Question

    Every Morning, Breanna Roque goes out to the farm to feed the cows. But this isn’t your typical farm; it’s a laboratory, and Roque is a graduate researcher at the University of California, Davis. She’s been spending her time among the cows to see if she can adjust their diets so they burp (打嗝) less. The cows’ special diet includes small parts of a red seaweed. It contains a chemical combination, which prevents the production of CH₄ during the cows’ digestion. Less CH₄ means less burping. And less burping could mean slowing down climate change globally.

Although agriculture accounts for a smaller percentage of total greenhouse gas production than sectors like transportation and energy, it produces more CH₄, which warms the Earth up to 86 times as much as CO₂. When cows eat, they burp food back up, producing CH₄ as a byproduct. Researchers across the globe have been pursuing the idea that adding substances to feed might help reduce these CH₄ -loaded burps. But it wasn’t until 2016 that researchers in Australia found that grass feed of 2 percent seaweed could cut CH₄ productions by nearly 99 percent. In 2019, Roque’s team published the results of a similar study: They cut CH₄ production 95 percent by adding to a typical U.S. dairy cow diet with just 5 percent seaweed. But questions remained about the seaweed’s effectiveness in actual cow stomachs.

So more researchers headed to the farm. They found that a diet of just 0.5 percent seaweed led to a 26-percent decrease in CH₄. A 1-percent seaweed diet produced 67 percent less CH₄. Further research is needed to fully understand why this seaweed in particular works best and to see if adding seaweed to cows’ diets will affect the quality of the products coming from the animals. In the future, they’ll run trials to see if seaweed gives cow’s milk an unpleasant taste or leaves steaks smelling of seafood.

Researchers still need to ensure the seaweed combination, which is sensitive to heat and light, will be shelf-stable and remain effective in real-world applications. And even if the seaweed succeeds, CH₄ from cattle account for just 5 percent of greenhouse gas production in the U.S., so the overall picture won’t improve much.

Still, last August, researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, announced they would be trying to find ways to farm the seaweed on a large-enough scale to break into the cattle feed market. Roque says she’s regularly contacted by annoying businessmen who want her help to mass produce the seaweed for global animal consumption. “People reach out to me all the time,” she says. “Unfortunately, I’m an animal biologist and not a sea biologist.”

1.What is the purpose of Roque’s research?

A.To reduce global warming through cow feed.

B.To enrich cattle diets with a special seaweed.

C.To make food digestible in cows’ stomachs.

D.To reduce CH₄ in the production of seaweed.

2.According to Paragraph 2, the 2016 and 2019 studies were imperfect as they failed to find out ________.

A.why CH₄ was more harmful than CO₂ in climate change

B.which seaweed worked best in cutting CH₄ production

C.whether seaweed would work in practical cow feeding

D.what was the right proportion of seaweed in cows’ diets

3.Future research will probably not deal with ________.

A.how to grow seaweed on farmland economically

B.how to bring out the best function of the seaweed

C.how to prevent beef and milk from tasting weird

D.how to lengthen the store time of seaweed feed

4.Roque’s response to the businessmen indicates that ________.

A.she regrets not having studied seaweeds

B.she is willing to offer more help to them

C.she is negative about the cow feed market

D.she is not interested in farming seaweed

Answer

1.A

2.C

3.A

4.D

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章讲述了，研究人员通过在奶牛饮食中加入海藻来减少奶牛消化过程中产生的CH4，来避免奶牛打嗝，这样可以减缓全球气候变化，但研究人员仍需确保这种对光和热敏感的海藻组合在实际应用中保持货架稳定性和有效性，才能批量生产海藻供全球动物食用。

1.推理判断题。由第一段中的“It contains a chemical combination, which prevents the production of CH4 during the cows’ digestion. Less CH4 means less burping. And less burping could mean slowing down climate change globally.”（它含有一种化学混合物，可以防止奶牛消化过程中产生CH4。少CH4意味着少打嗝。减少打嗝可能意味着减缓全球气候变化。），可推断出Roque研究的目的是为了通过减少奶牛打嗝来达到减缓全球气候变化的目的。故选A项。

2.细节理解题。由第二段最后一句“But questions remained about the seaweed’s effectiveness in actual cow stomachs.”（但关于海藻在实际的牛胃中的有效性仍然存在疑问。），可知2016和2019两个研究属于实验室理论研究，未在实践中开展，也不知其中效果，所以两个实验不完美是因为还未发现海藻能否在实际的奶牛饲养中发挥作用。故选C项。

3.细节理解题。由第三段中的“Further research is needed to fully understand why this seaweed in particular works best and to see if adding seaweed to cows’ diets will affect the quality of the products coming from the animals.”（未来研究需要充分理解为什么这种海藻特别有效，并观察在奶牛的饮食中添加海藻是否会影响来自动物的产品质量。），排除B项；由第三段中的“In the future, they’ll run trials to see if seaweed gives cow’s milk an unpleasant taste or leaves steaks smelling of seafood.”（在未来，他们将进行试验，看看海藻是否会让牛奶尝起来不舒服，或者让牛排闻起来有海鲜味。），排除C项；第四段中的“Researchers still need to ensure the seaweed combination, which is sensitive to heat and light, will be shelf-stable and remain effective in real-world applications.”（研究人员仍需确保这种对光和热敏感的海藻组合在实际应用中保持货架稳定性和有效性。），排除D项；可知未提及A项，所以未来研究可能不会研究如何经济地在农田种植海藻。故选A项。

4.推理判断题。由最后一段中的“Roque says she’s regularly contacted by annoying businessmen who want her help to mass produce the seaweed for global animal consumption. “People reach out to me all the time,” she says. “Unfortunately, I’m an animal biologist and not a sea biologist.””（罗克说，她经常与一些恼人的商人联系，他们希望她帮忙批量生产海藻，供全球动物食用。她说：“人们总是向我伸出援手。“不幸的是，我是动物生物学家，不是海洋生物学家。”），可推断出Roque对种植海藻没兴趣。故选D项。