Nowadays more and more people are talking about genetically modified foods ( GM foods). GM foods develop from genetically modified organisms (有机体), which have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. These techniques are much more precise where an organism is exposed to chemicals to create a non?specific but stable change. For many people, the high?tech production raises all kinds of environmental, ethical, health and safety problems. Particularly in countries with long farming traditions, the idea seems against nature.

In fact, GM foods are already very much a part of our lives. They were first put on the market in 1996. A third of the corn and more than half the cotton grown in the U. S. last year was the product of biotechnology, according to the Department of Agriculture. More than 65 million acres of genetically modified crops will be planted in the US this year. The genetic genie is out of the bottle.

However, like any new product entering the food chain, GM foods must be subjected to careful testing. In wealthy countries, the debate about biotech is not so fierce by the fact that they have a large number of foods to choose from, and a supply that goes beyond the needs. In developing countries desperate to feed fast?growing and underfed populations, the matter is simpler and much more urgent: do the benefits of biotech outweigh the risks?

The statistics on population growth and hunger are disturbing. Last year the world's population reached 6 billion. The UN states that nearly 800 million people around the world are unhealthy. About 400 million women of childbearing age don' t have enough iron, which means their babies are exposed to various birth defeats.As many as 100 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, a leading cause of blindness.

How can biotech help? Genetic engineering is widely used to produce plants and animals with better nutritional values. Biotechnologists have developed genetically modified rice and they are working on other kinds of nutritionally improved crops. Biotech can also improve farming productivity in places where food shortages are caused by crop damage attributable to drought, poor soil and crop viruses.

1.The passage mainly talks about________.

A. the world's food problem

B. the development in biotech

C. the genetically modified foods

D. the way to solve food shortages

2.According to the passage, GM foods________.

A. will replace naturally grown foods

B. are far better than naturally grown foods

C. may help to solve the problem of poor nutrition

D. can cause serious trouble in developing countries

3.The underlined sentence “The genetic genie is out of the bottle.” in Paragraph 2 probably means that________.

A. GM foods are available everywhere

B. the technology in producing GM foods is advanced

C. genetic technology may have uncontrollable powers

D. genetic technology has come out of laboratories into markets

4.What's the writer's attitude towards GM foods?

A. Enthusiastic. B. Cautious.

C. Disapproving. D. Unbelievable.

The truth was written all over her face. The eyes are the window to the soul. From those sayings, you would think that we could read faces. In fact, people tend to overestimate their ability to do it.

Most of us can’t distinguish between certain expressions without contextual clues. In one study, participants were unable to tell whether faces in photos were showing pain or pleasure about a quarter of the time. In another, when people watched silent videos of the same person experiencing pain and faking pain, they couldn’t tell which was which.

And yet, as bad as we are at reading expressions, we jump to all kinds of conclusions based on people’s faces. We might scoff at the ancient physiognomy—assessing character on the basis of facial feature—but we unknowingly practice it daily. Recent research shows that while there’s practically no evidence that faces reveal character, we nonetheless behave as if certain features signal certain traits. People with typically “female” facial features seem more trustworthy; those with lower eyebrows appear more controlling. In another study, people were ready to decide whether an unfamiliar face should be trusted after looking at it for just 200 milliseconds. Even when given a chance to look longer, they rarely changed their mind.

Such judgments can defy logic. Subjects playing a trust game invested more money with a player who had a trustworthy face than with one who didn’t—even when the two players had the same fame. Another study reported that judges needed less evidence to sentence a person with an untrustworthy face. And a researcher focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict found that a Palestinian peace offering was more likely to be accepted by Jewish Israeli if it was attributed to a politician with “babyfacedness”.

Which brings us to a contradiction. A person’s face may not reflect her nature, and yet research finds that specific facial features do seem to influence futures. U.S. Army War College graduates with controlling-looking faces are more likely than their peers to become generals; people with obvious cheekbones, appearing strong and competent, are more likely to become CEOs of successful companies. This makes a certain sense. If everyone assumes strong-chinned Daniel is an ambitious person, he’s more likely to become one. Perhaps by treating others as though their face reveals their character, we motivate them to become the people we assume them to be.

1.Miss Green wants to find a pet shop for her dog while she is on holiday. She is most likely to choose the shop’s owner with ________.

A. a strong chin B. “female” facial features

C. low eyebrows D. obvious cheekbones

2.Which of the following is TRUE according to the author?

A. People rush to judgments based on facial features.

B. People are better at telling “pain” than “delight” from faces.

C. People consider it instructive to study the ancient physiognomy.

D. People would change their first impression if given more chances.

3.In Paragraph 4, the examples are used to show ________.

A. facial features reveal minds

B. trust is essential in big issues

C. baby faces are more trustworthy

D. decisions are easily influenced by faces

4.According to the last paragraph, the author believes ________.

A. facial features mirror character

B. people’s behavior is contradictory

C. people won’t be judged by appearance

D. facial features can influence eventual character

The UN weather agency warned on Tuesday there was a good chance of an "El Nino" climate phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean this year, bringing droughts(干旱) and heavy rainfall to the rest of the world.

The World Meteorological (气象的) Organization (WMO) said its modeling suggested a "fairly large potential for an El Nino, most likely by the end of the second quarter of 2016".

The El Nino phenomenon occurs every two to seven years, when the trade winds that circulate surface water in the tropical (熟带的) Pacific start to weaken.

WMO pointed out Tuesday that since last December, trade winds had weakened and there had been a significant warming of the waters below the surface in the central Pacific.

“While there is no guarantee this situation will lead to an El Nino event, the longer the trade winds remain weakened, and subsurface temperatures stay significantly warmer than average, the higher chances are," it said.

Two thirds of climate models predicted that the phenomenon would begin sometime between June and August, with one-fifth suggesting it could start as early as May, and the remaining predicting no El Nino this year, it said.

It is often followed by a return swing of La Nina, which is characterized by unusually cool ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific.

"El Nino has an important warming effect on global average temperatures," Jarraud cautioned, stressing that combined with warming from greenhouse gases such events had "the potential to cause a sharp rise in global average temperature".

1. It can be inferred from the first two paragraphs that -'

A. a weather agency warned an "El Nino" would appear on Tuesday

B. WMO showed an El Nino would probably happen by June in 2016

C. an El Nino would bring heavy rainfall to the Pacific Ocean

D. The phenomenon of El Nino happens every seven years

2.What does the underlined phrase "this situation" in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A. Cool ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific.

B. A significant warming of the waters below the surface in the central Pacific.

C. Trade winds that circulate surface water in the Pacific.

D. Heavy rainfall in different areas all over the world.

3.According to the text, what might be the percentage of no "El Nino" this year?

A.13%. B.20%. C.67%. D.87%.

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