Question

The world has a fast growing population and people need more land for houses, factories, highways, and so on. The farmland is decreasing with each passing day. How to meet the need of feeding the growing population? One way is to introduce some high-output gene into a crop to enable it to produce more. Biologists over the years have discovered genes which can raise output of the crops, resist pests, improve taste, etc.

However, in many western countries there is widespread concern over the safety of “Genetically Modified”(GM) (轉(zhuǎn)基因) foods, because they think there may be serious problems of environment, health, safety, morality and so on.

As a scientist I must admit GM foods involve great risks to humans. In fact in Europe they’re called “Frankenstein foods” by many. Frankenstein is a character in a novel. He was a very clever scientist. He created a monster(怪物), which eventually killed him.

Soybeans can be made into many foods. However, it’s hard to trace them. Therefore, it’s very important we have to make sure the soybean, if genetically modified, is free from any poisonous matter harmful to human beings. For this we need very good testing. We do have some testing on some animals, but no completely satisfactory testing has ever been made so far. They’re entirely new, and their problems are entirely unknown. It takes time to develop persuasive tests to know whether they’re harmful to us or not.

We may not be able to tell what may happen if we take GM foods. Some of them may be resistant to antibiotics (抗生素). Then many of the medicines we have today will have no effect on people eating GM foods.

A more likely case is the GM foods may contain genes some people are allergic to.

GM products have already come into our lives but most people even know nothing about it. At least we have to be clear about what we are eating. The China Consumers Association is calling for labeling (標(biāo)注) on GM foods so that consumers will know before they buy them.

1.From the passage we can infer that _____.

A. Frankenstein foods can make people clever

B.B.GM foods are very popular in Europe

C. many Europeans reject GM foods

D. Frankenstein was a scientist creating GM foods

2.The underlined phrase “trace them” in Paragraph 4 probably means“ ”.

A. find their market B. raise their quality

C .find their origins D. enjoy their taste

3.Which of the following is TRUE about GM foods?

A. The testing shows GM soybean foods are free from poisonous matter.

B. Sometimes consumers can hardly tell GM soybeans from natural ones.

C.GM foods prove to be safe to humans after some testing on animals.

D.GM foods problems have been known after testing on animals.

4.What can we learn from the passage?

A.GM foods make antibiotics fail to function properly.

B. People eating GM foods will suffer from food allergies.

C.People should be informed of which foods are GM foods.

D.As GM foods are safe at present, they’re certainly safe later on.

Answer 1