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

admin2009-06-15  151
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 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 100 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 nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food in the poorer countries of the world.
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 根据备选项的内容特点判定问题是在问这两个人之间的关系。该题考察考生根据文章细节进行推断的能力。利用题干中的特征词Flower sand Yeo作为答案线索，这样找到答案相关句：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． years researching how crops，such as rice，could be made to grow in water that has become salty．划线句内容表明Flowers and Yeo是来自生物科学研究院的研究工作者，结合上下文结构特点：上一段的内容说“英国科学家……”，“他们的工作……”，然后紧接着文章就明确地提到具体的研究者的名字，从这里我们可以推断出的结论是这相邻两段的逻辑关系是概述和具体举例说明。因此可以推出的结论是：这两个人是科学家，是从事生物研究的工作者。
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