Recently I rolled into a local restaurant to try an Impossible Burger, an all-plant meat-like pie invented by the Silicon Valley company Impossible Foods. It’s famous for having a weirdly chewy, even bloody, meat-like quality, a surprising verisimilitude (逼真) that has made it “perhaps the country’s most famous burger,” as New York magazine recently wrote. One bite into its gorgeous, smoky flavor, and I was convinced.
This is good news, because the time has come to mass-produce fake meat, fast. Why? Because in the fight to ease climate change, meat replacement is one of the lowest-hanging fruits.
Meat production chews up land and lets out methane(沼气) by the kiloton, accounting for about two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. A University of Oxford study recently found that, to keep global warming below 2 degrees this century, we need to be eating 75 percent less beef and 90 percent less pork globally. “Without concentrated change, we really risk going beyond key environmental limits,” Marco Springmann, one of the Oxford researchers, warns me.
Diets are culturally enshrined(神圣的), so changing them will be hard. Fake meat can help camouflage(掩饰) that dramatic transformation with slight adjustment.
Still, even the most exceptional substitutes for meat face a huge challenge if they’re going to replace 75 to 90 percent of beef and pork. The first taste of an Impossible Burger-a moment when low expectations work a powerful magic in the product’s favor-is one thing. But how do you keep meat-eaters asking for more after their sixth, and their 26th?
Fortunately, the science here is playing an important role. Impossible Foods owes much of its appeal to a bioengineering process that turns out big, blood-red tanks of “heme,” a crucial molecule that gives veggie(素食主义者) meat “that slightly metallic bloody flavor,” as David Lipman, chief science officer of Impossible Foods, tells me. Meanwhile, “cultured meat,” created by growing actual animal cells in a basin, is becoming a reality. In New York, the scientists at Ocean Hugger Foods have engineered a process to transform tomatoes into mock tuna. And over in the Netherlands, a company called The Vegetarian Butcher is developing a Nespresso-style device: You pour in a bag of vegetable protein and out pops fake meat. The company aims to release it in two years.
To get to true mass adoption, fake meat will need to compete favorably with the real thing on multiple fronts. Impossible Foods’ goal is to drive the price of its product below that of Safeway’s 80/20 hamburger meat, at which point people will simply vote with their wallets. The new industry also wants to improve on animal flesh in various ways. Fake meat will outcompete traditional meat because “you won’t need to refrigerate it if you’re making it as you go,” co-founder Niko Koffeman says. That’d give unmeat an enormous advantage for energy-poor developing regions. Plus, fake meat could provide more choices. “You could have very soft and tender meat for elderly people,” Koffeman adds. “You could have a custom meat for whatever you need.”
We could speed this dietary shift with smart public policy too. Beginning in 2006, New York City cut the number of adults consuming one or more sugary drinks per day by 35 percent by running appealing public service campaigns and requiring the labeling of their high calorie counts in fast-food restaurants. Imagine similar measures promoting fake meat: “Save the planet, bite by bite.” Save your health too. Speaking of your conscience, industrial-scale animal farming is ethically unpleasant.
You can tell the world is shifting this way, because the ranchers (牧场主) are nervous. Last year, the US Cattlemen’s Association asked the government to define “meat” as a product “obtained directly from animals.” That anxiety, which is no doubt caused by science, goes to show that this grand shift isn’t impossible.
1.The author was convinced by the Impossible Burger because .
A.it looks like a traditional meat burger
B.it contains no meat but tastes like meat
C.its flavor is different from that of normal ones
D.more vegetables are used in the burger
2.What does the author mean by saying “lowest hanging fruits” in paragraph 2?
A.A task that is difficult to fulfill. B.An approach that is economical.
C.A goal that is easy to achieve. D.A product that is environment-friendly.
3.The author is most likely to agree that .
A.fake meat cannot change people’s dietary habits
B.fake meat is worthy of investment for its great potential
C.a decline in meat consumption can relieve global warming
D.fake meat will replace real meat because of its lower price
4.Fake meat has an advantage over traditional meat in that .
