2014年10月18日托福阅读真题P2+题目+答案：Soil Fertilization

2014年10月18日托福阅读真题P2+题目+答案：Soil Fertilization

Fertilizers partially restore plant nutrients lost by erosion, crop harvesting, and leaching. Farmers can use either organic fertilizer from plant and animal materials or commercial inorganic fertilizer produced from various minerals. Three basic types of organic fertilizer are animal manure, green manure, and compost. Animal manure includes the waste matter of cattle, horses, poultry, and other farm animals. It improves soil structure, adds organic nitrogen, and stimulates beneficial soil bacteria and fungi.

57. The word "beneficial" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.necessary

B.helpful

C.several

D.hidden

Despite its effectiveness, the use of animal manure in the United States has decreased. There are three reasons for this: the replacement of most mixed animal-raising and crop-farming operations with separate operations for growing crops and raising animals, the high costs of transporting animal manure from feedlots near urban areas to distant rural crop-growing areas, and the replacement of horses and other draft animals that added manure to the soil with tractors and other motorized farm machinery.

58. According to paragraph 2, all of the following contributed to the decrease in the use of animal manure in the United States EXCEPT

A.changes in crop-farming and animal-raising operations

B.high transportation costs

C.the movement or large numbers of feedlots to distant rural areas

D.the introduction of motorized farm machinery

Green manure is fresh or growing green vegetation plowed into the soil to increase the organic matter and humus (degraded organic matter) available to the next crop. Compost is a sweet-smelling, dark-brown, humuslike material that is rich in organic matter and soil nutrients. It is produced when microorganisms in soil (mostly fungi and aerobic bacteria) break down organic matter such as leaves, food wastes, paper, and wood in the presence of oxygen. Compost is a rich natural fertilizer and soil conditioner that aerates soil, improves its ability to retain water and nutrients, helps prevent erosion, and prevents nutrients from being wasted by being dumped in landfills. Compost is produced by piling up alternating layers of nitrogen-rich wastes (such as grass clippings, weeds, animal manure, and vegetable kitchen scraps), carbon-rich plant wastes (dead leaves, hay, straw, sawdust), and topsoil. Compost provides a home for microorganisms that help decompose plant and manure layers and reduces the amount of plant wastes taken to landfills and incinerators.

59. According to paragraph 3, what is one advantage of using compost in raising crops?

A.It makes the soil easier to plow in preparation for planting.

B.Water and nutrients stay in the soil and enable plant growth.

C.The damage to soil from microorganisms is reduced.

D.Excess oxygen is removed from the soil.

60. According to paragraph 3, one important physical effect of compost is that it

A.adds an oxygen-rich layer to the layers rich in nitrogen and carbon

B.decreases the quantity of plant material that needs to be discarded

C.helps keep the same amount of moisture in each layer of soil

D.reduces the amount of fungi and aerobic bacteria in the pile

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