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  3. "Salty" Rice Plant Boosts Harvests British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow

"Salty" Rice Plant Boosts Harvests British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow

admin2015-07-17  53
问题                             "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 recendy 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 litde 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 nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food in the poorer countries of the world.
Which of the following statements about Flowers and Yeo is true?
选项 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.
答案D
解析 第二段的第一句话把两位研究人员Tim nowers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。
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