A.fake meat will not be necessarily stored in a refrigerator
B.the price of fake meat will be one-fourth of the traditional meat’s
C.fake meat will win over the older people thanks to its quality
D.fake meat has a bloody flavor that is not found in traditional meat
5.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A.The US government doesn’t give enough support to ranchers.
B.The world will probably accept the idea of fake meat.
C.People don’t like to eat meat produced by the ranchers now.
D.The definition of meat has been revised because of fake meat.
6.Which is probably the suitable title for the passage?
A.Fake meat or traditional meat, must we choose? B.Traditional meat, an environment killer.
C.Let’s speed up the dietary shift. D.Let’s welcome the fake meat.
高三英语阅读理解困难题
Recently I rolled into a local restaurant to try an Impossible Burger, an all-plant meat-like pie invented by the Silicon Valley company Impossible Foods. It’s famous for having a weirdly chewy, even bloody, meat-like quality, a surprising verisimilitude (逼真) that has made it “perhaps the country’s most famous burger,” as New York magazine recently wrote. One bite into its gorgeous, smoky flavor, and I was convinced.
This is good news, because the time has come to mass-produce fake meat, fast. Why? Because in the fight to ease climate change, meat replacement is one of the lowest-hanging fruits.
Meat production chews up land and lets out methane(沼气) by the kiloton, accounting for about two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. A University of Oxford study recently found that, to keep global warming below 2 degrees this century, we need to be eating 75 percent less beef and 90 percent less pork globally. “Without concentrated change, we really risk going beyond key environmental limits,” Marco Springmann, one of the Oxford researchers, warns me.
Diets are culturally enshrined(神圣的), so changing them will be hard. Fake meat can help camouflage(掩饰) that dramatic transformation with slight adjustment.
Still, even the most exceptional substitutes for meat face a huge challenge if they’re going to replace 75 to 90 percent of beef and pork. The first taste of an Impossible Burger-a moment when low expectations work a powerful magic in the product’s favor-is one thing. But how do you keep meat-eaters asking for more after their sixth, and their 26th?
Fortunately, the science here is playing an important role. Impossible Foods owes much of its appeal to a bioengineering process that turns out big, blood-red tanks of “heme,” a crucial molecule that gives veggie(素食主义者) meat “that slightly metallic bloody flavor,” as David Lipman, chief science officer of Impossible Foods, tells me. Meanwhile, “cultured meat,” created by growing actual animal cells in a basin, is becoming a reality. In New York, the scientists at Ocean Hugger Foods have engineered a process to transform tomatoes into mock tuna. And over in the Netherlands, a company called The Vegetarian Butcher is developing a Nespresso-style device: You pour in a bag of vegetable protein and out pops fake meat. The company aims to release it in two years.
To get to true mass adoption, fake meat will need to compete favorably with the real thing on multiple fronts. Impossible Foods’ goal is to drive the price of its product below that of Safeway’s 80/20 hamburger meat, at which point people will simply vote with their wallets. The new industry also wants to improve on animal flesh in various ways. Fake meat will outcompete traditional meat because “you won’t need to refrigerate it if you’re making it as you go,” co-founder Niko Koffeman says. That’d give unmeat an enormous advantage for energy-poor developing regions. Plus, fake meat could provide more choices. “You could have very soft and tender meat for elderly people,” Koffeman adds. “You could have a custom meat for whatever you need.”
We could speed this dietary shift with smart public policy too. Beginning in 2006, New York City cut the number of adults consuming one or more sugary drinks per day by 35 percent by running appealing public service campaigns and requiring the labeling of their high calorie counts in fast-food restaurants. Imagine similar measures promoting fake meat: “Save the planet, bite by bite.” Save your health too. Speaking of your conscience, industrial-scale animal farming is ethically unpleasant.
