2022 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题（第 2 套）

Parenting brings fathers more joy than it does mothers, according to a new study. The research

examined three studies __26__ more than 18,000 participants. Across all

three, parenthood was __27__

with more positive wellbeing outcomes for dads than for mums.

So why are fathers happier than mothers? "Fathers may fare better than mothers in part due to how

they spend time with their children," said lead author Katherine Nelson-Coffey. In one study, the authors

__28__ that dads were more likely to take "playing' as an __29__ activity both when caring for their kids

and spending time with their kids. "Playing with their children likely offers parents opportunities to

experience positive feelings and __30__ closeness with their children,"

they say.

Fathers also did better than men without kids, reporting greater happiness, life satisfaction, and

fewer __31__ symptoms. They also reported greater connectedness and

autonomy (自主). For mums,

__32__, compared to women without children, the results weren't quite as

positive. Mums reported greater

autonomy, but also "greater trouble" and fewer positive __33__ .

Mums reported happier moods while interacting with their kids, compared to other experiences, but

not while engaging __34__ in childcare. "This difference suggests that

how mothers and fathers spend time with their children might have important

__35__ for their wellbeing," the authors write. They suspect that

mums may be less happy than dads because they're more likely to have higher expectations about

parenthood. As such, they're more likely to be "let down" by the experience.

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 (水产的) 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 (水产养殖)

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 (三文鱼) 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 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 seafoods worldwide.

In 2020, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP).

Why a Nobel Prize for the WFP, and why now? In 2019, the WFP assisted nearly 100 million people

in 88 countries. It is the safety net for those who fall off the edge of existence. It is a response to solving

the problem of food instability. Its Nobel Prize reminds us all of the moral hazard in imagining that the

poor and vulnerable are somebody else's problem.

The WFP has been around since 1961 and has been the global coordinator of nationally based efforts

to avoid disasters with food aid. Despite decades of effort to eliminate hunger, the latest estimate is that

about 11% of people on the planet (about 820 million people) are suffering daily undernourishment.

Progress at reducing undernourishment has stopped despite gains through the 1990s and 2000s.

Developed countries sometimes offer food and aid to developing ones, but at a price. One American

philosopher stated that addressing the needs of the poor and vulnerable is about more than money—it is

mostly about creating conditions under which prosperity and opportunity can thrive. When aid is offered

with heavy conditions attached, like loan repayment or food for resources, it often widens the gap

between rich and poor and sustains the old world order. This is why the work of the WFP is so vital.

The scientific community, however, can provide a helping hand to the WFP. By sharing knowledge of

agriculture and climate with peers in countries most vulnerable to poverty and hunger, scientists can help

reduce these problems. By making its voice heard, science can lead by example. The ability to overcome

food shortages that must be built into some of the poorest countries will not come from loans from wealthy

countries, which may have food problems of their own, or world economic institutions. This ability will be

built upon self-confident people using open and shared scientific knowledge to pull themselves out of their

misery.