100篇短文突破高考英语词汇word文档及朗读MP3（11-15篇）.docVIP

第11篇 The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite（尽管；虽然）countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a potential hunger crisis(危机)in backward countries and an energy crisis worldwide, world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis. Wheat, corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years. And oil prices have zoomed up t0 300%since the start of 2004. These food-price increases, combined with increasing energy costs, will slow if not stop economic(经济的)growth in many parts of the world and will even affect political stability（稳定）． Practical solutions（解决办法）to these problems do exist, but well have to start thinking ahead and acting globally. Here are three steps to ease the current food crisis and avoid the potential for a global crisis. The first is to promote the dramatic (戏剧性的; 引人注目的)success of Malawi, a country in southern Africa, which three years ago established(建立)a special fund(基金) to help its farmers get fertilizer(肥料) and seeds with high productivity(生产力 ;生产能力). Malawis harvest doubled after just one year. An international fund based on the Malawi model would cost a mere $ 10 per person annually in the rich world, or $ 10 billion altogether. Second, the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of paying partly for the change of food into biofuels .The U.S government gives farmers a taxpayer financed （用纳税人的钱支付的）payment of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol（乙醇）changed from corn. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods - tree crops, grasses and wood products - but theres no case for the government to pay to put the worlds dinner into the gas tank. Third，we urgently need to weatherproof(使能抵抗恶劣天气)the worlds crops as soon and as effectively as possible For a poor farmer, sometimes something as simple as a farm pond- which collects rainwater to be used for emergency irrigation in a dry spell（一段时间）—can make the difference between a good crop and a famine(饥荒)．The worl