21. According to the text, what are the features of potatoes?

　　\[A\] Lower price, quicker growing speed, less land required, and wider range of climate。

　　\[B\] More calories, quicker growing speed, less labor required in growing and processing, and wider range of climate。

　　\[C\] More calories, quicker growing speed, less land required, and wider range of climate。

　　\[D\] More calories, quicker growing speed, less land required, and wider range of products to be made of。

　　22. What is the ultimate purpose of establishing 2008 the International Year of the Potato?

　　\[A\] Promote the sales volume of potatoes all over the globe。

　　\[B\] Help the farmers that grow potatoes but are still in poverty。

　　\[C\] Promote a greater awareness of the merits of potatoes among the public。

　　\[D\] Alleviate poverty, improve food security and promote economic development。

　　23. Friedrich Engels declared that the potato was the equal of iron for its “historically revolutionary role”， then according to the text, what does this “historically revolutionary role” refer to?

　　\[A\] Its high volume of production, and consequently lower price, greatly supported the workers in the factories then。

　　\[B\] It liberated workers from the land, thus providing labour force for the industry。

　　\[C\] It changed the agriculture structure of England, which ultimately resulted in a shift from an agricultural country to an industrial one。

　　\[D\] It can provide more calories, thus saving land for cotton growing, and consequently boosting the textile industry。

　　24. According to the text, which of the following is NOT true about Britain's Corn Laws?

　　\[A\] These laws were ultimately abolished after a fierce argument in the Parliament。

　　\[B\] Landowners supported the laws because domestic products were more expensive, and then they could gain more。

　　\[C\] Industrialists opposed the laws because cheap imported grains would help them develop the market。

　　\[D\] Irish potato famine of 1845 directly forced the government to reverse its position of sustaining these laws。

　　25. Why were potatoes at last accepted by Europeans?

　　\[A\] They changed their diet to a more diversified trend。

　　\[B\] French fries swept all over the world alongside burgers and Coca-Cola。

　　\[C\] Potatoes saved them when war and famine stroke Europe in 18th century。

　　\[D\] It became very important goods for Europe in trading with Asia。

　　Text 2

　　Twenty-seven years ago, Egypt revised its secular constitution to enshrine Muslim sharia as “the principal source of legislation”. To most citizens, most of the time, that seeming contradiction — between secularism and religion — has not made much difference. Nine in ten Egyptians are Sunni Muslims and expect Islam to govern such things as marriage, divorce and inheritance. Nearly all the rest profess Christianity or Judaism, faiths recognised and protected in Islam. But to the small minority who embrace other faiths, or who have tried to leave Islam, it has, until lately, made an increasingly troubling difference。

　　Members of Egypt's 2,000-strong Bahai community, for instance, have found they cannot state their religion on the national identity cards that all Egyptians are obliged to produce to secure such things as driver's licenses, bank accounts, social insurance and state schooling. Hundreds of Coptic Christians who have converted to Islam, often to escape the Orthodox sect's ban on divorce, find they cannot revert to their original faith. In some cases, children raised as Christians have discovered that, because a divorced parent converted to Islam, they too have become officially Muslim, and cannot claim otherwise。

　　Such restrictions on religious freedom are not directly a product of sharia, say human-rights campaigners, but rather of rigid interpretations of Islamic law by over-zealous officials. In their strict view, Bahai belief cannot be recognised as a legitimate faith, since it arose in the 19th century, long after Islam staked its claim to be the final revelation in a chain of prophecies beginning with Adam. Likewise, they brand any attempt to leave Islam, whatever the circumstances, as a form of apostasy, punishable by death。

　　But such views have lately been challenged. Last year Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti, who is the government's highest religious adviser, declared that nowhere in Islam's sacred texts did it say that apostasy need be punished in the present rather than by God in the afterlife. In the past month, Egyptian courts have issued two rulings that, while restricted in scope, should ease some bothersome strictures。

　　Bahais may now leave the space for religion on their identity cards blank. Twelve former Christians won a lawsuit and may now return to their original faith, on condition that their identity documents note their previous adherence to Islam。

　　Small steps, perhaps, but they point the way towards freedom of choice and citizenship based on equal rights rather than membership of a privileged religion。

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