-
56. According
to the survey, people left alone on a desert
island would most want their_________
_.
A. MP3 player B. dog C. spouse/
partner D. celebrity
57. Which of
the following is true about George Clooney?
A. He has been trained in wilderness
survival.
B. He may not be able to help
you survive.
C. He does not think
Roseane is beautiful.
D. He is the
choice of most South African women.
58.
The survey results are analyzed in terms of the
respondents
’
__________.
A. sex, age and nationality
B. race, nationality and sex
C. marriage, age and race
D. age, sex and marriage
B
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen
Merrigan sees an epidemic
(
流行病
) sweeping across
America’s farmland. It has little to do
with the usual challenges, such as flood, rising
fuel prices
and
crop-
eating
insects.
The
country’s
farmers
are
getting
older,
and
there
are
fewer
people
standing
in
line
to
take
their
place.
National
agricultural
census
(
普查
)
figures
show
that
the
fastest-growing group of
farmers is the part over 65. Merrigan is afraid
the average age will be
even higher
when the 2012 statistics are completed.
Merrigan,
a
former
college
professor,
is
making
stops
at
universities
across
the
country
in
hopes of encouraging more students to
think about careers in agriculture. Aside from
trying to stop
the
graying
of
America’s
farmers,
her
work
is
made
tougher
by
a
recent
blog
p
osting
that
put
agriculture
at
No.
1
on
a
list
of
“useless”
college
degrees.
Top
federal
agriculture
officials
are
talking about the posting, and it has
the attention of agricultural organizations across
the country.
“There
couldn’t
be
anything
that’s
more
incorrect,”
Merrigan
said.
“We
know
that
there
aren’t enough
qualified graduates to fill the jobs that are out
there in American agriculture.”
In
addition,
a
growing
world
population
that
some
experts
predict
will
require
70%
more
food production by 2050, she said.
“I truly believe we’re at a golden age
of agriculture. Global demand is at an
all
-time record
high, and
global supplies are at all-
time record
lows,”
said Matt Rush, director of the
Texas Farm
Bureau. “Production costs
are going to be valuable e
nough that
younger people are going to have
the
opportunity to be involved in
agriculture.”
The
Department
of
Agriculture
has
programs
aimed
at
developing
more
farmers
and
at
increasing interest in locally grown
food. The National Young Farmers’
Coalition has also been
pushing for
state and federal policy changes to make it easier
for new farmers.
Ryan
Best,
president
of
Future
Farmers
of
America,
has
been
living
out
of
a
suitcase,
traveling
the
country
and
visiting
with
high
school
students
about
careers
in
agriculture.
The
21-year-old Best hopes his
message
—
that this is a new
time in agriculture
—
will
motivate the next
generation
to
turn
around
the
statistics.
“Never
before
have
we
had
the
innovations
(
创新
)
in
technology which have
led to agriculture in this
country being the most efficient it has
ever been,”
he said.
“There’s really
a place for everybody
to fit in.”
59. What is the
new challenge to American agriculture?
A. Fewer and older farmers.
B.
Higher fuel prices.
C. More natural
disasters.
D.
Lower agricultural output.
60. Why is
Merrigan visiting universities across the country?
A. To draw federal agriculture
officials’
attention.
B. To
select qualified agriculture graduates.
C. To clarify a recent blog posting.
D. To talk more students into farming
careers.
61. According to Matt Rush,
American agriculture will provide opportunities
for younger people
because__________
A. the government will cover production
costs
B. global food supplies will be
even lower
C. investment in agriculture
will be profitable
D. America will
increase its food export
62. What do
the underlined words “to turn around the
statistics” in the last paragraph mean?
A. To re-analyze the result of the
national census.
B. To increase
agricultural production.
C. To bring
down the average age of farmers.
D. To
invest more in agriculture.
C
Medical drugs sometimes
cause more damage than they cure. One solution to
this problem is
to put the drugs inside
a capsule, protecting them from the
body
—
and the body from
them
—
until
they
can be released at just the right spot. There are
lots of ways to trigger (
引发
)
this release,
including
changing
temperature,
acidity,
and
so
on.
But
triggers
can
come
with
their
own
risks
—
burns, for
example. Now, researchers in California have
designed what could be a harmless
trigger to date: shining near-infrared
light (NIR,
近红外线
) on the
drug in the capsule.
The idea of using
light to liberate the drug in the capsule isn’t
new. Researchers around the
globe have developed polymers
(
聚合物
) and other materials
that begin to break down when they
absorb either ultraviolet
(UV
,
紫外线
) or
visible light. But tissues also readily absorb UV
and
visible light, which means the drug
release, can be triggered only near the skin,
where the light can
reach the capsule.
NIR light largely passes through tissues, so
researchers have tried to use it as a
trigger. But few compounds
(
化合物
) absorb NIR well and go
through chemical changes.
That changed
last year when Adah Almutairi, a chemist at the
University of California, San
Diego,
reported that she and her colleagues had designed
a polymer that breaks down when it
absorbs NIR light. Their polymer used a
commercially available NIR-absorbing group called
o-nitrobenzyl (ONB). When they catch
the light, ONB groups fall off the polymer,
leading to its
breakdown. But ONB is
only a so-so NIR absorber, and it could be
poisonous to cells when it
separates
from the polymer.
So
Almutairi
and
her
colleagues
reported
creating
a
new
material
for
capsules
that’s
even
better. This one
consists of a long chain of compounds called
cresol groups linked in a polymer.
Cresol contains
reactive(
易反应的
) components
that make it highly unstable in its polymeric
form,
a feature Almutairi and her
colleagues use to their advantage. After
polymerizing the cresols, they
cap each
reactive component with a light-absorbing compound
called Bhc. When the Bhcs absorb
NIR
light,
the
reactive
groups
are
exposed
and
break
the
long
polymer
into
two
short
chains.
Shining additional light continues this
breakdown, potentially releasing any drugs in the
capsule.
What’s
more,
Almutairi
says,
Bhc
is
10
times
better
at
absorbing
NIR
than
is
ONB
and
is
not
poisonous to cells.
63.
According to the passage, which of the following
could be the best trigger?
A.
Temperature change.
B. NIR
light.
C. Acidity change.
D. UV light.
64.
Why is ONB unsatisfactory?
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