Even plants can run a fever, especially when they're under attack by insects or disease. But unlike humans, plants can have their temperature taken from 3 , 000 feet away - straight up. A decade ago, adapting the infrared ( 紅外線 ) scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide ( 殺蟲(chóng)劑 ) spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don't have pest ( 害蟲(chóng) ) problems.

　　Even better, Paley's Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3 , 000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running "fevers". Farmers could then spot-spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.

　　The bad news is that Paley's company closed down in 1984 , after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. "This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States," says George Oerther of Texas A&M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.

　　1 . Plants will emit an increased amount of heat when they are ___________.

　　A) sprayed with pesticides B) facing an infrared scanner

　　C) in poor physical condition D) exposed to excessive sun rays

　　2 . In order to apply pesticide spraying precisely, we can use infrared scanning to _________.

　　A) estimate the damage to the crops B) draw a colour-coded map

　　C) measure the size of the affected area D) locate the problem area

　　3 Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by __________.

　　A) resorting to spot-spraying B) consulting infrared scanning experts

　　C) transforming poisoned rain D) detecting crop problems at an early date

　　4 The application of infrared scanning technology to agriculture met with some difficulties due to __________.

　　A) the lack of official support B) its high cost

　　C) the lack of financial support D) its failure to help increase production

　　5 Infrared scanning technology may be brought back into operation because of __________.

　　A) the desire of farmers to improve the quality of their produce

　　B) growing concern about the excessive use of pesticides on crops

　　C) the forceful promotion by the Department of Agriculture

　　D) full support from agricultural experts

　　答案： 1.C 2.D 3A 4.C 5.B

    2015年新陽(yáng)光同等學(xué)力輔導(dǎo)班已于9月開(kāi)班，經(jīng)過(guò)一段時(shí)間的學(xué)習(xí)，很多學(xué)員反映復(fù)習(xí)效果良好。為了服務(wù)更多的學(xué)員，幫錯(cuò)過(guò)前期報(bào)班的學(xué)，現(xiàn)已開(kāi)通輔導(dǎo)二班，立志于繼續(xù)攜手北大、人大等名校師資集中講給考生傳授授考試重點(diǎn)、難點(diǎn)，幫助學(xué)員短時(shí)間內(nèi)獲得提升，并最終順利通過(guò)考試。詳情請(qǐng)點(diǎn)擊：/zhuanti/tdxlkb.html

    更多同等學(xué)力英語(yǔ)真題請(qǐng)瀏覽同等學(xué)力英語(yǔ)單科頻道，關(guān)于2015同等學(xué)力申碩院校招生開(kāi)班的詳細(xì)信息可以聯(lián)系我們的在線老師獲取。