1 . The sea could be the food bowl of the future. In Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, seaweed, which is rich in fibre and omega 3, is grown and harvested.
Pia Winberg is a marine scientist who runs Australia's first food-grade fanned seaweed company. Her crop is grown alongside mussels (贻贝)and is used as an additive in pasta (意大利面)and other products.
Seaweed is also raised in large tanks, where it absorbs carbon dioxide waste from a wheat processing factory. The business is small, but could help to reduce the ecological footprint of traditional farming.
“We used ten percent of seaweed instead of wheat in breads and pastas, we've eliminated a million hectares of land, we've eliminated all of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with that, and we've also reduced the pressures on very precious fresh water.” said Pia Winberg.
Spiny sea urchins (多刺海胆虫)are another blue economy resource. They can destroy marine habitats, but a recent competition for environmental start-ups in Australia, saw them not as a pest but a delicacy (美味).
Martina Doblin, CEO of Sydney Institute of Marine Science, said, “By 2050 we will have some ten billion people on the planet, and about half the food they eat will come from the ocean. So, we really do need to pay attention to the way that we manage the blue economy-generating wealth from the ocean but in a sustainable (可持续的)way.”
Farming at sea has its challenges. Infrastructure (基础设施)has to be sound, as do supply chains and biosecurity. But get these things right, and the ocean might just be the next great economic frontier.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To lead to the main topic. |
| B．To describe a new kind of seaweed. |
| C．Tell how important the food safety is. |
| D．To explain the meaning of blue economy. |
| A．Ocean exploration has made little progress so far. |
| B．More and more people will die of hunger in the future. |
| C．More work is needed for a better use of the natural resources. |
| D．Sea farming will be a good way to solve the coming world food problem. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Tolerant. | D．Negative. |
| A．How to Protect the Marine Animals |
| B．Measures to Develop Blue Economy |
| C．Farming the Sea for the Future of Food |
| D．Traditional Farming is Gradually Disappearing |
2 . Looking out across the city and on top of the tall buildings before you are cows. Yes, you read that right. Farm animals are eating grass on high-rise urban farms on top of high buildings in London. Elsewhere, off the coast of mainland England, against the background of extremely beautiful White Cliffs of Dover, a wonderful pod (吊舱) structure forms part of floating city. This is how we will live 100 years from now — if a group of UK experts to be believed.
Temporary housing pods, underwater cities and 3D-printed houses will also help reduce the burden of overpopulation and inner city living-space shortages. Building with their own microclimates and cities built in the skies are also among the amazing achievements of future engineering predicted by experts.
But not only today’s architects continue to advance towards the clouds, building higher and higher, as engineering advances allow, but we’ll also be headed deep below ground. Meanwhile, the future will feature city-spanning (跨城市) bridges. Want to travel to Mars quickly? No problem — the experts are predicting spaceports (宇航基地) will become common places, so future generations will be able to head over to their local station and hitch (搭顺风车) the next ride.
The predictions were heavily focused on water - based architecture and present problems such as overpopulation, global warming and rising sea levels. Using the future tech predictions, 2,000 people were then surveyed to see which of the suggestions they thought — and hoped — would become a reality by 2115. Topping the survey was super-deep basement buildings complete with hotels, restaurants, green space, swimming pools and gyms. The survey also found that one in three respondents (调查对象) considered floating sea cities — which could use solar and tidal (潮汐的) energy — as a choice for future development.
1. The first paragraph is meant to ______.| A．present the topic | B．make a comment |
| C．give an example | D．draw a conclusion |
| A．different kinds of building structures. |
| B．recent development of building structures. |
| C．means to control the increase of population. |
| D．future building structures helping to solve the lack of living space. |
| A．air station | B．traveling agency |
| C．spaceport | D．traveling destination |
| A．City-spanning bridges | B．Deep underground buildings |
| C．Floating sea cities | D．slightly-deep basements |
