When GM tomatoes first entered British supermarket, it caused a sensation to the whole wor

听力原文：M: These tomatoes are large! You must have watered them a lot.

W: Yes, I did. They ought to be ripe enough to pick by next Friday when we have our picnic.

Where does this conversation most probably take place？

A．In a kitchen.

B．In an orchard.

C．In a garden.

D．In a picnic.

GM Organisms

By far the most common genetically modified (GM) organisms are crop plants. But the technology has now been applied to almost all forms of life, from pets that glow under UV light to bacteria which form. HIV-blocking "living condoms" and from pigs bearing spinach(菠菜) genes to goats that produce spider silk.

GM tomatoes ,first appeared on British supermarket shelves in 1996 (a different fresh GM tomato first appeared in the US in 1994), but the consumer furore that surrounded GM technology did not erupt until February 1999. This was because a controversial study suggested that a few strains of GM potatoes might be toxic to laboratory rats. Those experiments, subsequently criticised by other experts, were carried out in Scotland by biochemist Arpad Pustzai.

What followed was a European anti-GM food campaign of near religious fervor. Spearheaded in the UK by environmental groups and some newspapers, the campaign would have far-reaching consequences. It culminated in an unofficial moratorium(延期付款) on the growth and import of GM crops in Europe and led to a trade dispute with the US.

GM crops are today very rare in Europe, strict labeling laws and regulations are in place for food (DNV = A bar codes), and public opinion towards the technology remains largely negative. Several UK government reports have offered qualified support for GM crops and produce, though they argue that the economic benefits of the technology are currently small. Some African nations have also opposed engineered crops, even to the point of rejecting international food aid containing them.

GM produce has been taken up with far less fuss in the US (where it does not have to be labeled), India, China, Canada, Argentina, Australia and elsewhere. However controversy over a type of GM corn -- only approved for animal feed -- which turned up in taco shells and other products stirred opinion in the US.

Biotech Revolution

The human race has methodically improved crop plants through selective breeding for many thousands of years, but genetic engineering allows that time-consuming process to be accelerated and exotic traits from unrelated species to be introduced. But not everyone agrees this represents progress.

The root of genetic engineering in crops lies in the 1977 discovery that soil bug Agrobacterium Tumefaciens can be used as a tool to inject potentially useful foreign genes into plants. With the help of that microbe, and other gene-implantation technologies such as gene guns, geneticists have developed a multitude of new crop types.

Most of these are modified to pest, disease or herbicide resistant, and include: soya, wheat, corn (maize), oilseed rape (canola), cotton, sugar beet, walnuts, potatoes, peanuts, squashes, tomatoes, tobacco, peas, sweet peppers, lettuce and onions ,. among others. The bacterial gene Bt is one of the most commonly inserted. It produces an insecticidal toxin that is harmless to people.

Supporters of GM technology argue that engineered crops -- such as vitamin A -- boosted golden rice or protein-enhanced potatoes -- can improve nutrition, that drought -- or salt-resistant varieties can flourish in poor conditions and stave off world hunger, and that insect-repelling crops protect the environment by minimising pesticide use.

Other plants have been engineered to improve flavour, increase shelf life, increase hardiness and to be allergen-free (see also: hay fever-free grass). Geneticists have even created a no-tears on ion to banish culinary(厨房的) crying, and novel caffeine-free coffee plants.

"Frankenfood" Fears

Critics fear that what they call" Frankenstein foods" could have unforeseen, adverse health effects on' consumers, producing toxic proteins (and allergens ) or transferring antibiotic-resistance and other genes to human gut bacteria to damagin

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

听力原文：W: These tomatoes are huge! You must have watered them a lot!

M: Yes, I did. They ought to be ripe enough to pick up by next Friday when we have our picnic.

Q: Where did the conversation most probably take place？

(13)

A．In a kitchen.

B．In a market.

C．In a garden.

