Question

In 1975, George Carlin appeared on a popular TV show, Saturday Night Live, with his famous words about blue food. “Why is there no blue food? I can’t find blue food—I can’t find the flavor of blue! I mean yellow is lemon; orange is orange and red is cherry. Where is the blue food? ”

Well, Carlin pretty much has it right—there’s not no blue food, but there’s certainly not a lot of it. Fresh-picked blueberries are blue, though they become purple when they are turned into jam. The blue in blueberries—like the purple in grapes and the red in tomatoes—is found in nature. But it isn’t a hot color for food. People don’t seem to prefer blue food. Some diet programs even suggest that those determined to lose weight should make their food blue.

Eating, in part, begins with our eyes. Charles Spence—an experimental psychologist from Oxford University—points out that color can change our taste experience. Commonly, we consider red-colored foods up to 20% sweeter than they actually are; and green foods as being more sour. Spence suggests: human expectations may be influenced by our long history of watching - green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.

But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we see these days is dyed blue artificially. Food producers argue that artificial color doesn’t do much harm to health. A lot of research shows that some physical problems of kids are related to food dyes—while other studies show no effects at all. Blue birthday cake or even blue-dyed chicken can be served on the dinner table. So what?

1. George Carlin’s words are placed at the beginning of the passage to _______.

A. show the author’s opinion

B. introduce a TV show

C. tell a famous person

D. lead in the topic

2.. Which of the following statements of blue is true?

A. Blueberries are always blue, whether fresh or not.

B. The blue in blueberries is found unnatural.

C. Blue is not a very popular color for foods.

D. People often feel cold when they eat blueberries.

3.Eating sometimes begins with our eyes because _______.

A. our taste experience can be influenced by color

B. red-colored food are 20% sweeter than green food

C. people prefer red-colored food to green food

D. before eating, people watch food for a long time

4.The underlined words “is dyed” in Para. 4 are closest in meaning to “_______”.

A. is eaten up           B. has grown up

C. is changed in color    D. is harmful to

Answer

1.D

2.C

3.A

4.C

【解析】

试题分析：本文是一篇说明文，通过对科学实验结果和人们饮食习惯的分析，介绍了日常饮食中蓝色食物很少见的原因。

1. 文章结构题。文章首段George Carlin所说“Why is there no blue food?...”是为了引入文章主题，即：为什么生活中蓝色食物很少见。故该题正确选项是D。

2.“Fresh-picked blueberries are blue, though they become purple when they are turned into jam.”可知选项A错误。根据“The blue in blueberries—like the purple in grapes and the red in tomatoes—is found in nature.”可知选项B错误。选项D的内容文中并未提及，故该题正确选项是C。

3.“we consider red-colored foods up to 20% sweeter than they actually are; and green foods as being more sour.”可知，选项B错误。选项C是对“not hot”的错误理解，因此是错的。根据“human expectations may be influenced by our long history of watching”是指人类的饮食经历受长时间观察食物生长经验的影响，而不是说吃东西之前要观察很久，因此选项D错误。根据“that color can change our taste experience”，可知该题正确选项是A。

4.“green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.”和后面“But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we encounter these days is dyed blue artificially.”可知，前文说食物生长过程中改变颜色，转折词“But”表示转折，“artificially”意为“人工地”，可知“is dyed”意为“被染色”，故该题正确选项是C。

考点：考查说明文阅读