Question

    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.

Answer

1.B

2.C

3.C

4.A

5.B

6.D

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章主要讲述了人工肉取代传统意义的肉，会帮助解决全球气候问题。

1.细节理解题。根据文章第一段中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,(是著名的古怪耐嚼,甚至血腥,像肉的质量一样,这使得它成为最著名的汉堡)由此可知，正是这些特征让作者相信Impossible Burger吃起来有肉的味道。结合选项，故选B。

2.词义猜测题。根据文章第二段中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.(这是个好消息，因为现在是大规模生产人造肉的时候了，而且要快。为什么?因为在缓解气候变化的斗争中，肉类替代品是最容易获得的成果之一。)根据第四段Fake meat can help camouflage(掩饰) that dramatic transformation with slight adjustment.和第六段Fortunately, the science here is playing an important role. 可知在科技的支撑下，人造肉的制作不难。由此推断划线词“lowest-hanging fruits”指的是容易实施，容易达成的目标。结合选项，故选C。

3.推理判断题。根据文章第三段中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.(肉类生产会消耗土地，并以千吨计排放甲烷，约占农业温室气体排放总量的三分之二)由此可知推知，肉类消费的减少可以缓解全球变暖。结合选项，故选C。

4.细节理解题。根据文章倒数第三段中Fake meat will outcompete traditional meat because “you won’t need to refrigerate it if you’re making it as you go,” (人造肉将超越传统肉，因为不需要冷藏，)由此可知，人造肉比传统肉有优势的地方是人工肉不一定要放在冰箱里。结合选项，故选A。

5.推理判断题。根据文章最后一段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.(你可以看出世界正在朝着这个方向转变，因为牧场主很紧张。去年，美国牧民协会要求政府将“肉”定义为“直接从动物获得”的产品。这种焦虑，无疑是由科学引起的，表明这一重大转变并不是不可能的。)由此可推知，世界可能会接受假肉的想法。结合选项，故选B。

6.标题判断题。根据文章第二段中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.（这是个好消息，因为现在是大规模生产人造肉的时候了，而且要快。为什么?因为在缓解气候变化的斗争中，肉类替代品是最容易获得的成果之一。）以及分析全文可知，文章主要讲述了人工肉取代传统肉，会帮助解决全球变暖问题，故世界持欢迎人工肉的态度。Let’s welcome the fake meat.适合作为文章的标题，故选D。