You can tell the world is shifting this way, because the ranchers (牧场主) are nervous. Last year, the US Cattlemen’s Association asked the government to define “meat” as a product “obtained directly from animals.” That anxiety, which is no doubt caused by science, goes to show that this grand shift isn’t impossible.
1.The author was convinced by the Impossible Burger because .
A.it looks like a traditional meat burger
B.it contains no meat but tastes like meat
C.its flavor is different from that of normal ones
D.more vegetables are used in the burger
2.What does the author mean by saying “lowest hanging fruits” in paragraph 2?
A.A task that is difficult to fulfill. B.An approach that is economical.
C.A goal that is easy to achieve. D.A product that is environment-friendly.
3.The author is most likely to agree that .
A.fake meat cannot change people’s dietary habits
B.fake meat is worthy of investment for its great potential
C.a decline in meat consumption can relieve global warming
D.fake meat will replace real meat because of its lower price
4.Fake meat has an advantage over traditional meat in that .
A.fake meat will not be necessarily stored in a refrigerator
B.the price of fake meat will be one-fourth of the traditional meat’s
C.fake meat will win over the older people thanks to its quality
D.fake meat has a bloody flavor that is not found in traditional meat
5.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A.The US government doesn’t give enough support to ranchers.
B.The world will probably accept the idea of fake meat.
C.People don’t like to eat meat produced by the ranchers now.
D.The definition of meat has been revised because of fake meat.
6.Which is probably the suitable title for the passage?
A.Fake meat or traditional meat, must we choose? B.Traditional meat, an environment killer.
C.Let’s speed up the dietary shift. D.Let’s welcome the fake meat.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
An extraordinary new restaurant in Semarang, Indonesia is on a mission (使命) to support locals trapped in poverty, many of whom are earning less than $25 a month, by providing them with an alternative way to pay for their food.
The Methane Gas Canteen, run by husband and wife team Sarimin and Suyatmi, is located in an unexpected place for an eatery — Jatibarang Landfill. The landfill is a mountain of purifying waste, where poor locals spend their days collecting plastic and glass to sell. Meanwhile, the couple, who spent 40 years collecting waste before opening the restaurant, is busy cooking.
What makes the restaurant unusual, aside from its location, is that no cash is required to pay for meals. Poor people have the option to pay for their food with recyclable waste instead of cash. Sarimin weighs the plastic customers bring in, calculates its worth, and then deduct that value from the cost of the meal, giving any extra value back to the customer. The scheme is part of the community’s solution to reduce waste in the landfill and recycle non-degradable plastics.
“I think we recycle 1 ton of plastic waste a day, which is a lot. This way, the plastic waste doesn’t pile up, drift down the river and cause flooding,” said Sarimin in an interview with Channel News Asia. “It benefits everyone.”
The restaurant seats about 30 people and serves meals that cost between $0.40 and $0.80 each. Since opening the canteen Sarimin and Suyatmi have seen their daily income more than double to $15 a day.
“I’m happy to see our customers enjoying their meals,” Sarimin told NHK World. “The poor must also have the right to enjoy healthy eating. I want to give them that chance as much as possible.”
1.What do we know about Jatibarang Landfill?
A.An unusual restaurant for people to eat free meals.
B.A mountain where the locals live on selling waste.
C.A place where poor locals collect waste to sell.
D.A plant where waste is recycled.
2.Why did Sarimin and Suyatmi open their restaurant?
A.To double their daily income and profit.
B.To prove waste is a valuable thing.
C.To provide food for locals trying to survive.
D.To help settle the issues of poverty and trash.
3.What does the underlined word “deduct” in paragraph 3 mean?
A.Increase B.Replace
C.Remove D.Equal
4.What is the text mainly about?
A.An unusual way to pay for meals.
B.A local mission to help get rid of poverty.
C.A different scheme to reduce waste.
D.A new restaurant getting double income.
高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
阅读短文，按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
I was in a local store recently when I saw something that opened a window into my soul, which helped let in a little more light.
