D
The cost of rice is expected to go up in the coming moths, as an improving global economy raises demand, and drought(旱災(zāi)) cuts production in countries such as India. Some economists say prices for rice, the main food for the world’s population, could be returning to levels that caused inflation(通貨膨脹)fears in much of Asia last year.
Charuk Singhapreecha is dean of the faculty(系)of economics at Thailand’s Kasetsart University, Hesays prices-especially for Thai nice-are being pushed higher by new customers coming into the market after the economic slowdown of the past year. “They expect that the world demand will increase and we expect that the price of rice will increase next year,” Charuk said. “There are many new markets fro the Thai rice and also we still have for our old customers-China, some Arab countries-they will increase the demand.”
Prices on the global market could again near the record of $1,000 a ton set in the middle of 2008. This month, export prices for Southeast Asian rice have jumped from about $550 a ton to more than $650.
Vichai sriprasert, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, says further weakness in the US dollar and concerns over drought add to pressure on prices. Market experts say next year India is likely to try to import three million tons of rice-entering the world market for the first time in 21 years-because of a drought.
Vichai also warns that increasing demand for bio-fuels(生物燃料)from grain could reduce food crops, forcing the price of grains higher. “this is very serious. That’s why the price of rice will not go back to the level that we used to see,” Vichai said. “It will have to be raised at a higher level, but I don’t know where.”
The Philippines this week said it is cutting rice imports due to high prices, even though the country lost more than a million tons of grain to typhoons this year. officials from veetnam, a leading export competitor with Thailand, predict prices will reach about $800 a ton by the middle of 2010. This week the Philippines’ National Food Authority offered almost $665 a ton for 600,000 tons of Vietnamese rice.
Economists say higher food prices will only increase the problems faced by the region’s poor, who are highly dependent on rice as a staple food.
63.   Which of the following is NOT true according to Paragraph 1?
A. Drought reduces production of rice in India.
B. Prices for rice were lower all the time in 2008.
C. Rice is a major food for the world’s population.
D. the improving global economy increases the need for rice.
64.   How many reasons did Vichai mention about rice price’s going up?
A.1.                  B.2.                 C.3.           D.4.
65.Why does the Philippines plan to cut rice imports?
A. Because of high prices.                      B. Because of typhoons.
C. Because of civil war.                        D. Because of drought.
66.What’s the best title of the passage?
A. Higher food prices will increase problems
B. There are many new markets for the Thai rice
C. The global economy is improving
D. Prices for rice are expected to rise

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：浙江平陽(yáng)三中2010屆高三下學(xué)期第10次周練英語(yǔ)試卷 題型：閱讀理解


D
The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill（鉆孔） deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0ºC. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0ºC. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
53．The project is meant to ______.
A．increase the world’s food output in the future
B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes
C．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds
D．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters
54．Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?
A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone.
B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.
C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever.
D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.
55．We can infer from the text that _______.
A．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before.   
B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture
C．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.
D．There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before.
56．What is probably the best title of the passage?www.
A．The Best Place to Store Seeds        B．Noah’s Ark（諾亞方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan
C．Concerns of World Food Supply    D．A New Way to Feed the World

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