of storms. "Experiencing first-hand the catastrophic effects of climate change allowed these artists to give their cartoons a special sharpness," says Revent. With respect to global warming, the passage suggests that political leaders should()

A. get aware of how cartoonists feel about it
B. experience its disastrous effects first-hand
C. learn from science how and why it occurs
D. take their responsibilities in combating it

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