VOA慢速英语:West Africans, Free Markets and the '08 Food Crisis

happen to sb发生在…身上

例句：An odd thing happened to him this morning.
      他今天早晨遇到一件怪事。

      If anything happens to the machine, please let me know.
      要是机器出了毛病, 请告诉我。

happen to do碰巧做某事

例句：I happened to overhear what he said.
       我碰巧听到了他所说的话。

2.Economists blamed the crisis on different causes, including high energy costs, bad weather and the use of food-crop lands for biofuel production.

blame on把责任推给…

例句：They blamed the failure on John.
      他们把失败的责任推给约翰。

      You can't blame the rise in prices on the government.
      你不能把物价上涨归咎于政府。

相关短语：

be to blame对某事应负责任的; 应受责备的

例句：She was in no way to blame.
      绝不应该责备她。

3.They say this was because people in Gambia and Ivory Coast had come to depend on imported rice.

come to到达; 达成

例句：After much talk they came to an agreement.
      经过多次商谈, 他们达成了协议。

共计

例句：Ask the waiter what our bill comes to.
      问问侍者我们一共应付多少钱。

4.Then, when the food crisis hit, the cost of foreign rice shot up.

shoot up迅速成长
 
例句：That boy has shot up since we last saw him.
      自上次见面后, 那男孩长得很快。

      The plants are just shooting up.
      作物迅速生长。

同义词：skyrocket vi.突升, 猛涨

例句：The price of sugar has suddenly skyrocketed up.
      价突然飞涨。

5.Governments and major lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund turned to free market policies.

turn to转向

例句：More and more people turn to computer science.
      愈来愈多的人从事计算机科学研究。

      We are all turning our thoughts to the matter.
      我们大家都开始转而考虑这个问题。