could become unsuitable for the plant by 2080, according to the study. Beans from arabica coffee plants account for about 70 percent of the world's coffee, but the plant has to be grown under strict weather conditions: they thrive at temperatures between 64 and 70 degrees Celsius, and are highly influenced by frost or temperatures higher than 73 degrees Celsius.
With temperatures estimated to increase by between 1.8 and 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the fragile plant might become increasingly expensive and difficult to grow, especially in places such as Ethiopia and Kenya. In that worst case, nearly all of the world's native arabica coffee would die out. Under more conservative estimates, about 65 percent of the regions that used to grow the coffee would become unsuitable for it. The evidence from coffee farmers, from numerous coffee growing regions around the world, is that they are already suffering the influences of increased warming.
Some commercial farmers would likely be able to move their operations to other areas or would be able to overcome climate change with artificial cooling techniques, but wild arabica is generally considered to be much more suitable for making highquality coffee.
If arabica becomes impossible to raise in its native areas, it could wreak havoc (造成破坏) on the economies of the mainly thirdworld countries in which it grows. Coffee is the world's most popular drink and is the second mosttraded commodity in the world, behind oil.
语篇解读:本文是一篇研究报告,主要介绍了气候变化对世界咖啡产量的影响,尤其是对小粒咖啡的影响。
8.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.Climate change affects people in many ways.
B.More and more attention has been paid to climate change.
C.The world's coffee supply could be threatened by climate change.
D.The growing conditions of arabica coffee have been improved recently.
解析:选C 主旨大意题。由第一段中的"Up to 70 percent of the world's coffee supply could be threatened over the next 66 years, according to a new study by researchers at England's Royal Botanic Garden."可知答案为C。
9.What can be learned from Paragraph 2 and Paragraph 3?
A.According to the study, by 2080 almost nowhere can be suitable for arabica coffee growing.
B.65 percent of the world's coffee gets raw materials from arabica coffee plants.
C.Arabica coffee plants will grow well at temperatures lower than 60 degrees Celsius.
D.Coffee farmers are the biggest victims of climate change.
解析:选A 细节理解题。由第二段中的"Nearly 100 percent of the world's arabica