共享题干题 (三)"Salty" Rice Plant Boosts Harvest根据材料，回答下列问题。 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 bee 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 bee salty. The pair have recently begun a three-year programme, funded by the Biotechnology and Bio logical Sciences Research Council, to establish which genes enable some plants to survive saltyconditions. 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 severalfactors. 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 concentra-tions of minerals in the plants stop them drawing up the water they need to survive.To overe 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 mercial 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 nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food in the poorer countries of the world.1.[不定向选择题]The word "affect" in Paragraph 6 could be best replaced by________A.influence B.effect C..stop D.present 2.[不定向选择题]Which of the following statements about Flowers and Yeo is true?A.They are students at Sussex University. B.They are rice breeders. C.They are husband and wife. D.They are colleagues'at an institution of higher learning.
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1.参考答案：A
参考解析：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。
2.参考答案：D
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。3.[不定向选择题]Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a cause of the problem discussed in the passage?A.Natural barriers to sea water have been destroyed. B.The water table has gone down after droughts. C.Sea level has been continuously rising. D.Evaporation of water leaves salt behind.