(2019·陕西教学质量检测)Poverty(贫穷) has been troubling the world. In 2016, the number of hungry people in the world reached one billion for the first time. It’s difficult not to be shocked by the fact that more than one in seven people in the world do not have enough to eat.
The U．N. figures that almost two thirds of the world’s hungry people are in Asia, which is of course the world’s most populous continent. More than a quarter are in subSaharan Africa. Although this place has a much lower population than Asia, it has the highest percentage of hungry people. Almost all of the rest are in Latin America, North Africa and the Caribbean.
There are many reasons for world hunger. They include wars, droughts, floods, and the overuse of farmland. All these factors affect food production. Many people also blame greedy businessmen for pushing up the prices of basic foods in the global market. In fact, many people are starving just because they’re poor. Therefore, the most important reason, quite simply, is poverty. If we can’t pull out this root, we’ll never be able to solve food shortage.
Although many people make the obvious point that there would be less hunger if the global population were smaller, few people would argue that there is not enough food to go around. The basic problem seems to be not a lack of food, but its distribution. In the last 50 years, global food production has risen even more quickly than the global population.
There are many areas of the world in which people generally have more than enough food. In those places, being overweight is a far bigger problem than hunger. The answer to world hunger, therefore, may be a balanced food distribution around the whole world. Everyone will have enough to eat, but not to overeat.
【解题导语】 本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了世界饥饿的现状以及导致饥饿的原因。
1．Which continent has the highest rate of hungry people?
A．Asia. B．Africa.
C．America. D．Europe.
B 解析：细节理解题。根据第二段中的“More than...Although this place has a much lower population than Asia, it has the highest percentage of hungry people.”的描述可知，非洲大陆有着最高的饥饿率。
2．The underlined word in the third paragraph most probably means ．
A．the fact of having many droughts
B．the reason for suffering many floods
C．the state of being poor
D．bad luck brought by wars
C 解析：词义猜测题。根据上文“Therefore, the most important reason, quite simply, is poverty.”的描述可知，画线词指贫穷的状态。
3．According to the last paragraph, results in the poverty.
A．not enough production
B．slow growth of food
C．consuming too much food
D．imbalance of food distribution
D 解析：推理判断题。根据最后一段第三句的描述可推知，是食物分配不平衡导致贫困的。
4．Maybe the author would write about if there were a sixth paragraph.
A．how to make food distribution balanced
B．when to get rid of world hunger thoroughly
C．who is to blame for the world hunger
D．what to do to help the hungry people
A 解析：文章结构题。根据最后一段中的“In those places, being overweight is a far bigger problem...around the whole world.”的描述可知，也许作者接下来会写如何使食物分配平衡。