I had just picked up some shampoo and was headed to the pet supplies to get some dog food for my furry friends. I decided to take a shortcut through one of the toy aisles. Blocking my way, however, was a young father and his four-year-old daughter. The little girl was pleading (恳求 ) with her dad to buy her a new doll. The dad was being gentle but firm, telling her they couldn’t afford it right now. Finally, the daughter burst into tears and said angrily, “I hate you!”
I thought that the father would get mad at her for this outburst. I knew that I probably would do so when I was his age. Instead he just smiled down at her, put his hand on her head, and said, “That’s alright. You’ll love me later.” I stood there in amazement as he took her hand and they walked off. Then it dawned on me that I had been in this situation many times myself over the years but not as the father.
In my childhood, many times I grew angry with my parents when I felt my requests weren’t being answered. Through them all, though, my parents were still patient, loving, and kind to me. They knew that I didn’t understand why certain things had to happen the way they did. They knew that my anger was a part of my growing up spiritually in this world. They knew that I would love them later.
Now I have grown up and become a parent of two children. I have deeper understanding of parents’ behavior in different situations. They love their next generation, but more than that, they also know that they should love them in a proper way. Raising a healthy child means to help him grow both mentally and physically. That is why we need to trust our parents’ love and give them ours as well. It is never too late to love them. It is never too late to invite them into your soul. It is never too late to let their light guide your life.
1.How did the girl feel towards her father’s refusal? (no more than 10 words)
2.What reaction of the father made the author amazed? (no more than 10 words)
3.How do you understand the underlined part in Para.3? (no more than 15 words)
4.What’s the author’s understanding of parents’ love after growing up? (no more than 15 words)
5.Have your parents ever refused your request? What do you think about it now? (no more than 20 words)
高三英语阅读表达简单题查看答案及解析
I used to roll my eyes many times before I could get up. Recently, things have changed after I read stories like this one, “Getting up early changed my life”. Here are the benefits I’ve seen so far from changing my workout routine.
I have more energy
As I said, I’ve been a sleepy person while I still love sleeping. I now have an extra burst of energy. I’m less weak in the office, and my brain is more attentive and ready to work. Once, 1., not even coffee could get me ready for the day. But now a good workout can.
I have more confidence
The enough energy rolled into more confidence. I feel better after a workout. Also, after getting especially sweaty, I have to take time to shower, of course. 2..
3.
Getting up earlier and using my energy earlier make me so unbelievably ready for bed by the end of the day. My old routine would consist of getting up at the last possible minute before work and being absolutely exhausted to try to fall asleep. Have you ever felt so tired that you can’t fall asleep? 4..
I have more time
5.. Now that I’ve shifted my schedule, I have a little more time after work to take care of myself, whether that’s spending time with friends, cooking a healthier meal, reading and studying, or even just watching a movie.
A. I sleep better
B. I’m more consistent
C. It sound ridiculous, but it happens
D. I’d have to skip my workout -in favor of a social life
E. I had a hard time to try to wake up physically and mentally
F. Speaking of that old routine, my days used to consist of work and sleep
G. This means I go through my full morning routine instead of just rolling out of bed
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
I used to roll my eyes many times before I could get up. Recently, things have changed after I read stories like this one, “Getting up early changed my life”. Here are the benefits I’ve seen so far from changing my workout routine.
I have more energy
As I said, I’ve been a sleepy person while I still love sleeping. I now have an extra burst of energy. I’m less weak in the office, and my brain is more attentive and ready to work. Once, 1., not even coffee could get me ready for the day. But now a good workout can.
I have more confidence
The enough energy rolled into more confidence. I feel better after a workout. Also, after getting especially sweaty, I have to take time to shower, of course. 2..
3.
Getting up earlier and using my energy earlier make me so unbelievably ready for bed by the end of the day. My old routine would consist of getting up at the last possible minute before work and being absolutely exhausted to try to fall asleep. Have you ever felt so tired that you can’t fall asleep? 4..
