世界首款“火星番茄酱”

胡金莹

最近，美國亨氏公司发布了全球首款“火星番茄酱”。制作这款番茄酱的番茄是研究人员耗时九个月，在与火星相似的土壤、温度和水环境中培育的火星版番茄。然而，亨氏的“火星番茄酱”目前并不对外销售。

1Recently， Heinz has just released a special “Marz Edition” ketchup， a kind of ketchup made from tomatoes that were grown in agricultural conditions which imitated those on Mars. The site for this feat was the “Red House”， a greenhouse at the Florida Institute of Technology's Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design. There， a team of researchers led by Andrew Palmer， an associate professor of biological science at the school's Aldrin Space Institute， spent thousands of hours fostering tomatoes with resources similar to what future Mars farmers would have.

2Instead of sunlight， for example， the tomatoes were exposed to LED lights. Researchers also brought in roughly 7，800 pounds of Mojave Desert soil， a relatively close approximation of the red planet's rocky regolith （风化层）. In order to maximize the project's chances of success， Heinz's agriculture experts chose four tomato varieties from the brand's seed catalog that they thought would be most resilient （有适应力的） in the Mars⁃like environment. Two succeed; two didn't.

3Though the process may seem as straightforward and fruitful as what Matt Damon's Mars⁃stranded characters undertook in 2015's The Martian， there's a lot of careful work that goes into it， from achieving the perfect balance of nutrients in the soil to determining how the plants should be organized. In this case， the researchers found that placing various kinds of plants together in a container rather than giving each its own container could help to increase microbe diversity and decrease the spread of disease. Actually， this is not the first time that scientists have tried to grow plants under Martian conditions， but those studies have mainly concerned “short⁃term plant growth”.

4“What this project has done is look at long⁃term food harvesting. Achieving a crop that is of a quality to become Heinz ketchup was the dream result and we achieved it，” said one of the researchers.

5Unfortunately， for ketchup lovers and space enthusiasts， Heinz's “Marz Edition” ketchup isn't for sale. But you should be assured （放心） that if you end up living on Mars， there's a good chance that you'll have ketchup to put on your Martian fries.

Reading Check

Choose the best answers according to the text

Detail 1. Where were the tomatoes used to make the “Marz Edition” ketchup grown？

A. On Mars. B. In space.

D. On the desert. D. On a greenhouse.

Inference   2. What happened when various plants were placed in the same container？

A. Plants grew much healthier.

B. The spread of disease was increased.

C. The diversity was reduced.

D. Plants took in nutrients greatly.

Detail   3. What can we know about Heinz's “Marz Edition” ketchup？

A. It will become a best⁃seller.

B. It won't reach customers.

C. It needs great improvement.

D. It will be brought to Mars.

Inference 4. Where is the text probably taken from？

A. A food recipe.

B. An advertisement.

C. A sci?fi novel.

D. A science magazine.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Analyze the difficult sentence in the text

Actually， this is not the first time that scientists have tried to grow plants under Martian conditions， but those studies have mainly concerned “short⁃term plant growth”. 事实上，这并不是科学家们第一次尝试在火星环境中种植植物，但这些研究主要关注的是“短期植物生长”。

【点石成金】本句中，this is the first time that...为固定句型，意为“这是第一次……”，that从句通常用现在完成时。

Ⅱ. Memorize some text⁃centered chunks

foster tomatoes 培育番茄

be similar to 与……相似

decrease the spread of disease 减少疾病的传播

for sale 待售

end up 最终成为;最后处于