【限时任务发布,请宿主在12h内完成附件的练习题,并保证正答率高于60%。】
岑越崎一脸黑线。好哥们吴青请他一起去看新上映的电影,他才出校园。
喂,你们任务发布可以不要这么任性吗?他敲了敲屏幕,试图和系统打价还价。
12h虽然不短,但他来回一趟就要四五个小时,晚上还要和回来导师商讨毕业论文,他对自己能自由支配的时间深感失望。
学习诚可贵,休息价更高,
若为娱乐故,两者皆可抛。
我不休息了吗?能不能融通一下。岑越崎蹙眉,略微不满地问道。
系统沉默片刻,屏幕微微闪烁。
【宿主可以使用积分延时,1h1000点积分】
上次任务结算,岑越崎刚获得了五千积分。他微微搜索一会,随即妥协。
“行,那帮我加2个小时。”
……
待岑越崎一切就绪已是深夜11点,本该是休息的时间,然而岑越崎仍坐在书桌前,一副苦大仇深的表情。
他倒要看看价值两千块的任务难度如何。
The Curious Case of the Tree That Owns Itself
A)
In the city of Athens, Georgia, there exists a rather curious local landmark a large white oak that is almost universally(普遍的) stated to own itself.
Because of this, it is considered one of the most famous trees in the world. So how did this tree come to own itself and the land around it?
B) Sometime in the 19th century a Georgian called Colonel William Jackson reportedly took a liking to the said tree and endeavored(努力) to protect it from any danger.
As to why he loved it so, the earliest (最早的)documented(具有证明文件的) account of this story is an anonymously written front page article in the Athens Weekly Banner published on August 12, 1890.
It states, "Col. Jackson had watched the tree grow from his childhood, and grew to love it almost as he would a human.
Its luxuriant (繁茂的)leaves and sturdy limbs (粗壮的枝干)had often protected him from the heavy rains, and out of its highest branches he had many a time gotten the eggs of the feathered singers.
He watched its growth, and when reaching a ripe (成熟)old age he saw the tree standing in its magnificent (宏伟的)proportions, he was pained to think that after his death it would fall into the hands of those who might destroy it."
C)
Towards this end, Jackson transferred by means of a deed (契约)ownership of the tree and a little land around it to the tree itself.
The deed read, "W. H.Jackson for and in consideration of the great affection which he bears the said tree, and his great desire(强烈愿望) to see it protected has conveyed unto the said oak tree entire possession of itself and of all land withi- n eight feet of it on all sides."
D)
In time, the tree came to be something of a tourist attraction, known as The Tree That Owns Itself.
However, in the early 20th century, the tree started showing signs of its slow death, with little that could be done about it.
Father time(时间老人) comes for us all eventually, even our often long lived, tall and leafy fellow custodians(守护者) of Earth.
Finally, on October 9, 1942, the over 30 meter tall and 200-400 year old tree fell, rumor(谣言) has it, as a result of a severe windstorm and/or via having previously died and its roots rotted.
E)
About four years later, members of the Junior Ladies Garden Club (who'd tended to the tree before its unfortunate death tracked down a small tree grown from a nut taken from the original tree.
And so it was that on October 9, 1946, under the direction of Professor Roy Bowden of the College of Agriculture at the University of Georgia, this little tree was transplanted to the location of its ancestor(祖先).
A couple of months later, an official ceremony was held featuring none other than the Mayor of Athens,Robert L McWhorter, to commemorate(纪念) the occasion.
F)
This new tree became known as The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself and it was assumed that, as the original tree's heir, it naturally inherited (继承)the land it stood on.
Of course, there are many dozens of other trees known to exist descending(下降) from the original, as people taking a nut from it to grow elsewhere was a certainty.
That said, to date, none of the original tree's other children have petitioned (请愿)the courts for their share of the land, so it seems all good.
In any event, The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself still stands today, though often referred to simply as The Tree That Owns Itself.
G)
This all brings us around to whether Jackson ever actually gave legal ownership of the tree to itself in the first place and whether such a deed is legally binding(法律约束力).
