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 (红外线) 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(杀虫剂) spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don't have pest(害虫) 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 map 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.

这是一篇说明文。文章一开头就介绍了原用于军事和卫星的红外线扫描技术，如今被用在农业上。通过远距离测量植物的温度来判断农作物是否遭受虫害和疾病。在第二段中指出，物理学家帕里组建了帕里远红外扫描服务公司，来专门探测农业方面的情况。最后他的公司在三年后被迫关闭，主要是因为缺乏资金。另外，农民们也一时不能接受这种新技术。作者期待将来有一天可以解决财政困难，将这一新技术重新用到农业上去。

26. Plants will emit an increased amount of heat when they are _______

A) sprayed with pesticides B) facing an infrared scanner

C) in poor physical condition D) exposed to excessive sun rays

[答案及分析]：[C]。词组理解题。本文第 一段的第 一句话谈到：“Even plants can run fever...by insects or disease.”这就告诉了我们植物升高温度的原因。本句所问的也正是这个原因。因此，C正告诉了我们这一点，所以C是正确答案。

27. In order to apply pesticide spraying precisely, we can use infrared scanning to_______.

A) estimate the damage to the crops

B) measure the size of the affected area

C) draw a color-coded map

D) locate the problem area

[答案及分析]：[D]词汇理解题。在第 一段的原文中“The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide spraying...”其中的意思是“确定”(虫害发生的地方)”而答案D是说“要确定问题所在地区”，信息与本文相符，故D为正确答案;而A、B、C都与本文不符。

28. Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by _______.

A) resorting to spot-spraying B) consulting infrared scanning experts

C) transforming poisoned rain D) detecting crop problems at an early stage

[答案及分析]：[A]。判断题。问农民通过何种方式可节省杀虫剂。在文章的第二段中谈到帕里远红外线扫描服务公司利用飞机上的远红外线扫描仪夜间在3000英尺的高度探测到庄稼的情况，然后可将这些情况提供给农民，农民可喷洒农药，这样只使用原来农药量的50%-70%就足够了。故答案A的信息与本文相符;而B、C、D均不正确。

29. The application of infrared scanning technology to agriculture met with somedifficulties _______.

A) the lack of official support B) its high cost C) the lack of financial D) its failure to help increase production

[答案及分析]：[C]。词汇理解题。问远红外扫描技术用于农业上时遇到的阻力，原因何在。在本文最后段中指出：1984年，帕里公司被迫关闭的原因一资金缺乏。并呼吁说：“But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10years ago.”其中financial backing的意思与本题C的“financial support”相同。所以答案C正确。