I have more time
5.. Now that I’ve shifted my schedule, I have a little more time after work to take care of myself, whether that’s spending time with friends, cooking a healthier meal, reading and studying, or even just watching a movie.
A. I sleep better
B. I’m more consistent
C. It sound ridiculous, but it happens
D. I’d have to skip my workout -in favor of a social life
E. I had a hard time to try to wake up physically and mentally
F. Speaking of that old routine, my days used to consist of work and sleep
G. This means I go through my full morning routine instead of just rolling out of bed
高三英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析
Rather than rolling your eyes when it’s your turn to bow your head and give thanks, try being grateful. The result just might be good for you, from improving your feeling to your relationships. If you don’t want to voice your gratitude, writing a letter may work, according to various studies by Steve Toepfer of Kent State University and his colleagues.
Toepfer and his colleagues had 219 students with an average age of 25 fill out questionnaires（问卷）to measure their happiness. They returned to the lab to fill out the survey three more times, with each visit about a week apart. Some of the students wrote a letter of gratitude each time they returned to the lab, while the control group didn’t write about being thankful.
“The letter writers were instructed to write a letter of gratitude to anyone they wanted, however, the letter couldn’t be a‘thank you’note for a gift,” Toepfer said. “The participants had to write about something that was important to them.”
The results showed that their levels of happiness and life satisfaction improved after each letter they wrote. In addition, depressive symptoms decreased over time with the letter writing.
Gratitude doesn’t just cheer you up—it can improve your health and energy levels as well. A 2007 study conducted by researchers found that organ-transplant(器官移植) receivers who kept “gratitude journals” listing five things or people that they were grateful for each day scored better on measures of general health, and mental health than those who only made routine notes about their days.
A successful relationship may depend on your gratitude. Research reported in 2011 looking at more than 65 couples who were in satisfying relationships showed that each couple’s relationship quality corresponded with one partner’s feelings of gratitude. Researchers show that one partner expressed feelings of gratitude; both partners experienced a positive emotional response.
1.According to the passage, if you want to get along well with others, you’d better________.
A. write letters to them frequently
B. pay more attention to their feelings
C. show your thanks from time to time
D. take care of them when they are in need
2.The underlined phrase “the control group” in Paragraph 2 refers to the group that _________.
A. is cold to others’ kindness
B. is not good at writing letters
C. is unwilling to express their feelings
D. is not allowed to write thank-you letters
3.From the passage we can infer that people who often show gratitude are less likely to be __________.
A. nervous B. careless
C. depressed D. optimistic
4.From the passage, we can learn that _________.
A. it’s better to write a thank-you letter than to say gratitude with words
B. the results of different ways of showing gratitude are all the same
C. the good relationship of each couple is based on trust
D. gratitude is beneficial to health
5.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Why you should be grateful
B. Ways of changing your feeling
C. How to show your gratitude to others
D. Thank-you letters’ role to human relations
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
As I walked into the drugstore to pick up a roll of toilet paper and cat food the week of Halloween, I found myself being stared down by an oversized Rudolph doll. His eye expression aroused a swell of anxiety within me. This is not because I have an irrational fear of dolls. The red nose is a mocking reminder that for those of us who are members of dysfunctional(功能失调的) families, the most wonderful and challenging time of year is upon us. The issue isn’t that the holiday season brings a new, once-a-year, unpleasant feeling. Rather, this time of year enlarges the most complicated, sensitive area of my life: family.
Over the past several months, certain situations have left me emotionally raw when dealing with the subject of family, particularly my mom. The holiday season has never agreed well with her, physically or emotionally. Her first heart attack took place two weeks before Christmas when I was in the seventh grade. The song “Jingle Bell Rock” instantly took me back to driving to the hospital to visit her after her emergency heart operation. When I was at grade 2 at high school, we found ourselves awkwardly putting turkey into our mouths after my mom had come from a week-long stay in the hospital to recover from heart attack and a stroke. A girl of 15, due to the gift of having my mom alive and home to celebrate, my heart was contradictory that Thanksgiving.