H)
Well, to begin with, it turns out Jackson only spent about three years of his life in Athens, starting at the age of 43 from 1829 to 1832, sort of dismissing(解散) the idea that he loved the tree from spending time under it as a child and watching it grow, and then worrying about what would happen to it after he died.
Further, an extensive (广泛的)search of land ownership records in Athens does not seem to indicate Jackson ever owned the land the tree sits on.
He did live on a lot of land directly next to it for those three years, but whether he owned that land or not isn't clear.
Whatever the case(不论怎样), in 1832 a four acre parcel(英亩), which included the land the tree was on and the neighboring land Jackson lived on, among others, was sold to University professor Malthus A Ward.
In the transaction,Ward was required to pay Jackson a sum of $1,200 (about $31,000 today), either for the property itself or simply in compensation for (补偿)improvements Jackson had made on the lot(份额).
In the end, whether he ever owned the neighboring lot or was simply allowed to use it while he allegedly (据说)worked at the University, he definitely never owned the lot the tree grew on, which is the most important bit for the topic at hand.
J)
After Professor Ward purchased the land, Jackson and his family purchased a 655 acre parcel a few miles away and moved there.
Ten years later, in 1844, Jackson seems to have come into financial difficulties and had his little plantation (种植园)seized by the Clarke County Sheriff's office and auctioned (拍卖)off to settle the mortgage(抵押).
Thus, had he owned some land in Athens itself, including the land the tree sat on, presumably he would have sold it to raise funds or otherwise had it taken as well.
K)
And whatever the case there, Jackson would have known property taxes needed to be paid on the deeded land for the tree to be truly secure in its future.
Yet no account or record indicates any trust or the like was set up to facilitate (促进)this.
L)
On top of all this, there is no hard evidence such a deed ever existed, despite the fact that deed records in Athens go back many decades before Jackson's death in 1876 and that it was supposed to have existed in 1890 in the archives according to the original anonymous news reporter who claims to have seen it.
M)
As you might imagine from all of this, few give credit (相信)to this side of the story. So how did all of this come about then?
N)
It is speculated (据推测)to have been invented by the imagination of the said anonymous author at the Athens Weekly Banner in the aforementioned 1890 front page article titled "Deeded to Itself", which by the way contained several elements that are much more easily proved to be false.
As to why the author would do this, it's speculated perhaps it was a 19th century version of a click-bait thought exercise on whether it would be legal for someone to deed such a non-conscious living thing to itself or not.
0)
Whatever the case, the next known instance(实例) of the Tree That Owned Itself being mentioned wasn't until 1901 in the Centennial Edition of that same paper, the Athens Weekly Banner.
This featured another account very clearly just copying the original article published about a decade before, only slightly reworded(改写).
The next account(描述) was in 1906, again in the Athens Weekly Banner, again very clearly copying the original account, only slightly reworded, the 19th century equivalent (相同的)of re-posts when the audience has forgotten about the original.
1.Jackson was said to have transferred his ownership of the oak tree to itself in order to protect it from being destr- oyed.
2.No proof has been found from an extensive search that Jackson had ever owned the land where the oak tree grew.
3.When it was raining heavily, Jackson often took shelter under a big tree that is said to own itself.
4.There is no evidence that Jackson had made arrangements to pay property taxes for the land on which the oak tree sat.
5.Professor Ward paid Jackson over one thousand dollars when purchasing a piece of land from him.
6.It is said the tree that owned itself fell in a heavy windstorm.
7.The story of the oak tree is suspected to have been invented as a thought exercise.
8.Jackson's little plantation was auctioned off to settle his debt in the mid-19th century.
9.An official ceremony was held to celebrate the transplanting of a small tree to where its ancestor had stood.
10.The story of the Tree That Owns Itself appeared in the local paper several times, with slight alterations in wording.
Key: C-H-B-K-I-D-N-J-E-O
Are forgotten crops the future of food?
