C

Seeds on Ice

　　Close to the North Pole, remote and rocky Plateau Mountain in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard seems an unlikely spot for any global effort to safeguard agriculture. In this cold and deserted environment, no grains, no gardens, no trees can grow. Yet at the end of a 130-meter-long tunnel cut out of solid stone is a room filled with humanity's most precious treasure, the largest and most diverse seed collection

-more than a half-billion seeds.

　　A quiet rescue mission is under way. With growing evidence that unchecked climate change will seriously affect food production and threaten the diversity of crops around the world, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault represents a major step towards ensuring the preservation of hundreds of thousands of crop varieties. This is a seed collection, but more importantly, it is a collection of the traits found within the seeds: the genes that give one variety resistance to a particular pest and another variety tolerance for hot, dry weather.

Few people will ever see or come into contact with the contents of this vault. In sealed boxes, behind multiple locked doors, monitored by electronic security systems, enveloped in below-zero temperatures, and surrounded by tons of rock, hundreds of millions of seeds are protected in their mountain fortress. Frozen in such conditions inside the mountain, seeds of most major crops will remain viable for hundreds of years, or longer. Seeds of some are capable of keeping their ability to grow for thousands of years.

　　Everyone can look back now and say that the Seed Vault was a good and obvious idea, and that of course the Norwegian government should have approved and funded it. But back in 2004, when the Seed Vault was proposed, it was viewed as a crazy, impractical, and expensive idea.

　　We knew that nothing would provide a definite guarantee. But we were tired, fed up, and frankly scared of the steady, greater losses of crop diversity. The Seed Vault was built by optimists who wanted to do something to preserve options so that humanity and its crops might be better prepared for change. If it simply resupplied seed gene banks with samples those gene banks had lost, this would repay our efforts.

　　The Seed Vault is about hope and commitment-about what can be done if countries come together and work cooperatively to accomplish something significant, long-lasting, and worthy of who we are and wish to be.

27.According to the passage, the Seed Vault is .

A. a tunnel where the collected seeds are displayed

B. a stone room that contains the seeds of endangered crops

C. a seed gene bank that stores diverse seeds for future agriculture

D. a lab where researchers study how to maintain the diversity of crops

28. The underlined word "viable" in Paragraph 3 probably means .

A. mature B.alive C.clean D. valuable

29. Paragraph 3 mainly tells us .

A. what people do to study the seeds B. where people keep the seeds

C. why the seeds are protected D. how the seeds are preserved

30. We can know from the passage that .

A. the Seed Vault offers a solution to climate change

B. most countries took part in rescuing the seed varieties

C. many people originally considered building the Seed Vault unwise

D. the Seed Vault guarantees to prevent the loss of crop diversity

第二节 （共 5 小题，每小题 2 分，满分 10 分）

　　Some experts feel that cars are certain to fall into disuse. They see a day in the not-too-distant future when all cars will be deserted and made useless. 31 They hold that the car will remain a leading means of city travel in the foreseeable future.

32 .It should become smaller, safer, and more practical, and should not be powered by the gas engine. The car of the future should be for more pollution-free than present types.

　　Unless changes take place in the power system, the car in the future will still be the main problem in city traffic jams. 33

　　When the car enters the highway system, a small arm will drop from the car and connect with a rail, which is similar to hose( 软管) powering subway trains electrically.

Once joined to the rail, the car will become electrically powered from the system and control of the car will pass to a central computer. 34

　　The driver will use telephone to do instructions about his position and the place he heads for into the system. The computer will find the best way and reserve space for the car all the way to the correct exit from the highway. 35 It is believed that an automated highway will be able to deal with 10,000 cars per hour, compared with the

1,500 to 2,000 carried by a present-day highway.

A. The car will undoubtedly change greatly over the next 30 years.

B. There will be plenty of policemen on the highway to control the traffic.

C. The driver will be free to relax and wait for the call that will warn him of his coming exit

D. Other experts however thin k the car is here to stay.

E. The computer will then monitor all the car's movements.

F. One suggested solution to this essential problem is the automated system which seems to hold water.