英语四级阅读理解历年真题(8)
- 2026-11-05 08:37:11
英语四级阅读理解历年真题（8）
来源：2022年12月（第2套）Passage One——水产养殖的崛起
阅读原文
We're eating more fish than ever these days. At around 20 kilograms per person global fish consumption is now more than twice what it was in the 1960s. What's really remarkable, though, is where that fish comes from. For the first time in human history, most of our aquatic food now comes from farming rather than fishing. People ate around 73 million tonnes of farmed fish—just more than half of the volume of fish that humans consumed—in 2014. That's out of a total fish supply of 167 million tonnes; the remaining 20 million or so tonnes go into things like animal feed and medical products. To keep eating fish at the current rate, we're definitely going to need to keep aquaculture developing.
That's because the volume of fish caught in the wild has leveled off since the 1990s. Back in 1974, only 10% of marine fish stocks had been overfished. Now, more than three-tenths are. Only a tenth of our oceans' fish stocks could sustain heavier fishing than current levels. But while catchings at sea have suffered, fish-farming has been growing at a fast rate. A lot of that is coming from China, which produces 60% of the world's farmed fish. In fact, some 35 countries, including China, now produce more farmed than wild-caught fish.
This shift toward aquaculture isn't just good for ensuring salmon on your plate; it's also crucial to ensuring food security and sustainability. By 2050, the world will need to feed an estimated 9.7 billion people. They'll have to get their protein somewhere. However, raising cattle, pigs, and other land-based animals requires vast sums of grain and water. For example, pound for pound, beef requires 15 times more feed to raise than carp, a freshwater fish farmed all over Asia. That grain—and the water needed to grow it—could be consumed by people instead. However, aquaculture is no silver bullet. In some southeast Asian countries, shrimp farming does disastrous damage to marine ecosystems. Despite these problems, however, shrimp continues to be among the most popular sea foods worldwide.
题目
46. What does the author say is remarkable about the fish we eat?
A) They reproduce quickly.
B) They are mostly farmed.
C) They have become as important as grain.
D) They have a longer history than humans.
47. What do we need to do if we keep consuming fish at the current rate?
A) Increase the fishing volume considerably.
B) Develop more advanced fishing technology.
C) Enlarge the marine fish stocks effectively.
D) Expand the scale of fish-farming continuously.
48. What has happened to the volume of fish caught in the wild since the 1990s?
A) It has increased sharply.
B) It has leveled off.
C) It has declined dramatically.
D) It has remained unpredictable.
49. What is one advantage of fish-farming over raising land-based animals?
A) It requires less feed and water.
B) It produces more nutritious food.
C) It is more profitable for farmers.
D) It causes no environmental damage.
50. What does the author say about shrimp farming?
A) It is the most profitable form of aquaculture.
B) It is environmentally friendly.
C) It can damage marine ecosystems.
D) It is banned in most countries.
答案与解析
46. B 细节题。原文说“What's really remarkable, though, is where that fish comes from. For the first time in human history, most of our aquatic food now comes from farming rather than fishing”。B 项“They are mostly farmed”正确。
47. D 细节题。原文说“To keep eating fish at the current rate, we're definitely going to need to keep aquaculture developing”。D 项“Expand the scale of fish-farming continuously”对应“keep aquaculture developing”。
48. B 细节题。原文明确说“the volume of fish caught in the wild has leveled off since the 1990s”。B 项直接对应。
49. A 细节题。原文将水产养殖与陆生动物养殖对比：养牛需要“vast sums of grain and water”，而“beef requires 15 times more feed to raise than carp”。这说明鱼类养殖所需的饲料和水更少。A 项正确。
50. C 细节题。原文指出“In some southeast Asian countries, shrimp farming does disastrous damage to marine ecosystems”。C 项“It can damage marine ecosystems”直接对应。