{A}
On a small fruit farm near the Straits of Malacca(马六甲海峡), Lim Kok Ann is down to just one tree growing kedondong, a crunchy, sour berry that Malaysians mostly use in pickles and salads.
"It's not very well-known," says the 45-year-old, who is instead focusing on longan berries and pineapples(凤梨), which have bigger markets.
"We have to grow what is profitable," he says.
{B}
But less than an hour away in the Malaysian countryside, inside three giant, silver domes, scientists are trying to change the future of food.
They're pushing the boundaries (界限)of what humans eat by growing and processing so-called 'alternative' crops 一 such as kedondong.
At the headquarters of global research centre Crops For the Future (CFF) this particular under-used fruit has been turned into a sugar-free juice, high in vitamin C and getting top marks in sensory evaluations(感官评估).
"Anything you see here is a forgotten crop," says Sayed Azam-Ali of the abundant plants weaving through the gardens of CFF outside Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur.
{C}
Prof Azam-Ali explains that just four crops -wheat, maize(玉米), rice and soybean(大豆) -provide two-thirds of the world's food supply.
"We're dependent on these four," he says.
"But actually there's 7,000 crops we've been farming for thousands of years. We ignore all of those."
Researchers are trying to unlock the potential of these ignored crops -plants they describe as forgotten, under-used or 'alternative' as they are displaced by increasingly uniform diets fuelled by processed ingredients from the major crops.
{D}
It's a timely quest.
The food sector (部门)is already responsible for nearly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
By 2050 it estimates the world must produce 50% more food to feed the projected global population of 10 billion.
Meeting this demand without contributing to climate change calls for urgent solutions.
{E}
Forgotten crops hold key answers.
By investing in neglected local plants, countries can reduce their reliance on imported crops and their carbon-heavy supply chains.
Bringing back the variety of crops humans once ate also boosts food security at a time warming climates threaten existing crops.
On top of that forgotten crops are among the most climate-resilient(气候区) and nutritious, argues Azam-Ali.
His summary is plain: "Dietary diversification(多样化) is critical to the future of humanity."
{F}
Food security experts (食品安全专家)agree.
"There is no food insecurity in the world, there is food ignorance," says Cecilia Tortajada, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Water Policy at the National University of Singapore.
"Whenever we have native crops we tend to disregard them as if they were not valuable but they are," she adds.
{G}
Azam-Ali knows that scepticism (怀疑)firsthand.(直接的)
He came across alternative crops in the 1980s through the work of women farmers he met in Niger.
The then-PhD student remembers marvelling (惊奇于)at the crops they grew in their backyards, without the benefits of technology, to feed their families when the big crops failed.
He saw a tremendous opportunity to build alternative food systems.
But "the resistance (阻力)was enormous" , he recalls.
{H}
Undeterred, he ploughed on(继续前进).
Project after project helped prove these crops were viable in different environments as alternatives to the staple (主要作物)ones.
But the question of whether these crops would be marketable remained."That's the critical thing," he says.
In one of the centre's domes, food technologist Tan Xinlin uses powdered moringa leaves in place of some wheat flour to bake a cake lower in gluten and higher in nutrients.
Tan's job is to create recipes(食谱) with these still-unfamiliar ingredients that will appeal to both local and international tastes.
In recent years she has used some of the forgotten crops grown at CFF, such as moringa and bambara groundnut, to make everything from instant(速溶) soup to Indian snacks.
"I try to modernise (现代化)forgotten crops instead of using old recipes" , says Tan, who is also a trained chef.
It's a strategy to appeal to the world's growing middle class who are increasingly turning to the fast and processed food industries.
It's also a way to help counter perceptions(观念) of local crops as "old or poor people's food" or as inferior "women's crops", adds Tan.
{I}
The roots of these connotations about local foods can run deep.
The bambara groundnut, a protein-rich native crop of sub-Saharan Africa that is also grown in parts of southeast Asia, can trace its marginalisation(边缘化) to colonial(殖民化) rule(统治).
