Farms Sprout in Cities etc.

2013-03-11

中学科技 2013年1期

Whenyouheartheword"farm"，chancesareyoupicturerollinghillsinthecountrycoveredwithcowsandcornstalks.Butsomescientists，engineersandcityplannerssaythefarmsofthefuturecouldrisestraightintotheair-inskyscrapersintheworld'smostpopulatedcities.

Thoseintheknowsaybringingfarmingindoorssolvesanumberofproblems.First，traditionalfarmingtakesupalotofland，whilecitiesthatgrowtheirownfoodwouldbecomemoreself-reliant，andlessvulnerabletocatastrophessuchashurricanes.Totopitoff，bytheyear2050，theworldpopulationwillgrowbyanother3billion.Aspopulationsgrow，thelandavailableforfarmingshrinks，raisinganimportantquestion：wherewillwegrowthefoodforallthesepeople？Scientistssay"verticalfarming"-growingcropsinskyscraperstensofstorieshigh-istheanswer.

Butthosefamiliarwiththehurdlesofgrowingcropsindoorssayit'snotgoingtobeeasytomakethetransitiontoverticalfarming.Itcanbetrickytoregulateclimateconditionsindoors.Maintainingthecorrectbalanceofhumiditycanbeespeciallychallenging.Mimickingsunlightistooexpensiveforwidespreaduseyet.

That'snot tosay thesechallengeswon't beover-come-butitwilltaketime.Mostexpertssuggestitwouldbeanywherebetween5and15yearsbeforethefirstverticalfarmscouldbecreated.

当你听到“农庄”这个词时，很可能你脑子里想象到的是乡下那些遍地牛羊和谷物的连绵起伏的山岗。但有些科学家、工程师和城市规划师说，未来的农庄有可能会直接向空中伸展——坐落在世界上人口最多的城市的摩天大楼里。

知情人士称把种植业引进室内可以解决许多问题。首先，传统的种植业占用大量土地，而能自行种植食物的城市更可实现自给自足，且较少受到灾难（如飓风）的影响。加之，到2050年世界人口将再增加30亿。随着人口的增加，可耕地越来越少，这就产生了一个严重问题：我们将在什么地方为这些人种植食物呢？科学家们认为，答案是“垂直种植”——把作物种在几十层楼高的摩天大楼里。

但熟知室内种植庄稼困难的人士却认为，过渡到垂直种植并不是一件容易的事。调节室内的气候条件相当困难，保持室内适当的湿度尤为不易，而模拟阳光的代价则太大了，还不适合推广。

这并不意味着这些困难就不能被克服——但要克服它们还需要时间。多数专家认为要建立起第一座垂直农庄还需要5到15年的时间。

（翻译时请注意斜体字的译法）

GlobalTemperaturesFourthHighestonRecord

AccordingtoNOAA（NationalOceanicandAtmosphericAdministration美国国家海洋和大气局）scientists，thegloballyaveraged（1）t forJune2012markedthefourthwarmestJunesincerecordkeepingbeganin1880.Thecombinedaveragetemperatureovergloballandandoceansurfaceswas61.03°F，1.13°Fabovethe20th（2）c average.June2012alsomarksthe36thconsecutiveJuneand328thconsecutivemonthwithaglobaltemperatureabovethe20thcenturyaverage.Thelastbelow-averagetemperatureJunewasJune1976andthelastbelow-averagetemperature（3）m wasFebruary1985.

Mostareasoftheworldexperiencedmuchabove-averagemonthlytemperatures，includingmostofNorthAmericaandEurasia（欧亚大陆），and（A）n Africa.OnlyAustralia，northernandwesternEurope，andthenorthwesternUnitedStateswerenotablycoolerthan（B）a Austriarecordedits（C）h everJunetemperatureof99.9°FonJune30.ThemonthlytemperatureduringJuneintheUnitedKingdomwas0.5°Fbelowthe1971～2000average，makingthisthecoolestJunesince1991.Australiaalsoremained（D）c thanaverageduetothelingeringeffectsofLaNi?a（拉尼娜现象）.

Fortheocean，theJuneglobalsea（4）s temperaturewas0.85°Fabovethe20thcenturyaverageof61.5°F，the10thwarmestJuneon（E）r .AccordingtoNOAA'sClimatePredictionCenter，thereisanincreasedchancethatElNi?oconditionswillemergebeginninginJuly-September2012.ElNi?oisoften，butnotalways，associatedwith（5）g

temperaturesthatarehigherthantemperaturesintheneutralandLaNi?aphases.

（A，B，C，D，EFORCROSS，1，2，3，4，5FORDOWN.Thefirstlettersoftheabsentsweregiven）

Divisiblefrom1to9

Findanumberconsistingof9digitsinwhicheachofthedigitsfrom1to9appearsonlyonce.Thisnumbershouldsatisfythefollowingrequirements：

a.Thenumbershouldbedivisibleby9.

b.Ifthemostrightdigitisremoved，theremainingnumbershouldbedivisibleby8.

c.Ifthenagainthemostrightdigitisremoved，theremainingnumbershouldbedivisibleby7.

d.etc.untilthelastremainingnumberofonedigitwhichshouldbedivisibleby1.

上期答案

上期ReadingComprehension答案

1.D 2.D 3.C

上期Crossword答案