六级拔高1

匹配

a plantation to quarantine a shoot a stem
a large area where crops are gorwn, for example tea and coffee to isolate something so that nothing else can touch it or be affected by it a baby plant the long thin part of a plant
lucrative fungus a monoculture resistant
make a lot of profit the family that mushrooms belong to one kind of crop with no others grown for variety not affected by something

正文

In the 1950s, Central American commerical banana growers were facing the death of their most luractive product, the Gros Michel banana, known as Big Mike. And now it’s happening again to Big Mike’s successor - the Cavendish.

commerical 商业的，商业广告

successor 继承者，继任者

successive 连续的

With its easily transported, thick-skinned and sweet-tasting fruit, the Gros Michel banana plant dominated the plantations of Central America. United Fruit, the main grower and exporter in South America at the time, mass-producted its bananas in the most efficient way possible: it cloned shoots from the stems of plants instead of growing plants from seeds, and cultivated them in densely packed fields.

thick 厚的 - thin 薄的

at the time 当时

cultivate - grow - foster

Unfortunately, these conditions are also perfect for the spread of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum. f. sp. cubense, which attacks the plants’ roots and prevents it from transporting water to stem and leaves. The TR-1 strain of the fungus was resistant to crop sprays and travelled around on boots or the tyres of trucks, slowly infecting plantations across the region. In an attempt to escape the fungus, farmers abandoned infected fields, flooded them and then replanted crops somewhere else, often cutting down rainforest to do so.

strain 菌株

a strain of hair 一小撮头发

crop spray 农作物喷雾

in an attempt to 为了

Their efforts failed. So, instead, they searched for a variety of banana that the fungus didn’t affect. They found the Cavendish, as it was called, in the greenhousse of a British duke. It wasn’t as well suited to shipping as the Gros Michel, but its bananas tasted good enough to keep consumers happy. Most importantly, TR-1 didn’t seem to affect it. In a few years, United Fruit had saved itself from bankruptcy by filling its plantations with thousands of the new plants, copying the same monoculture growing conditions Gros Michel had thrived in.

passion fruit

duke 公爵

suit to 适合

shipping 运输

thrived in 蓬勃发展

While the operation was a huge success for the Latin American industry, the Cavendish banana itself is far from safe. In 2014, South East Asia, another major banana producer, exported four million tons of Cavendish bananas. But, in 2015, its exports had dropped by
46 per cent thanks to a combination of another strain of the fungBus, TR-4, and bad weather.

thanks to … good

due to … bad

Growing practices in South East Asia haven’t helped matters. Growers can’t always afford the expensive lab-based methods to clone plants from shoots without spreading the disease. Also, they often aren’t strict enough about cleaning farm equipment and quarantining infected fields. As a result, the fungus has spread to Australia, the Middle East and Mozambique - and Latin America, heavily dependent on its monoculture Cavendish crops, could easily be next.

practice 措施

Racing against the inevitable, scientists are working on solving the problem by genetically modifying the Cavendish with genes from TR-4-resistant banana species. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology have successfully grown two kinds of modified plant which have remained resistant for three years so far. But soon experts think this is just a sophisticated version of the same temporary solution the original Cavendish provided. If the new bananas are planted in the same monocultures as the Cavendish and the Gros Miche before it, the risk is that another strain of the disease may rise up to threaten the modified plants too.

问题

  1. Mass-produced bananas are …

a. grown from seeds because its efficient.

b. cloned because it’s a fast and cheap way to grow them.

c. sweeter than other bananas.

d. exported to central america.

  1. The spread of the TR-1 strain was …

a. caused by lack of water

b. speeded up by the flooding of banana fields.

c. slowed down by crop spraying.

d. helped by the movement of people and vehicles.

  1. which sentence is not ture?

a. the Cavendish replaced the Gros Michel.

b. The Cavendish bananas were easier to transport than the Gros Michel.

c. The Cavendish was resistant.

d. The Cavendish stopped United Fruit from losing more money.

  1. South East Asia’s Cavendish exports fell in 2015 because …

a. a new strain of the fungus had developed.

b. farmers can’t afford new farming technology.

c. they had to quarantine their fruilt.

d. they depended too much on other countries.

  1. Genetically modifying bananas may …

a. mean farmers can grow the Gros Michel again.

b. cause farmers to repeat the mistakes of the past.

c. encourage farmers to try new growing methods.

d. only be a short-term solution.

  1. How would you describe the writer’s opinion about the future of the Cavendish?

a. Optimisitc

b. Pressimistic

c. Cautious

d. Uninterested