56. Zack stopped fighting with his sisters because ______ .

A. his mother learnt how to e-mail him

B. his mother had more friendly communications with him online

C. his mother stopped yelling and nagging

D. his sisters learned to instant message him

E

The United Nations says forty million people or so around the world went hungry in 2008, mainly because of higher food prices. Early estimates from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO)show that 963 million people did not get enough to eat.

World food prices have dropped since early 2008. Prices of major crops have decreased by more than half from their height earlier last year. But they remain high compared to earlier years.

But FAO official Hafez Ghanem says lower prices have failed to end the food crisis(危机)in many poor countries."For millions in developing countries," he says, "getting enough food every day to live an active and healthy life is a distant dream.”

The FAO says food shortage is a threat to people's health.Today, two-thirds of the world's undernourished people live in just a few countries. These are India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia and so on.

A report on food insecurity warns that the current economic crisis could send even more people into hunger and poverty.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of the people who continually go hungry fell from 34% in 1997 to 30% in 2008.But the FAO says Ghana is the only country that has reached two sets of hunger reduction targets. These were set by the 1996 World Food Summit and the Millennium Development Goals. The main reason is the growth in agricultural production in Ghana.

The FAO says some countries in Southeast Asia like Thailand and Vietnam have made progress in hunger reduction goals. But South Asia and Central Asia haven't, and North Korea is still in hot water.

52. From the passage, we can know that the most important thing to improve your SQ is    .

A. a peaceful mind      B. deep thought  C. spare time and hobbies  D. good spirits

D

I have a better understanding of world leaders fed up with endless conflicts(冲突)between nations or regions. When my three children were young, most days it was hard to keep my house from becoming a war zone. And that was before breakfast.

It got worse as they grew older. Three years later, Zack, then 16, couldn’t make it through a day without playing tricks on his sisters, Alex and Taryn , then 11 and 9.

My husband and I tried to get an understanding of his adolescent moodiness(喜怒无常). We begged, reasoned, punished, and left heartfelt notes on his bed about how his behavior was hurting our family. His response was a shrug and “I say it because it’s true .”

I even tried telling the girls to fight back. Bad idea. Now I had three kids at war. At wit’s end, I poured my heart out to my sister in an e-mail. She wrote back, “Don’t e-mail me. E-mail him.”

Our son was online every day, mailing and instant messaging his friends. So what if I was within shouting distance? Maybe he would actually hear me this way. There’d be no yelling or door slamming. Zack wouldn’t feel under attack. And with a few simple keystrokes, he could respond. Or not. Zack didn’t reply for days. When he finally did, his entire message was four measly(少得可怜的)words . I expected the worst, but then smiled when I read them “You’re right. I’m sorry,” The kids still fought, of course, but Zack scaled back the abuse. Best of all, I now have an effective way to communicate with not one but three easily annoyed teens. I like that they don’t tune me out as much. They like not having to listen to me nag(指责,唠叨). Or as Alex says , “You’re so much nicer online. ”

All I know is that the house is quiet, but we’re talking, in fact, Taryn just instant-messaged me from upstairs. It’s time to take her to softball practice.

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