Last September, several hundred tomato lovers gathered on a sunny, breezy day in Portland, Ore. for Tomato Fest. Agricultural researcher Matt Davis was handing out samples of experimental tomatoes which were dry-farmed.
Dry-farming, a form of agriculture that doesn’t require irrigation, has roots stretching back millennia. But in the 20th century, the practice largely fell out of widespread use. Today, however, farmers are once again experimenting with dry farming as they struggle with water shortages, which are being exacerbated by rising temperatures and more frequent and intense droughts linked to climate change.
It’s a common misconception that dry farming means growing plants without water. Instead, dry-farmed plants take up moisture stored in the ground rather than sprinkled (洒) from above. Thus, sites must generally receive more than 50 centimeters of annual precipitation (降水量) to create moisture in the soil, and the soil must be composed of fine grains that help preserve that water over time.
Dry-farming won’t solve all of agriculture’s woes, but it offers a way forward. Farmers have noticed that dry-farmed plots contain only about a fifth of the weeds that grow in irrigated plots. Not having to pull up as many weeds can translate into labor savings. Coupled with not having to manage irrigation facilities, dry-farming can simplify a growing operation.
In 2016 and 2017, Alex Stone and Jennifer Wetzel from Oregon State University grew different varieties of winter squash in Corvallis. The pair irrigated some vegetable fields and dry-farmed others. After harvesting the squash and leaving them in storage for four months, they found that about 80% of the roughly 1,250 dry-farmed winter squash were still marketable while the number dropped to 50% out of the roughly 1,150 irrigated winter squash.
“You get to really learn what the environment gives you, and you learn to respond accordingly.” Michael Johnson, a specialist at the University of Arizona says, “A relationship develops between the cropping system and the farmer. It’s a beautiful thing that needs to be cherished.”
1. What does the underlined word “exacerbated” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Highlighted. | B．Worsened. | C．Relieved. | D．Improved. |
| A．It helps grow plants without water. |
| B．It enjoyed great popularity in the 20th century. |
| C．It has certain requirements for the composition of soil. |
| D．It is an effective method to address environmental problems. |
| A．Its produce contains less water. | B．Its overall yields tend to be higher. |
| C．It makes the growing process simpler. | D．It tends to yield longer-preserved produce. |
| A．Conservative. | B．Indifferent. | C．Supportive. | D．Skeptical. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】
Video calls are a common occurrence, but have you imagined being able to touch the person on the other end of the line? Scientists are making this a reality.
Researchers at the University of new South Wales, Australia have invented a soft skin stretch device(SSD). A haptic device that can recreate the sense of touch. Haptic technology mimics the experience of touch by stimulating localized areas of the skin in ways that are similar to what is felt in the real world, through force, vibration or motion.
Vibration is the most common haptic technology today and has been built into many electronic devices such as one attached to the back of the trackpad(触摸板) in laptops, which simulates a button clicking. However, haptic feedback with vibration becomes less sensitive when used continuously. The existing technology also has great difficulty recreating the sense of touch with objects in virtual environments or located remotely. According to Mai Thanh Thai, lead author of the study.
The new technology overcomes issues with existing haptic devices. The research team introduced a novel method to recreate the sense of touch through a soft artificial “muscles”.
“Our three-way directional skin stretch device, built into the fingertips of the wearable glove we also created is like wearing a second skin-- its soft stretchable and mimics the sense of touch-- and will enable new forms of haptic communication to enhance everyday activities”said Thanh Nho Do, senior author of the study.
Imagine you are at home and you call your friend who is in Australia. You wear a haptic glove with the SSDs, and your friends also wears a glove with integrated 3D force sensors. If your friend picks up an object, it will physically press against your friend’s fingers. And their glove with 3D force sensors will measure with interactions. The force signals can be sent to your glove so your device will generate the same 3D forces. Making you experience the same sense of touch as your friend.
The haptic devices could be applied in various situations, allowing users to feel objects inside a virtual world or at a distance. It could also be used in medical practices. Doctors can feel a patient's organ tissues. With surgical tools without touching them.