D．At a picnic.

when the chance came for a weekend to Sarasota, Florida, my bags were packed before you could say “sunshine”. I left for the land of warmth and vitamin C(维生素C), thinking of beaches and orange trees. When we touched down to blue skies and warm air, I sent up a small prayer of gratefulness. Swimming pools, wine tasting, and pink sunsets (at normal evening hours, not 4 in the afternoon) filled the weekend, but the best part- particularly to my taste, dulled by months of cold weather root vegetables was a 7 a.m. adventure to the Sarasota farmers’ market that proved to be more than worth the early wake-up call.

The market, which was founded in 1979, sets up its tents every Saturday from 7:00 am to 1 p.m. rain or shine, along North Lemon and State streets. Baskets of perfect red strawberries, the red-painted sides of the Java Dawg coffee truck; and most of all, the tomatoes: amazing, large, soft and round red tomatoes.

Disappointed by many a broken, vine-ripened(蔓上成熟的) promise, I’ve refused to buy winter tomatoes for years. No matter how attractive they look in the store, once I get them home they’re unfailingly dry, hard, and tasteless. But I homed in, with uncertainty, on one particular table at the Brown’s Grove Farm’s stand, full of fresh and soft tomatoes the size of my fist. These were the real deal and at that moment, I realized that the best part of Sarasota in winter was going to be eating things that back home in New York I wouldn’t be experiencing again for months.

Delighted as I was by the tomatoes in sight, my happiness deepened when I learned that Brown’s Grove Farm is one of the suppliers for Jack Dusty, a newly opened restaurant at the Sarasota Ritz Carlton, where luckily for me I was planning to have dinner that very night. Without even seeing the menu, I knew I’d be ordering every tomato on it.

(1)、What did the author think of her winter life in New York？ ()

A、Exciting.

B、Boring.

C、Relaxing.

D、Annoying.

(2)、What made the author’s getting up early worthwhile？ ()

A、Having a swim.

B、Breathing in fresh air.

C、Walking in the morning sun.

D、Visiting a local farmer’s market.

(3)、What can we learn about tomatoes sold in New York in winter？ ()

A、They are soft.

B、They look nice.

C、They taste great.

D、They are juicy.

(4)、What was the author going to that evening？ ()

A、Go to a farm.

B、Check into a hotel.

C、Eat in a restaurant.

D、Buy fresh vegetable

(5)、In the first paragraph, the word “adventure” means ______. ()

A、risk.

B、effort.

C、achievement.

D、access.

听力原文：F: When will Mr Blackman from GM come to our company？

M: Well, he planned to come on August 23, but he called yesterday telling he had to go to Spain on business with his boss. Now he's planning to come next Friday, that's August 31st.

F: I see.

？ For questions 1-8 you will hear eight short recordings.

？ For each question, mark one letter (A, B or C) for the correct answer.

？ You will hear the eight recordings twice.

When will Mr Blackman come？

A．

B．

C．

听力原文：F: When will Mr. Scott from GM come to our company？

M: Well, he planned to come on July 23, but he called yesterday telling be had to go to Spain on business with his boss. Now he's planning to come next Friday, that's July 31st.

F: I see.

•For questions 1-8 you will hear eight short recordings.

•For each question, mark one letter (A, B or C) for the correct answer.

•You will hear the eight recordings twice.

When will Mr. Scott come？

A．July 23

B．July 31

C．July 3

听力原文： When people have enough B vitamins, their appetite is good and their nerves are calm. B vitamins in the diet come from some meats and vegetables, milk, cottage cheese, and whole grains.

When a grain is processed, it loses vitamins. For example, there is a big difference between white and brown rice. When rice is processed, the brown outside is lost. The brown outside of rice has an important B vitamin which white rice lacks. In short, brown rice has more B vitamins than processed rice.

Vitamin C keeps the cells of the body together. It helps skin tissue recover from cuts and bums. Vitamin C in the diet comes from tomatoes, fruits like lemons and oranges, and some vegetables such as cabbage and green peppers.

Vitamin D is called the "sunshine" vitamin. When people sit outside, ultraviolet rays from the sun change fat in their skin to vita- min D. Vitamin D disease in children are called rickets. Rickets is more common in countries that have long winters with little sun- shine.

(23)

A．How to keep fit.

