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Section D
Directions: Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words.
(E)
In many corners of the world, mass malnutrition is a deadly threat to people’s life. It is plainly defined as a state of insufficiency of food for the population, where the majority of the people do not obtain enough food calories (卡路里) to meet the lowest needs for support of physical work and for maintenance of health. Compared with wars or natural disasters like earthquake or flood, mass malnutrition is rather an unnoticeable health killer, which escapes enough public attention.
In Latin America, as in other places, the frightening protein-shortage disease kwashiorkor has been said to take toll of thousands of children, greatly affecting the area’s child population and leaves many more children in terribly poor health. The reason for the problem might lie in the traditional diets in the area which are not balanced in nutrition. Here people keep their eating pattern year after year without the knowledge of what these eating habits are doing to themselves and to future generations.
In these poor areas, in stead of thoroughly altering the local people’s long-term habits, the best way might be to find food substitutes which could meet nutritional needs. Mixtures of vegetable proteins, like soybeans and peanuts could provide cheap and useful protein where meat, eggs and milk are not within economic reach of large groups in population.
Efforts could also be made to increase the agricultural productivity in some areas, where mass production of vegetable protein crops could bring life-saving nutrition to local people. Being used wrongly, large areas of land now are devoted to luxurious entertainment constructions, such as golf course or riding field, which are targeted at a small number of rich people. But isn’t a large area of productive planting land more acceptable and down-to-earth a choice to these countries suffering from mass malnutrition right now?
(Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN 10 WORDS）
81. What is mass malnutrition?
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82. What does the underlined word “take toll of” probably mean?
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83. People can most effectively solve the mass malnutrition problem in some developing areas by ___________________________________________________________________________
84. It would be wise to use large areas of planting land for____________________________
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