"African women who grew bambara groundnut were actually punished for growing it" , says Azam-Ali."Colonial powers said you can't grow it because there's no oil. We can't get a market for it" .
But today the bambara murukku is one of CFF's best-reviewed foods and they are aiming to get it into grocery stores, pointing to the success of crops like quinoa(藜麦) to potential investors.
Some 30 years ago, quinoa was virtually unheard of outside its native mountains in Bolivia and Peru.
Today the nutritious grain is found on the menus of lavish(豪华) restaurants across the world.
{J}
Measuring crops by nutrition instead of yield is at the heart of the forgotten foods enterprise(企业).
Ever since the "green revolution" of the 1960s, high-yielding crops have dominated modern agriculture.
That was in part a crucial response to devastating (毁灭性的)famines(饥荒) at a time when the world needed to increase its food supply.
Today "nutrition is becoming a time bomb" , says Azam-Ali, as growing carbon dioxide levels strip crops of their minerals(矿物质).
Instead of bio-fortifying(生物强化) major crops we should be investing in those forgotten crops that are already more nutritious, he asserts.
{K}
In the bowels of CFF's third dome, lab manager Gomathy Sethuraman opens a window into the centre's "crown jewels" , revealing vines (葡萄藤)of winged beans growing under a bright yellow light.
It's one of three chambers where scientists are studying the impact of higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels on the nutritional make-up of alternative crops.
This research is "the game changer" , says Azam-Ali, ensuring that "future foods" are also the healthiest ones in warmer climates.
{L}
There is a growing global momentum (动力)around forgotten foods, says Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, a US-based think tank.
Other than CFF, which bills itself as the world's first research centre dedicated solely to under-utilised crops, there are other key groups championing agricultural diversity including Crop Trust, Slow Food, Icrisat and Bioversity International.
Add to that more middle-income consumers searching for nutritious foods and others eager to try the unprocesse- d foods their grandparents once ate, she says.
{M}
But the rising interest in forgotten foods in some quarters is overtaken (压到)by the global spread of Western-style diets heavy in sugar, fat and processed foods in others.
{N}
A key obstacle(障碍) to promoting fading local crops in Malaysia, for example, is "the obsession (困扰)with imported products" , says Jenifer Kuan, co-founder of a restaurant that champions (冠军)locally-sourced food in an affluent suburb of Kuala Lumpur.
Customers at Sitka, regarded as the pioneer(先驱) in the country's small farm-to-table dining scene, still seek foreign ingredients as a "status symbol" , she says.
{0}
The argument for forgotten foods feels intuitive(直观的). Some analysts say it is in fact inevitable.
"Climate change is going to mean almost certainly tastes are going to be forced to change," says Tim Lang, profess- or of food policy at City University of London.
We "have to get used to eating other crops" as yields of staple crops fall, he says.
36.According to a senior researcher, we will have secure food supply if we rid ourselves of ignorance about native crops.
37.Most of the world's food supply comes from a tiny number out of thousands of crops that have been grown for centuries.
38.To provide their family with food when the staple(主食) crops failed, some African women farmers grew local crops in their backyards.
39.High-yielding crops have occupied a dominant position in modern agriculture since the green revolution in the last century.
40.Growing alternative crops proved feasible in a variety of environments, but the critical question was whether they would be marketable.
41.According to a professor, when the yields of staple crops fall, we will have to adapt to eating foods from alternativ- e crops.
42.Urgent measures have to be taken to provide food for the projected world population without aggravating the climate.
43.Colonial rule marginalised local crops by punishing Africans who grew them.44.
As existing crops are endangered by global warming, we can increase food security by bringing back the many forgotten food crops.
45.Researchers are trying to find out how higher temperatures and co2 levels affect the nutritional composition of alternative crops.
Key:1-5 FCGJH 6-10 ODREK
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岑越崎摩挲着笔杆,目光一时有些呆滞。
无他,唯疲惫耳。
听到系统提示音的刹那,紧绷的神经终于放松,关灯上床拉被子一股脑地做完。
便立即陷入沉沉梦乡。
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