Food Fright
    Experiments under way in several labs aim to create beneficial types of genetically modified (GM) foods, including starchier potatoes and caffeine-free coffee beans. Genetic engineers are even trying to transfer genes from a cold-water fish to make a frost-resistant tomato.
    A low-sugar GM strawberry now in the works might one day allow people with health problems such as diabetes to enjoy the little delicious red fruits again. GM beans and grains supercharged with protein might help people at risk of developing kwashiorkor, Kwashiorkor, a disease caused by severe lack of protein, is common in parts of the world where there are severe food shortages.
    Commenting on GM foods, Jonathon Jones, a British researcher, said: “The future benefits will be enormous, and the best is yet to come.”
    To some people, GM foods are no different from unmodified foods. “A tomato is a tomato,” said Brian Sansoni, an American food manufacturer.
    Critics of GM foods challenge Sansoni’s opinion. They worry about the harm that GM crops might do to people, other animals, and plants.
    In a recent lab study conducted at Cornell University, scientists tested pollen made by Bt corn, which makes up one-fourth of the U. S. corn crop. The scientist sprinkled the pollen onto milkweed, a plant that makes a milky juice and is the only known food source of the monarch butterfly caterpillar. Within four days of munching on the milkweed leaves, almost half of a test group of caterpillars had died. “Monarchs are considered to be a flagship species for conservation, “said Cornell researcher Linda Raynor. “This is a warning bell.”
    Some insects that are not killed by GM foods might find themselves made stronger. How so? The insecticides used to protect most of today’s crops are sprayed on the crops when needed and decay quickly in the environment. But GM plants produce a continuous level of insecticide. Insect species feeding on those crops may develop resistance to the plants and could do so in a hurry, say the critics. Insects may also develop a resistance to the insecticide Bt.
    At the forum on GM food held last year in Canada. GM crops that have been made resistant to the herbicide might crossbreed with wild plants, creating “superweeds” that could take over whole fields.
    So where do you stand? Should GM foods be banned in the United States, as they are in parts of Europe? Or do their benefits outweigh any of the risks they might carry?

1. Paragraphs 1, 2 & 3 tries to give the idea that
  A. GM foods may bring about great benefits to humans.
  B. we cannot recognize the benefits of GM foods too early.
  C. GM foods may have both benefits and harm.
  D. GM foods are particularly good to the kwashiorkor patients.

2. Why is the case of the pollen-sprayed milkweed cited in Paragraph 6?
  A. It is cited to show GM foods can kill insects effectively.
  B. It is cited to show GM foods contain more protein.
  C. It is cited to show GM foods also have a dark side.
  D. It is cited to show GM foods may harm crops.

3. What happens to those insects when not killed by the spray of insecticide?
  A. They may lose their ability to produce offspring.
  B. They may have a higher ability to adapt to the environment.
  C. They move to other fields free from insecticide.
  D. They never eat again those plants containing insecticide.

4. Which of the following statements concerning banning GM foods is true according to the passage?
  A. Underdeveloped countries have banned GM foods.
  B. Both Europe and the U. S. have banned GM foods.
  C. Most European countries have not banned GM foods.
  D. The United States has not banned GM foods.

5. What is the writer’s attitude to GM foods?
  A. We cannot tell from the passage.
  B. He thinks their benefits outweigh their risks.
  C. He thinks their risks outweigh their benefits.
  D. He thinks their benefits and risks are balanced.
Ebbysemeyer—King of Currents
    On December 9, 1994, the Huundai Seattle, a large freighter, lost 49 containers of cargo during a storm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Among the cargo that fell overboard were some 34, 000 hockey gloves. Unable to retrieve the lost cargo, the ship headed for its destination in the United States.
    What happened to the hockey gloves? Eight months later, the crew of a fishing boat found seven of them 1, 300 kilometers off the Oregon coast. Six months after that, the rest of the gloves began washing up on beaches in Washington state.
    “Just as my colleague Jay Ingraham and I predicted,” said Ebbyesemeyer, a scientist in Seattle. An authority on ocean currents, Ebbysemeyer has been called the “King of Currents.” For more than 30 years, he has been tracking an assortment of floating objects—everything from huge icebergs to tiny bathtub toys. With his knowledge of ocean currents and sophisticated computer program developed by Ingraham, he can now predict with amazing accuracy which way floating objects will drift and where and when they will reach shore.
    Why is it important to know such things? Because, Ebbysemeyer points out, knowledge of ocean currents can help determine how far an oil spill might spread or where the sewage from a treatment plant will go. By mapping currents, scientists can also figure out where plankton might drift or what paths salmon will take through the ocean to reach the streams of their birth.
    Ebbysemeyer says currents are like giant rivers in the ocean. They are found both at the ocean’s surface and several thousands feet down on the seafloor.
    Surface currents are driven mainly by the wind and by earth’s rotation, through a force called the Coriolis effect. As the wind pushes the water forward, the Coriolis effect nudges it slightly sideways. The two influences combine to make surface waters move in great loops.
    Deep ocean currents are created as seawater approaches the North and South Poles. As the water cools, its molecules draw closer together, making each gallon denser. Heavier than warm water, the cold water sinks to the ocean floor, miles beneath the surface flows. The deep currents then drift toward the equator, where they are gradually heated by the sun. The water molecules spread out again, and the lighter, less dense fluid rises to the surface.
    That is not the whole story, Ebbysemeyer says. Before you can accurately predict where or when a floating object will reach a particular shore, you must also consider certain details. One detail is windage. To calculate windage, Ebbysemeyer floats various items—cans, bottles, shoes—in a tank, then blasts each one with the breeze from a powerful fan.
“Some things sit on the water and just scoot right along,” said Ebbysemeyer. “Others are fairly well submerged and are not exposed to the wind much at all. A rubber bathtub toy might move at a rate of around 48 kilometers per day, compared with an athletic shoe, which will cover only 32 kilometers in the same period.”
    Ebbysemeyer estimates that a thousand containers of cargo fall into the sea from ships every year. His data suggest that some of those items can remain adrift for years before washing shore. He cites the case of an unknown Nike sneaker that washed ashore in Washington after floating for three years in the Pacific Ocean. “It was still quite wearable,” said Ebbysemeyer.

1. What happened to those hockey gloves that fell overboard?
  A. They were retrieved by the crew.
  B. Some of them reached shore at last.
  C. They sank to the seafloor.
  D. They were completely lost in the vast ocean.

2. Why does Ebbysemeyer study ocean currents?
  A. For pragmatic purposes.
  B. For fun.
  C. Just out of curiosity.
  D. To study the lives of plankton.

3. All the factors that affect ocean currents are discussed in the passage EXCEPT
  A. the sun’s heat
  B. rotation of the earth.
  C. gravitational force.
  D. windage

4. What creates deep ocean currents?
  A. High temperatures near the equator.
  B. Magnetic force near the South Pole.
  C. Magnetic force near the North Pole.
  D. Low temperatures near the two Poles.

5. What does the example of a Nike sneaker given in the last paragraph indicate?
  A. Nike products are most durable.
  B. Sometimes, objects may drift in the ocean for years.
  C. Seawater erodes drifting objects including Nike products.
  D. The Nike sneaker is still wearable after years of drifting.