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2015年度京都女子大学英語対策講座
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とも判断できないものにはNを、それぞれ記入しなさい。〔2015年一般入試〕
A world without pasta seems unimaginable. Hamburger and grilled cheese sandwich-loving
children across the United States would scream in protest. Italy might suﬀer a cultural heart
attack. Social unrest could explode in northern China, where noodles are a very common food.
Wheat production will suﬀer the most in the years ahead, for it is the grain most exposed to
high temperatures. So, if humans want to keep eating pasta, we will have to take much more
aggressive action against global warming. Pasta is made from wheat, and a large, growing body
of scientiﬁc evidence and real-world observations suggest that wheat will be hit especially hard
as temperatures rise and storms and dry weather become more extreme in the years ahead.
Hurricane Sandy's recent terrible damage to New York and neighboring states reminded
Americans of what Hurricane Katrina demonstrated in 2005: global warming makes weather
more extreme, and extreme weather can be extremely dangerous. But ﬂooding coastlines aren't
our only worry. Climate change is also threatening the very foundation of human existence: it is
a danger to our ability to feed ourselves. Three grains ー wheat, corn, and rice ー account for
most of the food humans consume. All three are already suﬀering from climate change, but
wheat will be the most aﬀected in the years ahead, for it is the grain most likely to be damaged
by high temperatures. That means trouble not only for pasta but also for bread, the most basic
food of all. (Pasta is made from the durum variety of wheat, while bread is generally made from
more common varieties, such as red spring.)
Wheat is a cool-season agricultural product. High temperatures are negative for its growth
and quality ー there is no doubt about it, says Frank Manthey, a professor at North Dakota
State University who advises the North Dakota Wheat Commission. Already, a mere 1 degree
Fahrenheit global temperature rise over the past 50 years has caused a 5.5 percent decline in
wheat production, according to David Lobell, a professor at Stanford University s Center on
Food Security and the Environment.
By 2050, scientists predict, the world's leading wheat zones - the U.S. and Canadian Midwest,
Northern China, India Russia, and Australia ー on average will experience, every other year, a
hotter summer than the hottest summer now on record. Wheat production in that period could
decline between 23 and 27 percent, reports the International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI), unless quick action is taken to limit temperature rise and to develop crop varieties that
can survive a hotter world.
International agricultural research centers and the private sector have awakened to the fact
that higher temperatures are almost a certainty and they have little in their genetic toolbox to
deal with them, says Gerald Nelson, a senior research fellow at IFPRI. We are all worried. The
record-breaking summer of 2012 ー which brought the hottest July in U.S. history and the worst
dry period in 50 years (a long period of dry weather that continues to aﬄict 60 percent of the
nation) ー suggests what the future may bring. Corn and soybean production dropped severely
in 2012, driving up world food prices, increasing hunger, and causing protest in Indonesia that
recalled the street riots that aﬀected dozens of nations after the last big food-price jump in
2007-08. We damaged our farm crops this year pretty strongly, and many of them almost
collapsed, says Jay Fuhrer, a U.S. Department of Agriculture agent in North Dakota. Does that
concern you as a consumer? It should.
In fact, North Dakota, where Doug Opland has been growing durum wheat since he was a kid,
is one of the centers of global pasta production. North Dakota agricultural oﬃcials will tell you,
accurately, that their state produces some of the highest quality durum in the world, containing
both a high protein content and the pale golden color demanded by passionate pasta lovers.
Durum, after all, grows well under conditions of limited rainfall and cooler temperatures, and
North Dakota has both of these conditions. It is late October now, but as Opland drives his
pickup truck onto a 300-acre ﬁeld where he grew durum last year, his tires leave tracks on a
fresh, light fall of snow.
This is the new center of durum-wheat production in our state, says Opland, a large 51-yearold who lives near the northwestern North Dakota town of Minot and is one of the directors of
the U.S. Durum Growers Association. Durum used to be grown throughout North Dakota, but
over the past 30 to 40 years, the growing zone has shifted farther west as weather conditions
have changed. Rainfall patterns have shifted, explains Professor Monthey. It s become too wet
in eastern North Dakota to grow durum wheat.
(1) Much of the world's diet is dependent upon the growth of wheat because it is used in a
variety of products.
(2) Unlike rice or corn, wheat cannot be artiﬁcially cloned, and is much more vulnerable to
global warming than other grains.
(3) Pasta is traditionally made from two varieties of wheat that are mixed in equal proportion
to produce high protein levels: durum and red spring.
(4) Hurricane Sandy increased rainfall in the New York area and some scientists predict that
these weather patterns will aﬀect central parts of the U.S. in the near future.
(5) By the middle of the 21st century, every other year will probably have a higher summer
average temperature than we now experience in some wheat growing areas.
(6) During the dry summer of 2012, the cost of certain grain crops fell signiﬁcantly because
of the weather, producing a shortage of grain and higher prices for foods made from
soybeans, corn and wheat.
(7) As food production declines, causing higher prices, social unrest and street
demonstrations as a result of hunger have occurred.
(8) The premium grades of wheat ー for example, the golden-colored durum variety often
used in the best pasta ー thrive in cool, dry climates.

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