1.The author went to the drugstore to ________.
A. buy some medicine B. buy a doll
C. buy some necessities D. see her family members
2.By saying the holiday season has never agreed with her, the author wanted to show ________.
A. her mother was not comfortable on holidays
B. her mother didn’t like holidays
C. her mother didn’t agree with her holiday plan
D. her mother often disagreed with her
3.What can be inferred about the author’s family?
A. Her family may be badly off.
B. Holidays may be hard times for them.
C. her mother was a strong-willed woman.
D. Her parents were not concerned about her.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
To reach one local restaurant, a bowl of Chinese noodles travels across the Eurasian continent and settles on the Scandinavian Peninsula, placed before hungry people visiting the home of Santa Claus.
A Chinese man brought local dishes reganmian and hot pot to Rovaniemi, Finland, becoming the first Chinese to open a restaurant in the Arctic Circle.
Hu Liang, from Central China's Hubei province, immigrated to Finland after graduation at 21. Twelve years on, he has seen more and more Chinese tourists visiting the country to enjoy the winter holiday, Aurora Borealis - and of course, the supposed home of Santa Claus.
“Chinese people are becoming richer and more international. What has not changed is their stomachs. So I made the decision to open the restaurant.”
Hu's restaurant serves reganmian, a traditional Wuhan noodle dish with spicy flavor and a sesame paste (芝麻酱) dressing, as well as Chinese hotpot. He orders food materials from Chinese trade corporations through e-business platforms and offers e-payment popular among Chinese people such as Alipay.
At a price of 15 euro ($18.45), a bowl of reganmian is not only great comfort for Chinese tourists who have traveled from thousands of miles away, but also an attraction to local Finns.
In Rovaniemi, with a population of around 60,000, Hu receives more than 300 guests in the peak season to present people a hot, spicy experience in the cold, snowy country.
Married to a Finnish woman and father to one child, Hu has adapted himself to the Nordic (北欧人的) lifestyle with regular skiing and ice fishing trips.
He said he will bring his child to Wuhan, and try to switch between the two cities every half year.
1.What is the first paragraph intended to do?
A.To present the main idea of the text.
B.To explain where Santa Claus’ home is.
C.To arouse the readers’ interest in the topic.
D.To describe the travel route of the Chinese noodles.
2.What contributes to Hu Liang’s decision to open the restaurant in Rovaniemi?
A.His immigration to Finland after graduation.
B.His marriage to a Finnish woman.
C.His being a native of Wuhan and the cold weather in Finland.
D.More and more Chinese tourists here and their preferred flavor.
3.What can we infer from the text?
A.The food in his restaurant is traditional and delicious.
B.People are required to pay by Alipay in his restaurant.
C.Some Chinese travel thousands of miles to taste his noodles.
D.Hu Liang is in his forties now.
4.What is the main idea of this message?
A.Chinese dishes bring heat to icy country.
B.Chinese food becomes international.
C.Wuhan reganmian and hotpot become favorites of Finns.
D.Hu Liang will always remember his homeland.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
A new restaurant in Indonesia is on a mission (使命) to support locals trapped in poverty, many of whom are earning less than $25 a month, by providing them with an alternative way to pay for their food.
The Methane Gas Canteen, run by husband and wife team Sarimin and Suyatmi, is located in an unexpected place for an eatery — Jatibarang Landfill. The landfill is a mountain of purifying waste, where poor locals spend their days collecting plastic and glass to sell. Meanwhile, the couple, who spent 40 years collecting waste before opening the restaurant, is busy cooking.
What makes the restaurant unusual, aside from its location, is that no cash is required to pay for meals. Poor people have the option to pay for their food with recyclable waste instead of cash. Sarimin weighs the plastic customers bring in, calculates its worth, and then deduct that value from the cost of the meal, giving any extra value back to the customer. The scheme is part of the community’s solution to reduce waste in the landfill and recycle non-degradable plastics.
