科幻照進現實：火星上種蔬菜或將成真

楊奕威

The scene in the Hollywood film The Martian， where the fictional botanist Mark Watney is trapped on the deserted planet and grows potatoes to survive， may come true， according to new research.

Among the many difficulties， a key issue to sending a crew of astronauts to Mars is food. Weight， volume and longevity limit the kinds — and how much of it —can be brought on the long journey. That is a challenge aerospace engineering undergraduate Emmanuel Mendoza has taken on.

Mendoza is currently running a study at Texas A&M University， where he’s mixing simulated Martian soil and poop （排泄物） from insects to find just the right recipe for growing plants on Mars. The seed of this idea was from Ridley Scott’s 2015 film The Martian. Mendoza finally chose to grow English peas for the experiment.

Conditions on Mars are not ideal for plants from Earth. It tends to be rocky and rough， and lacks the right organic matter. In order to supplement his simulated soil with those missing nutrients and organic matter， Mendoza turned to the larvae （幼蟲） of black soldier flies， which excrete a waste known as frass. “They can break down almost any biomatter and they can turn it into really useful byproducts，” Mendoza said. “And then you can use black soldier fly larvae frass as a nutrient substitute for soil.”

In this experiment， Mendoza mixed different proportions of simulated Martian soil and frass to see what best supported growing English pea plants. Now， he said he’s seeing growth across all his plants — even the ones growing in 100% simulated Martian soil.

Mendoza has presented his experiments and findings at the Entomological Society of America. But he’s not done with the project yet. Pea plants take about 10-12 weeks to fully mature， and Mendoza’s are almost there. And soon， he’ll harvest the pea pods. Once he’s done collecting all that data， he said he will write up the results in a paper.

（材料出自npr網站，有刪改）

1. According to the passage， the challenge to Emmanuel Mendoza is ______.

A. the limitation of food

B. the amount of food

C. the difficulty of sending astronauts

D. the defects of the experiment

2. What led Mendoza to want to carry out the study？

A. His childhood dream.

B. His enthusiasm for science.

C. His curiosity about Mars.

D. His inspiration from the movie.

3. What can we infer from the Paragraph 4？

A. There is not enough air on Mars for plants to survive.

B. The frass are used to improve the Martian soil quality.

C. The larvae can break down almost any biomatter.

D. The soil can be replaced with black soldier fly larvae frass.

4. What would the author probably discuss in the paragraph that follows？

A. How Mendoza presented his experiments and findings.

B. How Mendoza finished his paper.

C. How Mendoza became famous.

D. How Mendoza got to the Mars.

1. A。解析：細節理解題。根據題干關鍵詞“the challenge”“Emmanuel Mendoza”，我們可定位至材料第二段第三句，但這句話開頭出現了代詞“That”，因此還需結合上一句來尋找答案。材料第二段第二句提到“重量、體積和壽命限制了長途旅行中所能攜帶食物的種類和數量”，故食物限制是Emmanuel Mendoza要面對的挑戰，A選項符合材料意思。

2. D。解析：細節理解題。根據題干關鍵詞“led”“the study”，我們可定位至材料第三段第二句“The seed of this idea was from Ridley Scott’s 2015 film The Martian”，這一句說明他做實驗的想法來源于2015年的電影《火星救援》，D選項符合材料意思。

3. B。解析：推理判斷題。根據材料第四段的最后一句“And then you can use black soldier fly larvae frass as a nutrient substance for soil”，我們可知黑水虻幼蟲的糞便（frass）可以作為土壤的營養替代物，此處的營養替代物（nutrient substance）指的是原來火星土壤中缺少的物質，B選項符合材料意思。C選項屬于照抄原文，在推理判斷題里不能選這類選項，故排除。

4. B。解析：推理判斷題。根據材料結尾段的最后一句，我們可知Mendoza在完成實驗后會將其寫進論文里，這說明后面的段落很大可能會描述他是如何完成論文的，B選項符合材料意思。