Farming is moving indoors,where the sun never shines,where rainfall is irrelevant and where the climate is always right.The perfect crop field could be inside a windowless building with controlled light,temperature,wetness,air quality and nutrition.It could be in a New York high?rise or a sprawling complex in the Saudi desert.It may be an answer to the world's food problems.

The world already is having trouble feeding itself.Half the people on Earth live in cities,and nearly half of those- about 3 billion-are hungry or ill?fed.Foodprices,currently increasing,are buffeted by dryness,floods and the cost of energy required to plant,harvestand transport.And prices will only get more unstable.Climate change makes long?term crop planning uncertain.Farmers in many parts of the world already are using water available to the last drop.And the world is getting more crowded:by mid?century,the global population will grow from 6.8 billion to 9 billion.

To feed so many people may require expanding farmland at the expense of forests and wilderness,or finding ways to completely increase crop output.

Gertjan Meeuws has taken the concept of a greenhouse a step further,growing vegetables and house plants in enclosed (封闭的) and regulated environments.In their research station,water flows into the pans when needed,and the temperature is kept constant.Lights go on and off,creating similar day and night,but according to the rhythm of the plant.

A building of 100 square meters and layers (层) of plants could provide a daily diet of 200 grams of fresh fruit and vegetables to the entire population of Den Bosch,about 140,000 people.Their idea isn't to grow foods that require much space,like corn or potatoes.

Here sunlight is not only unnecessary but can be harmful.Plants need only specific wavelengths of light to grow.Their growth rate is three times faster than under greenhouse conditions.They use about 90 percent less water than outdoor agriculture.And city farming means producing food near the consumer,and there's no need to transport it long distances.

1.What can we mainly learn from Paragraph 2?

A. The climate is worse and worse.

B. The city people live a hard life.

C. The world has difficulty feeding its people.

D. The world's population is increasing fast.

2.Which of the following is true of the environments in the research station?

A. The temperature is often changed.

B. Sunshine is in great need for plants.

C. Day and night depends on plants.

D. Air quality is controlled by plants.

3.It can be inferred from the text that Gertjan Meeuws's farming________.

A. helps save sea water a lot

B. is highly adaptable

C. resembles greenhouse agriculture

D. suits the production of corn

4.What is the text mainly about?

A. Development of indoor farming.

B. Great Revolution in farming.

C. Advantages of indoor farming.

D. Sunless,rainless indoor farming.

“The U.S.Food and Drug Administration(FDA)is considering to put stricter limits over tanning salons(晒黑廊)and wants to ban anyone younger than 18 years of age from using a tanning bed,”an advisory panel(专家团)announced last week.

The panel is calling for tighter controls on the industry such as requiring teenagers to get the approval from their parents before using tanning beds or limiting the use of artificial tanning to a certain age.“Given the absence of any demonstrated benefits,I think it is an obligation for us to ban artificial tanning for those under 18,”said panelist Dr.Michael Olding.

Along with a possible ban for teenagers,the panel also recommended that visible warning labels should be placed either on the tanning machines or in the salons in order to caution tanners of the possible dangers.In addition,the committee decided that stricter regulations and classifications were critical to make the machines safer.At this time the machines are categorized as FDA Class 1 devices,the ones that are least likely to cause harm.In case the FDA decided to change their classification from Class 1 to Class 2,as advised by the panel,the FDA could limit the levels of radiation the machines emit.Class 2 devices include X?ray machines and powered wheelchairs.

Getting a tan,whether from a tanning bed or the sun,increases the risk of developing skin cancer.Last year,the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)declared tanning beds as “carcinogenic(致癌的)to humans”.It was discovered that young individuals in their teens and 20s who use tanning beds on a regular basis have a 75 per cent higher risk of suffering from melanoma(黑素瘤),the deadliest form of skin cancer.According to the American Cancer Society,melanoma accounted for nearly 69,000 cases of skin cancer in 2009 and will account for most (about 8,650)of the 11,590 mortality cases due to skin cancer each year.

1.According to the passage,what measures will U.S.FDA most probably take?

A. Banning tanning salons.

B. Posing heavier tax over tanning salons.

C. Having tighter controls over tanning salons.

D. Limiting the number of tanning salons in every state.

2.Which of the following suggestions for making tanning salons safer is NOT mentioned?

A. Visible caution.

B. Setting age limit.

C. Professional personnel.

D. Parental approval for teenagers.

3.What does the writer want to express in the last paragraph?

A. Tanning in one's youth may mean death.

B. Tanning in the sun is safer than on the tanning bed.

C. People should get tanned without getting melanoma.

D. Getting tanned is only a good idea for those above thirty years old.

4.What will most probably happen,if the advisory panel's suggestions are adopted and put into practice?

