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  3. If you want to spark a heated debate at a dinner party, bring up the topic o

If you want to spark a heated debate at a dinner party, bring up the topic o

游客2025-03-25  26
问题     If you want to spark a heated debate at a dinner party, bring up the topic of genetically modified foods. For many people, the concept of genetically altered, high-tech crop production raises all kinds of environmental, healthy, safety and ethical questions. Particularly in countries with long a grain traditions—and vocal green lobbies—the idea seems against nature.
    In fact, genetically modified foods are already very much apart of out lives. A third of corn and more than half the soybeans and cotton grown in the U. S. last year were the product of biotechnology, according to the Department of Agriculture. More than 65 million a-cres of genetically modified crops will be planted in the U. S. this year. The genetic genie(妖怪) is out of the bottle.
    Yet there are clearly some very real issues that need to be resolved. Like any new prod-uct entering the food chain, genetically modified foods must be subjected to rigorous testing. In wealthy countries, the debate about biotech is tempered by the fact that we have a rich array of foods to choose from and a supply that far exceeds our needs. In developing countries desperate to feed fast-growing and underfed populations, the issue is simpler and much more urgent: Do the benefits of biotech outweigh the risks?
    The statistics on population growth and hunger are disturbing. Last year the world’s population reached 6 billion. The U. N. estimates that nearly 800 million people around the world are undernourished. The effects are devastating. About 400 million women of child-bearing age are iron deficient, which means their babies are exposed to various birth defects. As many as 100 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, a leading cause of blindness.
    How can biotech help? Biotechnologists have developed genetically modified rice that is fortified with beta-carotene—which the body converts into vitamin A—and additional iron, and they are working on other kinds of nutritionally improved crops. Biotech can also improve farming productivity in places where food shortages are caused by crop damage attributable to pests, drought, poor soil and crop viruses, bacteria or fungi. [br] The sentence "The genetic genie is out of the bottle. " in Para. 2 probably means
选项 A、the genetic genie, the key technology in producing genetically modified foods, is out in the market
B、the genetic technology has come out of laboratories into markets
C、genetically modified foods are available everywhere
D、technology with which to produce genetically modified foods may have powers unpredictable or uncontrollable by man
答案 D
解析 这句话借助于童话《渔夫与妖怪》的故事，经分析可知这句话说的是转基因技术的负面作用。文章第一段明确指出转基因食品的潜在问题，接着第二段说明转基因食品已成为我们生活的一部分，并介绍了转基因农作物在美国生产的现状，第三段首句又提到“仍有一些问题需要解决”。因此本题的正确答案为D。
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