1 . Art museums are filled with centuries-old paintings with details of plants that today give us clues about evolution and breeding practices.

Exhibited at an art museum in New York City, The Harvesters created by Pieter Bruegel in 1565 shows farmers cutting wheat nearly as tall as they are. “Nowadays, if you walk through a wheat field, you basically see that wheat is about knee-height. The short wheat is essentially a consequence of breeding from the second half of the 20th century. ” said biologist Ive De Smet.

According to De Smet, wheat is just one example of how historical artwork can allow us to track the transformation of food crops over time. He teamed up with art historian David Vergauwen to seek similar kinds of artwork around the world.

Friends since childhood, their interest in plants in artwork began with a visit to a museum in Russia, where they noticed an odd-looking watermelon in an early-17th-century painting. A watermelon usually is believed to be dark red on the inside. But that one appeared to be pale and white. De Smet assumed the painter had done a poor job. But Vergauwen had a different idea. He says, “This is one of the best painters ever from that era. So, if he painted it like that, that’s the way it must have looked like. ”

Other paintings revealed that there were both red and white watermelons grown during the 17th century. The color is determined by a gene that controls the lycopene（番茄红素）. “There must have been some sort of genetic change preventing the accumulation of that color. Now, with all the genetic knowledge that we have from various plant species, we can look in more details how something comes about. ”

The team hopes to create an online research database of historical plant artwork. They call for contributions of art enthusiasts around the world via the social media. But they caution, the source paintings need to be realistic. “If you’re going to use, for example, Picasso’s paintings to try and understand how a pear looked like in the early 20th century, you might be misled. ” Indeed, such an attempt could be fruitless.

1. What can we learn about wheat from Paragraph 2?

A．It had no short variety before the 1950s.

B．It became shorter and shorter as it evolved.

C．It grew shorter as farmers’ heights changed.

D．It was about knee-height in the 17th century.

2. What inspired the team’s interest in historical plant artwork?

A．Their life-long friendship.	B．A white watermelon painting.
C．Their professional background.	D．An argument over the best painters.

3. Why is Picasso mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．To show the contributions of art enthusiasts.

B．To give an example of historical plant artwork.

C．To tell how a pear looked in the early 20th century.

D．To stress the importance of having realistic source painting.

4. What is mainly talked about in the text?

A．Centuries-old paintings of plants.	B．Plants information revealed in old art.
C．The values of different works of art.	D．Popular objects in historic artworks.