Question

    Prateek Sharma was born into a family of farmers. After 10 years of being a chief manager of Kotak Mahindra Bank, he did a good job and earned a good pay. But Prateek couldn’t continue the corporation life with ease, as his heart was always in farming. So he worked as a banker on weekdays and on weekends travelled 100 km to get to his 5-acre in Dhaba Khurd.

By the end of 2015, Prateek had set up a house on his farm to grow offseason vegetables. Prateek thought he’d quit his job once he was able to earn enough from farming, but this wasn’t an easy decision to make. This was because costs to grow these vegetables were very high, along with the fact that farmers weren’t a part of the value chain and thus couldn’t decide the price of their own vegetables.

Fortunately, Prateek met Vinay Yadav, another educated farmer. They then decided to start their own value chain and sell their vegetables and grains, while skipping the middlemen. The variety of vegetables they grew wasn’t enough, so they decided to form a group of farmers.

Once the plan was ready, the group was registered by the name of Farmer Producer Organization (FPO). However, the trial failed in the first year as most of the farmers were grain growers and had limited knowledge of growing vegetables. However, the largest reason was the switch to organic from chemical.

Luckily, once the soil was used to organic methods, the next round of crops were successful and the FPO had a good amount of produce. So at the end of 2017, Prateek finally quit his job and devoted all his time to farming. Now he’s successful and recently his team has started two farmer resource centers at Dhaba Khurd and Nathrula Canj.

1.Why did Prateek have trouble continuing his life as a banker?

A.He felt it so boring to be a banker.

B.He almost never satisfied his boss.

C.He found farming easier to do well.

D.He was enthusiastic about farming.

2.Why was it difficult for Prateek to decide on quitting his job?

A.The prices of organic products were low.

B.The income from farming wasn’t much.

C.He had no money to put into farming.

D.He found farming produce hard to sell.

3.What did Prateek and Vinay Yadav set about doing after they met?

A.Building their own marketing system.

B.Raising the prices of their products.

C.Switching from chemical to organic.

D.Adding the kinds of vegetables grown.

4.What mainly resulted in the failure of FPO’s first year trial?

A.Their no experience in growing vegetables.

B.Their poor management on the employees.

C.The soil’s not adapting to organic farming.

D.The wrong ways of doing organic farming.

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.A

4.C

【解析】

本文是一篇记叙文。主要叙述了Prateek是如何放弃了自己银行工作，回去务农，并最终建立了自己的有机农业营销体系的故事。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段But Prateek couldn’t continue the corporation life with ease, as his heart was always in farming.可知，Prateek不想再继续银行家的工作是因为他心系农业。故选D。

2.推理判断题。根据第二段This was because costs to grow these vegetables were very high, along with the fact that farmers weren’t a part of the value chain and thus couldn’t decide the price of their own vegetables.可知，这是因为种植这些蔬菜的成本非常高，再加上农民不是价值链的一部分，因此无法决定自己种植的蔬菜的价格。由此判断出因为他的在农业方面的收入还不够多，所以Prateek很难决定辞职。故选B。

3.细节理解题。根据第三段They then decided to start their own value chain and sell their vegetables and grains, while skipping the middlemen.可知，然后，他们决定启动自己的价值链，出售蔬菜和谷物，跳过中间商。所以Prateek 和Vinay Yadav两个人一见面就决定建立自己的营销体系。故选A。

4.细节理解题。根据第四段However, the largest reason was the switch to organic from chemical.第五段Luckily, once the soil was used to organic methods, the next round of crops were successful可知，然而，最主要的原因是从化学转向有机农业。幸运的是，一旦土壤被用于有机耕作，下一轮的作物就成功了。所以导致FPO第一年试验失败的主要原因是土壤不适应有机耕作。故选C。