1. What does the passage imply?| A．SSDs become less sensitive when used continuously. |
| B．SSDs can recreate the sense of touch without vibration. |
| C．SSDs have great advantages over existing haptic devices. |
| D．SSDs can help users touch the person through video calls. |
| A．How the device works. |
| B．Why the device is used |
| C．What the device creates |
| D．How the device is invented |
| A．hopeless | B．uncertain. |
| C．worrying. | D．cheerful. |
| A．A glove that can measure some interactions. |
| B．A sensor that can imitate touch at a distance. |
| C．A device that can recreate the sense of touch. |
| D．A tool could be applied in medical practices. |
【推荐2】It is hard to imagine humans spending their lives in virtual reality (VR) when the experience amounts to waving your arms about in the middle of the waiting room with a device fastened to your face. But this is where humanity is heading.
Chalmers, an Australian professor of philosophy and neural science at New York University, makes the case to embrace VR in his new book, Reality +. Well-known for explaining “the hard problem” of consciousness, Chalmers sees technology reaching the point where virtual and physical are the same in the sense and people live good lives in VR. In the decades ahead, Chalmers suspects we will replace the clumsy (笨拙的) headsets with brain-computer interfaces that allow us to experience virtual worlds with our full set of senses.
“A common way of thinking about VR is that it is somehow fake ability. I think that’s wrong,” Chalmers explained. “The virtual worlds we’re interacting with can be as real as our ordinary physical world.”
“But there are plenty of risks to be cautious of,” he notes. As fulfilling as virtual worlds may become, people will need real food, drink and exercise, and perhaps even the glimpse of daylight, to keep their bodies from fading away. These are not the only health problems. Some people have raised serious concerns about the risk of psychological damage: If we are better looking and have better clothes and a nicer home in the meta verse (元宇宙), how will we feel when we leave?
“The lure (诱惑) of VR might also cause neglect on a global scale,” Chalmers reveals. Would climate change and other crises facing the physical world lose their urgency? That would be a disaster. He says,“Physical reality is really important. We must maintain a connection to it and care for it responsibly.”
1. Why does the author mention “a device fastened to your face” in paragraph 1?| A．To offer a suggestion on improving virtual reality. |
| B．To introduce the latest advance in virtual technology. |
| C．To emphasize a physical barrier to enjoying virtual reality. |
| D．To demonstrate the necessity of wearing a virtual device. |
| A．He considers that virtual reality has various definitions. |
| B．He argues that virtual reality is genuine reality. |
| C．He believes that virtual reality is fake reality. |
| D．He suggests that virtual reality is temporary. |
| A．It might speed up global warming. |
| B．It might offer an alternative solution. |
| C．It might encourage people to solve it. |
| D．It might make people neglect the issue. |
| A．The future of VR. | B．The worries about VR. |
| C．The professor’s insights into VR. | D．The public’s views on VR. |
【推荐3】If you’re someone who has been worrying about the rise of the robots—hold on there just a second, and let them help you impress your friends with some newfound skills in a foreign language. Using artificial intelligence (AI) to help us learn and improve those skills is not new—some of the online language tools we turn to every day are powered by AI.
But as new technologies flood into the market, now is a great time to take advantage of the tech. And according to experts, these tools aren’t replacing teachers—they’re making their lives easier. One of the things that stops some of us from practicing speaking in a new language is a lack of self-confidence. AI can help—chatbots don’t judge you. Of course, teachers don’t either, but for some people, communicating with a bot may erase that fear of failure or shyness.
The latest chatbots use something called natural language processing that allows them to understand human speech or writing, providing a human-like response right away. While chatbots are extremely useful for learners working individually, teachers can also offer course material and ask an AI system to produce personalized textbooks for groups of students. The AI can also provide feedback (反馈) in seconds—gone are the days of waiting a week for work to be graded.
