Question

【題目】In Japan, Christmas just isn’t Christmas without butter. That’s because the Japanese love to celebrate Christmas Eve with "Christmas cakes," which are filled with whipped cream (生奶油) and topped with strawberries. Making this tasty treat requires some serious amounts of butter. But this year, the creamy golden spread is in short supply on the island nation.

In fact, many Japanese supermarkets are fresh out of dairy (milk) products entirely. Those that do still have butter often limit shoppers to one box apiece, and the price for that box is much higher than normal.

Northern Japan has been suffering unusually old winters in recent years, and all of Japan has had to endure (忍受) hotter summers. This extreme weather has stressed out the nation’s dairy cows. They have not been able to produce their expected amount of milk.

However, even before the bad weather, Japan’s butter supply was in trouble. The number of dairy farms in the country has been steadily shrinking. Not many young people in Japan want to become dairy farmers anymore.

The demand for dairy products in Japan has also been falling. The Japanese diet consists mainly of rice and seafood, and it often doesn’t require many milk products. So the government decided to cut back the number of the country’s dairy cows in 2007. This led to a butter shortage in 2008 as well as the current shortage.

The Japanese government has tried to increase the stock of butter by importing (進(jìn)口) about 10,000 tons from overseas. But even this emergency supply has done little to end the shortage this Christmas season.

Blogger Audrey Akcasu says Japanese people are using substitutes in their cooking or paying more money for real butter.

"Some bakeries are choosing to replace butter with margarine (人造黃油) this year, claiming the slight change in taste will be less noticeable than the potential higher price we would see if they used imported butter," she writes in Nikkan Gendai, a Japanese newspaper. "But for many shoppers, it’11 have to be margarine or nothing this Christmas."

【1】What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 refer to?

A. The milk. B. The butter.

C. The strawberry. D. The Christmas cake.

【2】Which of the following is probably very popular in Japan?

A. Being dairy farmers.

B. Enjoying various dairy products.

C. Eating cakes at Christmas.

D. Tasting margarine rather than real butter.

【3】Which of the following is Japan actually facing now?

A. A cow crisis. B. Much milder winter.

C. A shrinking population. D. Continually falling food prices.

【4】What does Audrey Akcasu think of the government’ s importing butter from overseas?

A. It’ s wise. B. It’ s unnecessary.

C. It’ s ineffective. D. It’ s unreasonable.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】C

【3】A

【4】C

【解析】這是一篇社會生活類文章。在日本過圣誕節(jié)黃油是必不可少的。但是，今年日本黃油短缺。文章分析了產(chǎn)生這一現(xiàn)象的原因。日本政府想通過進(jìn)口黃油來解決這一問題，但是，此舉可能不會產(chǎn)生什么作用。

【1】詞義猜測題。第一段第一句提到，日本的圣誕節(jié)黃油是必不可少的。第一段倒數(shù)第二句提到，制作圣誕蛋糕需要大量的黃油。承接該句可知，劃線部分應(yīng)指黃油。今年，日本黃油短缺。B選項正確。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。由第一段中的“Japanese love to celebrate Christmas Eve with "Christmas cakes,"”可知，日本人喜歡用圣誕蛋糕來慶祝圣誕節(jié)。所以，圣誕節(jié)吃蛋糕在日本很流行。故C選項正確。

【3】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。由第五段中的“So the government decided to cut back the number of the country’ s dairy cows in 2007. This led to a butter shortage in 2008 as well as the current shortage”可知，導(dǎo)致黃油短缺的原因是日本奶牛的減少。所以，日本真正面對的是奶牛危機(jī)。A選項正確。