“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 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 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.

“I am not meddling.“ Mary said mildly,“I’m just curious.“ gently shyly weakly sweetly

John has made up his mind not to go to the meeting. wanted promised decided agreed

The best olive oil is obtained from olives that are harvested just after they ripen. preserved squeezed sorted gathered

When Washington DC was burned in 1814, Dollety Madison rescued many official papers from the White House. stole filed hid saved

A.by keeping its original shape and color B.in the life of cut flowers C.to produce carbon dioxide D.for as long as possible E.by controlling temperature F.to replace the water and solution every day

“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 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 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.

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In the situation comedy, a traditional format for television shows, the same characters appear repeatedly in humorous episodes. respectively again and again simultaneously briefly

Do not waste time on insignificant points. interesting dull unimportant boring

As both a religion and a social force, Puritanism has made a widespread influence in the linked States. a far-reaching a disturbing an annoying a favorable

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You! What are special effects? Do you enjoy movies that use a lot of special effects Dinosaurs(恐龙) from the distant past! Space batdes from the distant future! There has been a revolution in special effects, and it has transformed the movies we see. The revolution began in the mid 1970s with George Lucas’s Star Wars, a film that stunned (使震惊)audiences.That revolution continues to the present, with dramatic changes in special-effects technology.The company behind these changes is Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).And the man behind the company is Dennis Muren, who has worked with Lucas since Star Wars. Muren’s interest in special effects began very early.At the age of 6, he was photographing toy dinosaurs and spaceships.At 10, he had an 8 millimeter movie camera and was making these things move through stop-motion.(Stop-motion is a process in which objects are shot with a camera, moved slightly, shot again, and so on.When the shots are put together, the objects appear to move.) Talk to Muren and you’ll understand what ILM is all about: taking on new challenges.By 1989, Muren decided he had pushed the old technology as far as it would go. He saw computer graphics (图像) (CG) technology as the wave of the future and took a year off to master it. With CG technology, images can be scanned into a computer for processing, for example, and many separate shots can be combined into a single image.CG technology has now reached the point, Muren says, where special effects can be used to do just about anything so that movies can tell stories better than ever before.The huge success of Jurassic Park and its sequel (续集) , The Lost World, the stars of which were computer-generated dinosaurs, suggests that this may very well be true.

Play Play is the principal business of childhood, and in recent years research has shown the great importance of play in the development of a human being.From earliest infancy, every child needs opportunity and the right materials for play, and the main tools of play are toys.Their main function is to suggest, encourage and assist play.To succeed in this they must be good toys, which children will play with often, and will come back to again and again.Therefore it is important to choose suitable toys for different stages of a child’s development. In recent years research on infant development has shown that the standard a child is likely to reach, within the range of his inherited abilities, is largely determined in the first three years of his life.So a baby’s ability to profit from the right play materials should not be underestimated.A baby, who is encouraged and stimulated, talked to and shown things and played with, has the best chance of growing up successfully. In the next stage, from three to five years old, curiosity knows no bounds.Every type of suitable toy should be made available to the child, for trying out, experimenting and learning, for discovering his own particular ability.Bricks and jigsaws (七巧板)and construction toys; painting, scribbling (涂鸦) and making things; sand and water play; toys for imaginative and pretending play; the first social games for learning to play and get on with others. By the third stage of play development—from five to seven or eight years—the child is at school.But for a few more years play is still the best way of learning, at home or at school.It is easier to see which type of toys the child most enjoys. Until the age of seven or eight, play and work mean much the same to a child.But once reading has been mastered, then books and schools become the main source of learning.Toys are still interesting and valuable, they lead on to new hobbies, but their significance has changed—to a child of nine or ten years, toys and games mean, as to adults, relaxation and fun.