B．Common diseases caused by vitamins.

C．Vitamins and our health.

D．Vitamin in different kinds of vegetables.

beauty and its hardwood. It is said that a single tree once sold for $11000. Hardwood hunters search the woods for trees that will bring such prices.

When the Dutch first sailed up the Hudson River 300 years ago, they discovered black walnut trees so large that the first branch was as much as 70 feet above the ground. In colonial times the black walnut became one of America's first exports, because it was highly prized by cabinetmakers. During World War I almost all natural woods of the black walnut were eliminated. Trees were harvested for gun stocks, and even the nutshells were collected to use as filtering material in gas masks.

Today, growing black walnut trees is profitable because of the demand for it. However, not every black walnut tree is necessarily valuable. It must be inspected to see if it meets certain standards. Furthermore, the roots of the black walnut tree produce a poisonous substance that will cause harm to tomatoes, potatoes, blackberries and apples.

Why is the black walnut tree so valuable7

A．Because of its hardwood and its beauty.

B．Because of its historic value.

C．Because of its great age.

D．Because of its great size.

听力原文： Since the 1960s, the English diet has become more diverse; the English now eat a wide variety of European and Asian foods. Many traditional foods such as beef and potatoes have given way to poultry and pasta (面食) dishes. Fast food bas also become more available, and hamburger restaurants now rival the traditional fish-and-chip shops in popularity. Numerous Chinese and Indian restaurants and pizza houses provide take-away service, and many pubs serve anything from snacks to fun meals as well as alcoholic beverages. Traditional English dishes include roost beef and Yorkshire pudding and steak and kidney pie.

The English generally eat three meals a day. A traditional English breakfast consists of any or all of the following: bacon, sausages, grilled (烤炙的) or fried tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, or toast. Black pudding (blood pudding) may also appear on the menu. However, fewer people now eat a cooked breakfast on a regular basis, preferring various combinations of carnal, toast, juice or fruit, and tea or coffee. The midday meal is usually referred to as lunch and the evening meal as dinner or, when it is less formal, as supper. Working-class people tend to call the midday meal dinner and the meal they have in the early evening "tea." The tradition of afternoon tea, when tea, biscuits, and cakes are enjoyed at about 4 pm, has declined. Similarly, many people no longer have more than a light lunch or snack in the middle of the day.

(26)

A．Beef and potatoes.

B．European and Asian foods.

C．Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

D．Steak and kidney pie.

听力原文： An environmental group called the Food Commission is unhappy and disappointed because of the sale of bottled water from Japan. The water, angrily argued in public, has traveled 10,000 "food miles" before it reaches Western customers. "Transporting water halfway across the world is surely the extremely stupid use of fuel when there is plenty of water in the UK." It is also worried that we are wasting our fuel by buying prams from Indonesia (7,000 food miles) and carrots from South Africa (5,900 food miles). Counting the number of miles traveled by a product is a strange way of trying to tell the true situation of the environmental damage done by an industry. Most food is transported around the world on container ships that are extremely energy efficient. It should be noted that a ton of butter transported 25 miles in a truck to a farmers' market does not necessarily use less fuel on its journey than a similar product transported hundreds of miles by sea. Besides, the idea of "miles" ignores the amount of fuel used in the production. It is possible to cut down your food miles by buying tomatoes grown in Britain rather than those grown in Ghana; the difference is that the British ones will have been raised in heated greenhouses and the Ghanaian ones in the open sun.

What the idea of "food miles" does provide, however, is the chance to cut out Third World Countries from First World food markets. The number of miles traveled by our food should, as I see it, be regarded as a sign of the success of the global trade system, not a sign of damage to the environment.

Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.

26. Why is the Food Commission angry？

27. What does the phrase "food miles" mean according to the passage？

28. What does the speaker try to explain by comparing tomatoes raised in Britain and in Ghana？

29. Who is most probably giving this talk？

(33)

A．It finds some imported goods cause environmental damage.

B．UK wastes a lot of money importing food products.

C．It thinks people waste energy buying food from other countries.

D．Growing certain vegetables causes environmental damage.