What’s happening: With global population levels set to reach close to 10 billion people by 2050, the ecological impact of th

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问题 What’s happening:
    With global population levels set to reach close to 10 billion people by 2050, the ecological impact of the food we eat has come under intense scrutiny.
    Scientists believe human food consumption is having a devastating effect on the environment due to a combination of greenhouse gas emissions, overuse of land and pollution from the increased use of fertilizers and pesticides.
    One of the key areas under investigation is the meat industry.
    Despite increased awareness of veganism and vegetarianism, the percentage of people in the U.S. who abstain from eating meat is still small. America is among the most carnivorous nations on the planet, consuming an estimated 222 pounds of meat per person a year.
    Last month, the U.N. warned that high consumption of meat in the West is fueling global warming, and said switching to a plant-based diet would help fight climate change.
    Why there’s debate:
    Supporters of restricting meat consumption say it would drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. The agricultural industry is responsible for 11 percent of global greenhouse emissions, mostly from livestock production. A large portion of that comes from methane created by cow burps, but things like manure, fertilizer, shipping and refrigeration of meat also create a significant amount of carbon. The need for grazing land also leads farmers to destroy large swaths of forest, reducing the plants from extracting carbon out of the air.
    Critics argue that eating less meat will have less impact relative to potential changes in other sectors, like the energy industry. Others argue that pushing a completely meat-free diet is unrealistiC. Asking people to instead reduce how much meat they eat or replace beef in their diet with poultry can still have a substantial effect.
    There’s also some evidence that a zero meat diet may not reduce emissions as much as initially thought because vegetarians tend to replace the meat in their diet with other animal products like eggs and dairy.
    What’s next:
    For those who wish to decrease or completely eliminate the amount of meat they eat, a number of options have come onto the market recently to make the move easier. Plant-based burgers have exploded in popularity over the past year or so. Though they may not be much healthier than beef, the environmental impact of producing them is significantly lower.
According to the last paragraph, plant-based burgers________.

选项 A、are much healthier than beef
B、are more delicious than beef
C、have become pervasive over the past year
D、do more harm to the environment when compared with beef

答案C

解析 细节题。根据最后一段中的“Though they may not be much healthier than beef,the environmental impact of producing them is significantly lower”可知,植物汉堡可能并不比牛肉汉堡健康,但是其生产过程对环境造成的影响明显比生产牛肉汉堡小很多,A、D两项错误,可排除。B项原文未提及,可排除。根据该段中的“Plant-based burgers have exploded in popularity over the past year or so”可知,植物汉堡在过去一年左右的时间里已经变得大受欢迎。pervasive“遍布的,充斥各处的”为“in popularity”的同义替换。故本题选C。
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