Electronic Mail During the past few years, scientists all over the world have suddenly found themselves productively engaged in task they once spent their lives avoiding—writing, any kind of writing, but particularly letter writing.Encouraged by electronic mail’s surprisingly high speed, convenience and economy, people who never before touched the stuff are regularly, skillfully, even cheerfully tapping out a great deal of correspondence. Electronic networks, woven into the fabric of scientific communication these days, are the route to colleagues in distant countries, shared data, bulletin boards and electronic journals.Anyone with a personal computer, a modern and the software to link computers over telephone lines can sign on.An estimated five million scientists have done so with more joining every day, most of them communicating through a bundle of interconnected domestic and foreign routes known collectively as the Internet, or net. E-mail is starting to edge out the fax, the telephone, overnight mail, and of course, land mail.It shrinks time and distance between scientific collaborators, in part because it is conveniently asynchronous (异步的) (Writer can type while their colleagues across time zones sleep; their message will be waiting).If it is not yet speeding discoveries, it is certainly accelerating communication. Jeremy Bernstein, the physicist and science writer, once called E-mail the physicist’s umbilical cord (脐带).Later other people, too, have been discovering its connective virtues.Physicists are using it; college students are using it; everybody is using it; and as a sign that it has come of age, the New Yorker has celebrated its liberating presence with a cartoon—an appreciative dog seated at a keyboard, saying happily, “ On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.“

I heard many parents complaining that their teenage children are rebelling, I wish it were so.At your age you ought to be growing away from your parents.You should be learning to stand on your own two feet.【B1】______It seems that teenagers are taking the same way of showing that they disagree with their parents. Instead of striking out boldly on their own, most of them are clutching at one another’s hands for reassurance. They claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music.【B2】______Their reason for thinking or acting in thus-and-such a way is that the crowd is doing it.They have come out of their cocoon (蚕茧) —into a larger cocoon. It has become harder and harder for a teenager to stand up against the popularity wave and to go his or her own way. Industry has firmly carved out a teenage market.【B3】______And many of today’s parents have come to award high marks for the popularity of their children. All this adds up to a great barrier for the teenager who wants to find his or her own path. But the barrier is worth climbing over.The path is worth following.You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. You may want to collect rocks when everyone else is collecting records.【B4】______ Well, go to it. Find yourself. Be yourself. Popularity will come with the people who respect you for who you are.【B5】______. A.Most teenagers claim that they want to do what they like to,but they are actually doing the same. B.That’s the only kind of popularity that really counts. C.But some how they all end up crowded round listening to the same record. D.You may have some thoughts that you don’t care to share at once with your classmates. E.These days every teenager can learn from the advertisements what a teenager should have and be. F.But take a good look at the present rebellion.

School Lunch Research has shown that over half the children in Britain who take their own lunches to school do not eat【C1】______in the middle of the day.In Britain schools have to【C2】______meals at lunchtime. Children can【C3】______to bring their own food or have lunch at the school canteen. One shocking finding of this research is that school meals are much【C4】______than lunches prepared by parents.There are strict【C5】______for the preparation of school meals,which have to include one【C6】______of fruit and one of vegetables, as well as meat, a dairy item and starchy food like bread or pasta. Lunchboxes【C7】______by researchers contained sweet drinks, crisps and chocolate bars. Children【C8】______twice as much sugar as they should at lunchtime. The research will【C9】______a better understanding of why the percentage of overweight students in Britain has【C10】______in the last decade. Unfortunately, the government cannot【C11】______parents, but it can remind them of the【C12】______value of milk, fruit and vegetables. Small changes in their children’s diet can【C13】______their future health. Children can easily develop bad eating【C14】______at this age, and parents are the only ones who can【C15】______it.

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The workers finally called off the strikes. put off ended cancelled participated in

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The little girl grasped her mother’s hand as she crossed the street. understood had a hold over took hold of left hold of

Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a cause of the problem discussed in the passage?

The word “affect“ in Paragraph 6 could be best replaced by______.

The attitude of the author towards the research project is______.

Flowers and Yeo have started a program______.

Which of the following statements about Flowers and Yeo is true?