Question

Today, the world’s diversity (多样性) of food crops is quickly decreasing. But scientists around the world are taking action. They are building seed banks. At seed banks, scientists store the seeds of many different crops.

There are now 1,400 seed banks around the world. However, some banks are in warm countries. If the electricity fails, the seeds will get too hot and die. Other seed banks are in countries troubled by war. Sometimes people damage the seed banks. If this happens, valuable seeds can be lost forever!

The organization Global Crop Diversity Trust decided they wanted to deal with this problem. So, they decided to build a global seed bank. This seed bank would contain a back-up, or extra copy, of all the world’s seeds. Smaller seed banks would still collect and keep local seeds. But they would also send copies of their seeds to the global bank.

Scientists from the Global Crop Diversity Trust chose the cold, snowy mountains of Svalbard, Norway to build the global seed bank — the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (斯瓦尔巴全球种子库). Organizations, farmers, or local seed banks store their extra seeds there. And the people who place their seeds in the vault are the only people who can take them out. They pay to ship their seeds to Norway, but it does not cost them any money to store their seeds. The Global Crop Diversity Trust pays for this.

Cary Fowler is a scientist who heads the Global Crop Diversity Trust. He said, “If the Seed Vault simply supplies seed banks with copies of seeds that those banks lost by accident, the Seed Vault will be worth more than it cost.”

1.Seed banks are built to ______.

A. research on seeds    B. produce new seeds

C. protect crop diversity    D. increase the number of seeds

2.Compared with other seed banks, the global seed bank ______.

A. was built by the government

B. is more welcomed by farmers

C. is mainly used by great scientists

D. can provide a good environment for seeds

3.What can we learn about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault?

A. It helps to pay the shipping cost.

B. No one can take seeds out of there.

C. There are no fees to store seeds there.

D. It mainly receives seeds from farmers.

4.What is Cary Fowler’s attitude towards the Seed Vault?

A. He feels it is very important.    B. He is surprised at it.

C. He thinks it costs too much.    D. He is uncertain about it.

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.C

4.A

【解析】这是一篇说明文。主要给我们介绍了seed bank起源和用途。说明文和记叙文，说明文里面可能会出现很多不认识的专有名词，不过不要怕，我们只需在文章中找出问题中所给的内容，然后重点分析这一段内容，问题基本上就迎刃而解啦。

1.由文章第一段“the world’s diversity (多样性) of food crops is quickly decreasing. But scientists around the world are taking action. They are building seed banks”知，世界上的谷物种子多样性越来越多，世界各地的人们都在采取措施保护它们，他们建立了seed bank。在seed bank里，科学家们储存了不同种类谷物的种子。由第二段“some banks are in warm countries. If the electricity fails, the seeds will get too hot and die. Other seed banks are in countries troubled by war. Sometimes people damage the seed banks.”知，有些地方气候比较热，有些地方气候有些冷，所以科学家们建立了全球种子库。所以建立种子库的目的主要是为了保护谷物的种子。A、对种子进行研究 B、生产新的种子 D、增加种子的数量。都不合题意，故选C。

2.由第二段“some banks are in warm countries. If the electricity fails, the seeds will get too hot and die. Other seed banks are in countries troubled by war. Sometimes people damage the seed banks”知，有些地方太热，没电的话，种子就会死，有些地方的种子库受战争影响，有时人们也会破坏种子，等等。而the global seed bank可以避免这些问题,即给这些谷物种子提供一个更好的环境。

A、由政府建立（文章没有提到）B、更受农民的欢迎（文章也没有提到）C、主要由伟大的科学家使用（文章也没有提到），故选D。

3.文章第四段提到了the Svalbard Global Seed Vault，所以我们从第四段找。由“They pay to ship their seeds to Norway, but it does not cost them any money to store their seeds.”知在那里储存种子除了船票不需要花其他的钱了，故选C.

4.文章的最后提到了Cary Fowler，所以从文章的最后找, “the Seed Vault will be worth more than it cost.”由他说的这句话我们可知，他认为the Seed Vault是非常值得的，即有价值的。故选A。