Thomas Malthus published his“Essay on the Principle of Population” almost 200 years ago. Ever since then, forecasters have being warning that worldwide famine was
S1________
just around the next corner. The fast-
growing population’s demand for food, they warned, would soon exceed their supply,
S2________
leading to widespread food shortages and starvation.
But in reality, the world’s total grain harvest has risen steadily over the years. Except for relative isolated trouble spots like
S3________
present-day
good harvests, the world’s food crisis has
S4________
remained just around the corner. Most experts believe this can continue even as if
S5________
the population doubles by the mid-21st
century, although feeding 10 billion people will not be easy for politics, economic and
S6________
environmental reasons. Optimists point to concrete examples of continued improvements in yield. In
S7________
improved seed, more fertilizer and advanced growing practices have more than double
S8________
corn and wheat yields in an experiment. Elsewhere, rice experts in the
S9________
more seeds. There is no guarantee that plant
breeders can continue to develop new, higher-yielding crop,
S10________
but most researchers see their success to date as reason for hope.
答案与解析:
S1. being→been。本题考查的是现在完成进行时,由have (has) + been + p.p.构成,表示以前到现在动作一直在进行之中。
S2. their→its。本题考查名词与代词指代不一致的问题。动词exceed后面指代的是前文的单数名词food。 S3. relative→relatively。修饰isolated, 应用副词形式。
S4. good→bad。根据上下文意思,应将good 改成它的反义词bad。
S5. 去掉as。因为even if 是一个固定短语,意思是“即使……也”。
S6. politics→political。本题误把名词用作了形容词。
S7. by→for。for instance (或 for example “例如”)是一个介词的固定搭配。
S8. double→doubled。动词double表“使……多出一倍;把……增加一倍;增加了一倍”,而形容词double表“双的,双人的,双重的”。根据上下文,这里要用动词的过去分词形式,才符合题意。
S9. few→fewer或less。根据上下文的平行结构可知,本题是考查形容词的比较级形式。
S10. crop→crops。本题是名词单复数的误用。crop是可数名词,根据上下文可知应该用它的复数形式crops。
