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  3. On a clear, cold day in early March 2019, Justin Jordan, a fifth-generation

On a clear, cold day in early March 2019, Justin Jordan, a fifth-generation

游客2023-08-04  16
问题     On a clear, cold day in early March 2019, Justin Jordan, a fifth-generation grower in Lacona, Iowa, reads attentively old maps spread across his dining-room table. One creased, yellowing chart shows a soil-conservation plan his grandfather created with the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) in the 1950s, including terraces for controlling erosion and areas designated for tree planting. The agency was working to reverse critical topsoil loss from decades of mass-scale plowing.
    His grandfather implemented part of the scheme. But new synthetic fertilizers, which could boost yields by 50 percent, made the situation less terrible, so he continued cultivating their corn and soybean fields each year. As did Jordan’s dad, and most other farmers. Over the past 150 years, cultivation has chewed up about half of Earth’s topsoil.
    Jordan, an polite, soft-spoken man in his late 30s, stopped plowing and began planting cover crops when he took over in the early 2000s. "I was eager to do things in a different way," he says. "It just seemed like every year the topsoil was getting thinner." Jordan tends 410 acres—larger than most farms selling vegetables at Saturday markets, but tiny compared with 10,000-acre corporate operations.
    Aerial photos show the contrast between his land and that of other farmers, most of whom continue deep cultivation. His soil is dark and rich, but from the air, his fields appear lighter, covered in accumulated mulch (护根物). Strips of hay grass (for his cattle) and native prairie species cover across the slopes-year-round plants that pump carbon into the soil. Neighboring barren fields steadily release it.
    Once Jordan brings in his corn in October, he sows a cover of rye (黑麦) among the drying stalks that stays green through the following spring, when he cuts it down and seeds next year’s crop in the mulch. He sprinkles his soybean fields before the September harvest with a cocktail of rye, radishes, and oats, creating a mini forest beneath the knee-high cash crop. With all these changes, his yields have remained roughly the same as his neighbors’.
    Soon, folks like Jordan might gain a financial edge. The Terraton Initiative, the nation’s first carbon market dedicated to agriculture, launched in June 2019 out of the farm-tech startup Indigo Ag. Companies that want to offset their emissions purchase credits; Terraton then pays growers $15 per ton for the carbon their land captures. Within six months, farmers tending a total of 10 million acres worldwide expressed interest in signing up.
    More cash would be nice, but climate change is the motivating factor for Jordan—out of global concern, and to keep his harvest from washing away. [br] What does the author say about Jordan?
选项 A、He continues deep cultivation.
B、He covers his soil with grass.
C、He tends to be easy and informal.
D、He farms his land as his father did.
答案 B
解析 根据题干中的信息词以及选项中的关键词，可以把答题线索定位到第三至四段。由第四段的内容可知，航拍照片显示了他的土地和其他农场主的土地不一样，其他农场主中的大多数人继续深耕，他的田地土壤黝黑且肥沃，但从空中看，他的田地似乎更明亮，覆盖着厚厚的护根物。山坡上覆盖着一片片的干草(为他的牛准备的)和原生草原物种，由此可知，乔丹没有和其他农场主一样继续深耕，并且他将土壤覆盖了干草，因此本题可以排除A，而选择B。由第三段开头可知，乔丹是一个有礼貌、说话温和的人，年近40，他在21世纪初接管农场之后就停止了耕作，开始种植覆盖作物，故排除C和D。
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