Question

【题目】The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.

An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill（钻孔） deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0C. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.

The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0C. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

【1】The project is meant to ______.

A．increase the world’s food output in the future

B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes

C．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

D．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

【2】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousand years ago.

C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever.

D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

【3】We can infer from the text that _______.

A．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before.

B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture

C．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

D．There haven’t been any seed storage centers in the world before.

【4】What is probably the best title of the passage?

A．The Best Place to Store Seeds

B．Noah’s Ark（诺亚方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan

C．Concerns of World Food Supply

D．A New Way to Feed the World

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】D

【2】D

【3】A

【4】B

【解析】

试题分析：本文是一篇记叙文，主要讲述了挪威的政府想要在北冰洋建造一个不同寻常的能存储两亿种子的存储中心，能够用来抵抗核战争。并且对这个计划进行了详细的介绍，而存在里面的种子则会在所有种子都因为某种原因用尽的情况下被拿出来用。

【1】D句意理解题。根据第三段The structure will be designed to protect the worlds food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats可知大多数种子会用应对一些突发的自然灾害及其他状况，故选D。

【2】D推理判断题。根据第三段 To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures可知如果要将种子保存很长时间，温度非常重要，必须把种子放在一个很低的环境中，故选D。

【3】A推断判断题。根据最后一段Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s可知这个计划大概是在20年前左右提出的。而根据全文分析可知BCD三个选项均不正确，故选A。

【4】B推理判断题。全文是介绍挪威建造储存种子中心的计划，而其计划和历史上的“诺亚方舟”非常相似，故选D。

考点:考查科技类短文阅读。