2015考研英语阅读集中练：plants run a fever

考研网

考研英语阅读水平的提高重在练习，多练才能够增加词汇量，提升对语法语义的把握，才能够更容易的理解和总结文章中心主旨。正所谓熟能生巧，就是这个道理。十一刚过，后续复习任务依然很重，新东方在线小编希望考生能够继续努力，多读多练。下面分享英语阅读集中练篇章，望考生认真阅读。
    2015考研英语阅读集中练：plants run a fever
   
    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 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 spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which
invariably includes plants that don’t have pest 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 may 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.
      温馨提示：10月10日，本周五是考研正式报名开始，希望广大应往届考生提前做好准备。
   
   

2823141274897047.jpg