Past online language tools and games were able to tell you when you were wrong, but they weren’t always able to explain why. Now, not only has that changed, but the explanations are detailed and immediate. But this is not to underestimate the role of the teacher, who can use the technology to help learn more about the strengths and shortcomings of their students and personalize their teaching.
So, if you want to impress your friends with your perfect speech, don’t be afraid of AI. Just think of it as a useful tool for both teachers and language learners, which will give you more time and space to enjoy learning something new!
1. What is the main idea of the article?| A．The dangers of Al-robots. |
| B．The history of online language tools. |
| C．The benefits of AI in language learning. |
| D．The role of teachers in the modern classroom. |
| A．Because bots grade work faster. |
| B．Because bots provide textbooks. |
| C．Because bots are more knowledgeable. |
| D．Because bots may remove the fear of failure or shyness. |
| A．It saves time for teachers. | B．It reduces the cost of education. |
| C．It meets individual students’ needs. | D．It provides detailed lesson plans. |
| A．weakness. | B．awareness. | C．witness. | D．darkness. |
【推荐1】A study has revealed that renting clothes, long regarded as one of the “answers” to fashion’s sustainability crisis, is worse for the planet than throwing them away.
The study assessed the environmental impact of five different ways of owning and disposing of (处理) clothing, including renting, resale and recycling. It found that renting clothes had the highest climate impact of all. The hidden environmental cost was found to be delivery and packaging costs. Renting involves taking the clothes back and forth between the warehouse and the renter. Dry cleaning is also harmful to the environment.
Renting clothes has been thought of the sustainable alternative to fast fashion, popularised by companies such as Rent the Runway and public figures like Carrie Symonds, who rented her wedding dress and her outfits for the G7 conference.
The growing sector, which according to GlobalData is going to be worth £2.3bn by 2029, has been regarded as a possible solution to fashion’s environmental crisis. A report by the World Economic Forum this year suggested that the industry generates 5% of global emissions.
However instead of solving fashion’s environmental crisis, renting should be recategorised. “We should think of renting like second-hand shopping,” said Dana Thomas, author of the study. “It’s not something we do all the time, instead of buying our clothes and swapping out outfits nonstop, but on occasion, when the need arises, like dances or weddings.”
The study found many rental brands misuse the term “circular economy” — the system where clothes are passed from person to person before being recycled — as a form of greenwashing. “No manager wants to optimize (优化) their business, and that’s what ‘going green’ will require,” said Thomas. “They are too focused on short-term gains to invest in long-term benefits.”
“Only regulation will solve that problem. No company, in any industry, will volunteer to take a loss for the sake of the planet. They’ll do so when it’s the law. The biggest obstacle is greed.”
The new study suggests that if rental companies change their logistics (物流) to make them more climate friendly, renting would, environmentally, be on a level with reselling. It also found that the most sustainable way to consume fashion is to buy fewer high-quality items and to wear them for as long as possible.
1. What makes renting clothes the worst green option for consumers of fashion?| A．Storage cost. | B．Rising rental price. |
| C．Complex renting procedures. | D．Transportation and dry cleaning. |
| A．It serves as a sustainable alternative to fast fashion. | B．It is beneficial to the economic development. |
| C．It is adoptable for some special occasions. | D．It saves the need of buying new clothes. |
| A．By reducing their taxes. | B．By making up for their losses. |
| C．By making relevant laws. | D．By enhancing their eco-awareness. |
| A．Avoid renting fashions. | B．Buy less and buy better. |
| C．Wear second-hand fashions. | D．Pick up bargains at sales. |
【推荐2】Childhood can bring a lot of awe (敬畏). Research also suggests that awe is important in promoting well-being beyond our individual lives — it can encourage our children to care for others.
A recent study by researchers Eftychia Stamkou, Keltner, and their colleagues invited children aged 8-13 to take part in an experiment. In the awe group, children were offered a short part of a movie that features a child transformed into a seal (海豹) and exploring the sea while in the joy group, children were offered a short part of another movie where friends were celebrating.