A. Fewer people will suffer from skin cancer.

B. Tanning salons will have more customers.

C. Getting a tan in a tanning salon will cost less.

D. Parents will be more anxious about their tanning children.

Scientists today are making greater effort to study ocean currents(洋流). Most do it using satellites and other high-tech equipment. However, ocean expert Curtis Ebbesmeyer does it in a special way-by studying movements of random floating garbage. A scientist with many years’ experience, he started this type of research in the early 1990s when he heard about hundreds of athletic shoes washing up on the shores of the northwest coast of the United States. There were so many shoes that people were setting up swap meets to try and match left and right shoes to sell or wear.

Ebbesmeyer found out in his researches that the shoes — about 60,000 in total — fell into the ocean in a shipping accident. He phoned the shoe company and asked if they wanted the shoes back. As expected, the company told him that they didn't. Ebbesmeyer realized this could be a great experiment. If he learned when and where the shoes went into the water and tracked where they landed, he could learn a lot about the patterns of ocean currents.

The Pacific Northwest is one of the world's best areas for beachcombing(海滩搜寻) because winds and currents join here, and as a result, there is a group of serious beachcombers in the area. Ebbesmeyer got to know a lot of them and asked for their help in collecting information about where the shoes landed. In a year he collected reliable information on 1, 600 shoes. With this data, he and a colleague were able to test and improve a computer program designed to model ocean currents, and publish the findings of their study.

As the result of his work, Ebbesmeyer has become known as the scientist to call with questions about any unusual objects found floating in the ocean. He has even started an association of beachcombers and ocean experts, with 500 subscribers from West Africa to New Zealand. They have recorded all lost objects ranging from potatoes to golf gloves.

1.The underlined phrase swap meets in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______________.

A. fitting rooms B. trading fairs

C. business talks D. group meetings

2.Ebbesmeyer phoned the shoe company to find out _____________.

A. what caused the shipping accident

B. when and where the shoes went missing

C. whether it was all right to use their shoes

D. how much they lost in the shipping accident

3.How did Ebbesmeyer prove his assumption?

A. By collecting information from beachcombers.

B. By studying the shoes found by beachcomber.

C. By searching the web for ocean currents models.

D. By researching ocean currents data in the library.

4.Ebbesmeyer is most famous for ________.

A. traveling widely the coastal cities of the world

B. making records for any lost objects on the sea

C. running a global currents research association

D. phoning about any doubtful objects on the sea

5.What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?

A. To call people's attention to ocean pollution.

B. To warn people of shipping safety in the ocean.

C. To explain a unique way of studying ocean currents.

D. To give tips on how to search for lost objects on the beach.

Last Friday when Jose Rodriguez , a 5-year-old white boy, asked his mother Lydia Rodriguez if he could get his blonde hair cut like his black friend Reddy’s, and of course his mother agreed. For a very ____ reason the two pre-school friends decided to ____ their teacher with matching haircuts.

Jose ____ that if he and Reddy had the same haircut, no one would be able to ____ them. Reddy apparently thought this trick was ____ as well.

“It is just two ____ boys. Obviously, they see they are different colors, they just don’t care. It is not ____ , Rodriguez said. She sees Jose’s inability to see a ____ between himself and his friend as a parenting win. “I just taught him to ____ everyone the same,” she said.

The teacher played along and ____ she was talking to Jose when Reddy arrived before Jose, he told the teacher and his _____he was Jose.

On Monday, Rodriguez ____ the story on the Facebook.78,000 people ____ it and the story has gone viral(疯传). On the post she wrote: “If this isn’t proof that ____ and prejudice is something that is ____ , I don’t know what is. Their ____ is the only difference Jose sees in the two of them. Though Jose loves ____ himself on TV and the Internet, he remains unsure why his haircut became such a big ____ .

“He still has no idea why people ____ so much”, Rodriguez said. “He wanted to ____ Reddy and now he thinks they look the same.”

1.A. wrong B. obvious C. sweet D. funny

2.A. trick B. entertain C. surprise D. frighten

3.A. feared B. decided C. promised D. admitted

4.A. tease B. substitute C. persuade D. distinguish

5.A. simple B. amusing C. perfect D. stupid

6.A. innocent B. naughty C. happy D. clever

7.A. ridiculous B. important C. reasonable D. convincing

8.A. friendship B. cooperation C. respect D. difference

9.A. praise B. blame C. love D. attend

10.A. confirmed B. pretended C. reminded D. explained

11.A. classmates B. parents C. relatives D. guests

12.A. downloaded B. commented C. read D. shared

13.A. contributed to B. submitted to C. reacted to. D. turned to

14.A. hate B. identity C. justice D. happiness

15.A. forbidden B. taught C. permitted D. expected

16.A. colors B. characters C. hair D. status

17.A. watching B. introducing C. reflecting D. amusing

18.A. reward B. gift C. debate D. deal

19.A. care B. envy C. talk D. admire

20.A. believe in B. look like C. appreciate D. inspire

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