2013届高三英自选模块练习(5-8).docVIP

2013届高三英语自选模块练习（五） 题号：05 科目：英语 阅读理解(共5小题，每小题2分，满分10分) 阅读下面短文，并根据短文后的要求答题。(共5小题，每小题2分，满分10分) Horror stories about the food industry have long been with us – ever since 1906, when Upton Sinclair’s landmark novel The Jungle told some ugly truths about how America produces its meat. In the century that followed, things got much better, and in some ways much worse. The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. 1 Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming – our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy. And perhaps worst of all, our food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous. 2 A food system that generates cheap, filling food at the expense of healthier produce is also a major cause of America’s widespread obesity. At a time when the nation is close to a civil war over health-care reform, obesity adds $147 billion a year to our doctor bills. “The way we farm now is destructive of the soil, the environment and us,” says Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist with the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. 3 Film documentaries like the highly critical Food Inc. and the work of investigative journalists like Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan are repeating Sinclair’s work, awakening a sleeping public to the uncomfortable realities of how we eat. Change is also coming from the very top. First Lady Michelle Obama’s White House garden has so far yielded more than 225 pounds of organic produce – and tons of powerful symbolism. 4 Sustainable food is also more expensive than conventional food and harder to find. And while large companies like General Mills have opened organic divisions, there is worry that the very definition of sustainability will be used by those companies only for their own good. But we c