卷三

  Signs barring cell-phone use are a familiar sight to anyone who has ever sat in a hospital waiting room. But the_____(27)popularity of electronic medical records has forced hospital-based doctors to become_____(28)on computers throughout the day, and desktops-which keep doctors from besides-are_____(29)giving way to wireless devices.

　　As clerical loads increased, "something had to_____(30), and that was always face time with patients," says Dr.Bhakti Patel, a former chief resident in the University of Chicago's internal-medicine program. In fall 2010, she helped_____(31)a pilot project in Chicago to see if the iPad could improve working conditions and patient care. The experiment was so_____(32)that all internal-medicine program adopted the same_____(33)in 2011. Medical schools at Yale and Stanford now have paperless, iPad-based curriculums. "You'll want an iPad just so you can wear this" is the slogan for one of the new lab coats_____(34)with large pockets to accommodate tablet computers.

A study of the University of Chicago iPad project found that patients got tests and_____(35)a better understanding of the illnesses that landed them in the hospital in the first place.

A.dependent  B.designed  C.fast  D.flying

E.gained  F.give  G.growing  H.launch  I.policy

J.prospect  K.rather  L.reliable  M.signal  N.successful  O.treatments

26. G

解析：本空应该填一个谓语动词，备选项中符合条件的只有grant和provide，而grant是授予、承认，用在这里语义予不合逻辑，所以只能选provide。provide sth to sb 提供给某人某物，也可以说provide sb with sth.

27. A

解析：从语法看，本空应该填一个形容词来做feel的表语，备选项中有六个形容词；再看语义，父母不和孩子生活在一起也不会感到被抛弃，所以应该选abandoned。

28. C

解析：从语法来看，本空仍然要填一个形容词，have____ contact with，结合语义应该用frequent。

29. F

解析：从语法上看这个空格所在的句子主干完整，因此句首应该填个副词，从备选项中的副词进行选择，再结合上下文语义应该用merely。

30. H

解析：这个空格处应该填写个形容词，从语义上来说填biased更恰当，表明这个研究可能是片面的。

31. N

解析：先利用语法知识，将答案锁定在形容词中，再看哪些形容词还没有被选过；再看空格之后的and thereby表结果；and thereby之后的内容是与增加与家人的交往；and之前应该是疾病使得老人变得没那么独立。这里形成了一套因果关系，因为疾病使老人变得需要依靠，从而增加了老人与家人的交流。

32. I

解析：根据语法这里需要一个谓语动词，而且是一个单三的动词，符合条件的只有dampens，而且dampens spirits 和上一句的have the lowest spirits形成了衔接。

33.B

解析：空格应该填个名词，religious commitment 宗教信仰，其他名词填写到这里不合符语义逻辑。

34. O

解析：从语法上看，空格所在句子主干结构完整，因此本空只能是填个副词做状语。这句话的意思是：对于这些事情的分歧会引发父母与子女之间的问题，这也是可以理解的。

35. E

解析：从语法角度来看，这里只能填写名词；且chances are that …… 是固定搭配，意为 ……是有可能的。

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?

　　[A] For many years I have studied global agricultural, population, environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global civilization.

　　[B] I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible.

　　[C] As demand for food rises faster than supplies are growing, the resulting food-price inflation puts severe stress on the governments of many countries. Unable to buy grain or grow their own, hungry people take to the streets. Indeed, even before the steep climb in grain prices in 2008, the number of failing states was expanding. If the food situation continues to worsen, entire nations will break down at an ever increasing rate. In the 20th century the main threat to international security was superpower conflict; today it is failing states.

　　[D] States fail when national governments can no longer provide personal security, food security and basic social services such as education and health care. When governments lose their control on power, law and order begin to disintegrate. After a point, countries can become so dangerous that food relief workers are no longer safe and their programs are halted. Failing states are of international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons and refugees(难民), threatening political stability everywhere.

　　[E] The surge in world grain prices in 2007 and 2008—and the threat they pose to food security——has a different, more troubling quality than the increases of the past. During the second of the 20th century, grain prices rose dramatically several times. In 1972, for instance, the Soviets. I recognizing their poor harvest early, quietly cornered the world wheat market. As a result, wheat prices elsewhere more than doubled, pulling rice and com prices up with them. But this and other price shocks were event-driven——drought in the Soviet Union, crop-shrinking heat in the U.S. Corn Belt. And the rises were short-lived: prices typically returned to normal with the next harvest.

[F]In contrast, recent surge in world grain prices is trend-driven, making it unlikely to reverse without a reversal in the trends themselves. On the demand side, those trends include the ongoing addition of more than 70 million people a year, a growing number of people wanting to move up the food chain to consume highly grain-intensive meat products, and the massive diversion(转向)of U.S. grain to the production of bio-fuel.

[G]As incomes rise among low-income consumers, the potential for further grain consumption is huge. But that potential pales beside the never-ending demand for crop-based fuels. A fourth of this year's U.S. grain harvest will go to fuel cars.

　　[H]What about supply? The three environmental trends——the shortage of fresh water, the loss of topsoil and the rising temperatures——are making it increasingly hard to expand the world's grain supply fast enough to keep up with demand. Of all those trends, however, the spread of water shortages poses the most immediate threat. The biggest challenge here is irrigation, which consumes 70% the world's fresh water. Millions of irrigation wells in many countries are now pumping water out of underground sources faster than rainfall can refill them. The result is falling water tables(地下水位)in countries with half the world's people, including the three big grain producers——China, India and the U.S.

　　[I]As water tables have fallen and irrigation wells have gone dry, China's wheat crop, the world's largest, has declined by 8% since it peaked at 123 million tons in 1997. But water shortages are even more worrying in India. Millions of irrigation wells have significantly lowered water tables in almost every state.

　　[J]As the world's food security falls to pieces, individual countries acting in their own self-interest are actually worsening the troubles of many. The trend began in 2007, when leading wheat-exporting countries such as Russia and Argentina limited or banned their exports, in hopes of increasing local food supplies and thereby bringing down domestic food prices. Vietnam banned its exports for several months for the same reason. Such moves may eliminate the fears of those living in the exporting countries, but they are creating panic in importing countries that must rely on what is then left for export.

　　[K]In response to those restrictions, grain-importing countries are trying to nail down long-term trade agreements that would lock up future grain supplies. Food-import anxiety is even leading to new efforts by food-importing countries to buy or lease farmland in other countries. In spite of such temporary measures, soaring food prices and spreading hunger in many other countries are beginning to break down the social order.

[L]Since the current world food shortage is trend-driven, the environmental trends that cause it must be reversed. We must cut carbon emissions by 80% from their 2006 levels by 2020, stabilize the world's population at eight billion by 2040, completely remove poverty, and restore forests and soils. There is nothing new about the four objectives. Indeed, we have made substantial progress in some parts of the world on at least one of these——the distribution of family-planning services and the associated shift to smaller families.

　　[M]For many in the development community, the four objectives were seen as positive, promoting development as long as they did not cost too much. Others saw them as politically correct and morally appropriate. Now a third and far more significant motivation presents itself: meeting these goals may necessary to prevent the collapse of our civilization. Yet the cost we project for saving civilization would amount to less than $200 billion a year, 1/6 of current global military spending. In effect, our plan is the new security budget.

36.F

37.A

38.C

39.L

40.B

41.H

42.M

43.J

44.D

45G