“I think we recycle 1 tonne of plastic waste a day, which is a lot. This way, the plastic waste doesn’t pile up, drift down the river and cause flooding,” said Saimin. “It benefits everyone.”
The restaurant seats about 30 people and serves meals that cost between $0.40 and $0.80 each. Since opening the canteen Sarimin and Suyatmi have seen their daily income more than double to $15 a day.
“I’m happy to see our customers enjoying their meals,” Sarimin told NHK World. “The poor must also have the right to enjoy healthy eating. I want to give them that chance as much as possible.”
1.What do we know about Jatibarang Landfill?
A. It is a good place for people to eat meals
B. It is a place where locals collect plastic and glass to sell
C. It is a mountain which attracts many tourists
D. It is a modem plastic recycling plant.
2.What makes the Methane Gas Canteen different?
A. Its location and the way to pay for meals.
B. The delicious food and the kind-hearted owner.
C. Its location and those strange customers.
D. Its customers and the way to pay for meal.
3.What does the underlined word mean?
A. Increase B. Replace
C. Remove D. Equal
4.Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Sarimin and Suyatmi recycle plastic waste only to make money.
B. The plastic waste may cause flooding.
C. The restaurant seats around 30 people at present.
D. Sarimin and Suyatmi have seen an increase in their income.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
“Eat local．” It’s one way to reduce human effect on the planet．Eating local means to try to buy and consume foods that are grown in places close to home．However, most of the food sold at supermarkets is not locally grown or produced．Trucks and planes deliver these foods from hundreds or thousands of miles away．During the transportation, greenhouse gases are produced, causing global warming．So the shorter the distance your foods must travel, the less the harm is done to the environment．
But how do you get local food if you live in a large city, hundreds of miles away from farms？Environmental health scientist Dickson Despommier and his students came up with the idea of a “vertical farm”．
A vertical farm is a glass-walled structure that could be built as tall as a skyscraper．Since the garden is built upwards, rather than outwards, it requires much less space than an ordinary farm．The world is quickly running out of room for ordinary farming．Vertical farms could be a key to this situation．Despommier imagines a 30-story building with a greenhouse on every floor．The walls of the building would be clear, to allow crops to get as much sunlight as possible．Depending on a city’s water resources, Despommier thinks hydroponic（水培） farming is another method for the vertical farm which needs no soil to grow plants．
Despommier says the hydroponic greenhouses would use a system that would use a city’s waste water and fill it with nutrition to make the crops grow．If this method works, it would provide food to a city and save millions of tons of water．
The idea of a vertical farm has attracted the attention of government officials around the world．Scott Stringer, a government official from New York City, thinks the city is suitable for the vertical farming．“Obviously we don’t have much land left for us,” Stringer said, “But the sky is the limit in Manhattan．”
Despommier admits that there is still a lot of work to do to make vertical farms a reality．“But I think vertical farming is an idea that can work in a big way．” he says．
1.Why are people advised to eat local?
A．Because it means convenience to people．
B．Because it can help people save a lot of money．
C．Because local food has more nutrition．
D．Because it is environmentally friendly．
2.Which is one of the vertical farm’s benefits when compared with ordinary farming?
A．It produces healthier food．
B．It does less harm to the cities．
C．It consumes more energy of the city．
D．It requires less transport costs．
3.By saying “the sky is the limit in Manhattan”, Stringer means ________．
A．people can make full use of vertical space of Manhattan
B．there is a limit for using empty land in Manhattan
C．the height of buildings in Manhattan is limited
D．Manhattan has a great potential for development
4.What can we learn about the vertical farming in the passage?
A．In a vertical farm, soil may not be needed to grow plants．
B．It has solved the problem of the food shortage in a big way．
C．It is a 30-story building with a greenhouse on every floor．
D．Crops are mainly grown in the rainwater in a vertical farm．
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析