Researchers measured children’s kindness toward poor families by inviting children to support their food drive by spending as much time as they wanted in counting donated things, to make sure the poor got access to the donated food as quickly as possible. They also invited children to donate the reward they earned from taking part in the research (e.g., a snack or a museum ticket) to a poor family.
The results? Children who watched the awe-inspiring video spent more time counting food donations and donated their rewards to poor families more often compared to the children who watched the joy-inspiring video. These findings highlight that awe-inspiring art can motivate children to be sympathetic toward people who have been forcibly displaced (离开家园) from their countries of origin.
As parents, we can also seek out everyday experiences of awe in our communities to share with our children, like wall paintings of the city scenery and folk art. Awe can be inspired by music, like the harmonious sounds of a wooden guitar and the beat of a drum. Awesome architecture, like symphony halls, museums, and even features like staircases, can be a way to experience awe with our children.
1. What does the research find?| A．Awe should be inspired early. | B．Awe helps kids be more generous. |
| C．Individual lives affect kids’ health. | D．Training awe gives kids excitement. |
| A．They watched different movies. | B．They commented on the videos. |
| C．They were asked some questions. | D．They donated money to poor families. |
| A．They learned this from a video. | B．They were motivated by the movie. |
| C．They liked to contribute to charity. | D．They were reminded by the homeless. |
| A．Give reasons for feeling awe. | B．List experiences of awe. |
| C．Show benefits of awe to kids. | D．Appeal for developing awe in kids. |
【推荐3】Driverless taxicabs, almost certainly coming to a city near you, have freaked out (吓坏) passengers in San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin over the past year. Some documented their experiences on TikTok, like “startled by the empty front seats during a ride to a coffee shop” or “we’re making a left hand turn without using a left hand”.
The nervous laughter of anxious TikTokers reminds historian Victor McFarland of the pedestrians who yelled “Get a horse” to motorists in the 1910 s. But McFarland, who teaches at the University of Missouri, says the new beasts known as automobiles were more threatening and unfamiliar to people a century ago than driverless cars are to us now. “Automobiles were frightening to a lot of people at first,” he says. “The early automobiles were noisy, dangerous, had no seatbelts and ran over pedestrians. ”
Some people also felt threatened by the freedom and independence newly available to entire classes of people, says Saj e Mathieu, a history professor at the University of Minnesota. They included black people whose movements were restricted by Jim Crow. Cars let them more easily search for everything from better employment to improved healthcare, as could women.
Larger concerns today move to numerous laws that can be broken when no one is at the wheel. Who is to blame if a pregnant person takes a driverless car across state lines to obtain an abortion, for example? Or when driverless cars transport illegal drugs?
And back then, like now, Mathieu adds, there were concerns about the future of certain jobs. Once we were worried about Teamsters, who then drove teams of horses, being out of work. Truckers today fear that they might soon compete with driverless vehicles in their own dedicated lanes.
“You can’t have congestion-free driving just because you constantly build roads,” observes history professor Peter Norton of the University of Virginia. Now, he says, is an excellent time to learn from what has not worked in the past. “It doesn’t automatically get safe just because you have state-of-the-art tech.”
Historians say we need to stay behind the wheel when it comes to driverless cars, even if that becomes only a figure of speech.1. Why did pedestrians shout “Get a horse” in the 1910s?
| A．They disapproved of automobiles. | B．They had pity on the poor horses. |
| C．They tried to warn motorists of danger. | D．They wanted to own a horse themselves. |
| A．It makes car driving a lost art. | B．It weakens competition in certain jobs. |
| C．It favors a certain socioeconomic group. | D．It introduces gray areas in responsibility. |
| A．Exploring new technology further. | B．Building more roads to avoid congestion. |
| C．Putting humans physically behind the wheel. | D．Getting on top of concerns over driverless cars. |
| A．Driverless Cars: Pioneering a New Era | B．Driverless Cars? What History Teaches Us |
| C．Driverless Cars? How Innovations Shape the World | D．Driverless Cars: Bridging the Past and Present |
