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共用题干 “Salty” Rice Plant Boosts HarvestsBritish scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plan...
共用题干
“Salty” Rice Plant Boosts Harvests
British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow in soil containing salt water. Their work may enable abandoned farms to become productive once more.
Tim Flowers and Tony Yeo,from Sussex University's School of Biological Sciences,have spent several years researching how crops,such as rice,could be made to grow in water that has become salty.
The pair have recently begun a three-year programme,funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council,to establish which genes enable some plants to survive salty conditions. The aim is to breed this capability into crops,starting with rice.
It is estimated that each year more than 10m hectares（公顷）of agricultural land are lost because salt gets into the soil and stunts（妨碍生长）plants. The problem is caused by several factors. In the tropics , mangroves（红树林）that create swamps（沼泽）and traditionally formed barriers to sea water have been cut down .In the Mediterranean,a series of droughts have caused the water table to drop,allowing sea water to seep（渗透）in. In Latin America , irrigation often causes problems when water is evaporated（蒸发）by the heat , leaving salt deposits behind.
Excess salt then enters the plants and prevents them functioning normally.Heavy concentrations of minerals in the plants stop them drawing up the water they need to survive.
To overcome these problems,Flowers and Yeo decided to breed rice plants that take in very little salt and store what they do absorb in cells that do not affect the plants' growth.They have started to breed these characteristics into a new rice crop,but it will take about eight harvests before the resulting seeds are ready to be considered for commercial use.
Once the characteristics for surviving salty soil are known,Flowers and Yeo will try to breed the appropriate genes into all manners of crops and plants.Land that has been abandoned to na- ture will then be able to bloom again,providing much needed food in the poorer countries of the world.
“Salty” Rice Plant Boosts Harvests
British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow in soil containing salt water. Their work may enable abandoned farms to become productive once more.
Tim Flowers and Tony Yeo,from Sussex University's School of Biological Sciences,have spent several years researching how crops,such as rice,could be made to grow in water that has become salty.
The pair have recently begun a three-year programme,funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council,to establish which genes enable some plants to survive salty conditions. The aim is to breed this capability into crops,starting with rice.
It is estimated that each year more than 10m hectares（公顷）of agricultural land are lost because salt gets into the soil and stunts（妨碍生长）plants. The problem is caused by several factors. In the tropics , mangroves（红树林）that create swamps（沼泽）and traditionally formed barriers to sea water have been cut down .In the Mediterranean,a series of droughts have caused the water table to drop,allowing sea water to seep（渗透）in. In Latin America , irrigation often causes problems when water is evaporated（蒸发）by the heat , leaving salt deposits behind.
Excess salt then enters the plants and prevents them functioning normally.Heavy concentrations of minerals in the plants stop them drawing up the water they need to survive.
To overcome these problems,Flowers and Yeo decided to breed rice plants that take in very little salt and store what they do absorb in cells that do not affect the plants' growth.They have started to breed these characteristics into a new rice crop,but it will take about eight harvests before the resulting seeds are ready to be considered for commercial use.
Once the characteristics for surviving salty soil are known,Flowers and Yeo will try to breed the appropriate genes into all manners of crops and plants.Land that has been abandoned to na- ture will then be able to bloom again,providing much needed food in the poorer countries of the world.
参考答案: B
参考解析: 第二段的第一句话把两位研究人员Tim Flowers和Tony Yeo的关系讲得很清楚，他们来自同一所大学Sussex University的School of Biological Sciences，故是同事。从上下文看他们不可能是学生，更不会是种水稻的；第三段的第一句里用了pair这个词，但pair不一定就是夫妻，从他们的名字看他们不是同一个姓，而且Tim和Tony都是男性的名字。
本题的答案可以在第三段里找到，这段的第一句话说他们开始了一个为期3年的研究项目，目的是“establish which genes enable some plants to survive salty condition”（确认哪些基因使得某些作物能在含盐的条件下生长）。这和选项B是同一个意思。
引起盐分渗入土壤的3个原因都在第四段里谈到了：第一是阻档海水的天然屏障红树林被砍伐（A)；第二是在地中海地区严重的旱灾导致水平面下降，海水渗透（B); 第三是在拉丁美洲，水分被高温蒸发后留下了盐分（D）。
affect这个动词的意思是“影响”，和influence是同义词，在这个上下文里可以替换用。
四个选项的意思分另，1是：肯定的（positive)、否定的（negative)、有怀疑的（suspicious)、冷淡的（indifferent)，从全文看作者时他们的研究无疑是肯定的。
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