4.Coffee grows only in the tropics(熱帶).The temperature must be between 65and 70degrees Fahrenheit(華氏度).Coffee must have shade from nearby trees,but it also requires at least two hours of sunlight each day.It was in the 18th and 19th centuries that coffee seeds from the Middle East were taken to Latin America,the Caribbean,and Africa.It spread fast,with demand for the coffee growing in the northern part of the world.Millions of acres of rainforest and jungle were planted with coffee trees.Because of coffee's need for shade and its ability to be grown alongside other crops,the small coffee trees didn't require any forests to be cleared.
But this took a bad turn in 1970when US agricultural scientists decided to develop a new coffee plant that grew only in the full sun.Farmers agreed to grow this new coffee because they could produce five times more coffee than before.With the support of local governments,it isn't difficult to understand why many traditional coffee fields quickly became modern ones.As a result,over the past 40years,Central America has lost two-thirds of its rainforests at a rate of 40million acres per year.That figure is similar to Mexico.
These modern coffee plantations(大農(nóng)場(chǎng)) are very harmful as nothing can grow in the fields besides the coffee bushes.As the rainforests disappear,so do the animals.Sun plantations also contribute to soil erosion(侵蝕).The coffee trees must face not only the heat with no protection,they must also face heavy rains,which slowly wash much of the soil away.Sun coffee fields are actually risky for farmers in the long term because they can be damaged by bad weather and because they limit famers to one-crop faming.
8.From the first paragraph we know that coffee plantsA.
A.require special growing conditions
B.were first grown in Latin America
C.can grow well in most of the world
D.can grow well without any sunshine
9.We can know that the new coffee plantC.
A.requires little sunshine
B.can not survive heavy rains
C.has a much higher production
D.produces coffee of a different taste
10.In order to plant the new coffee,farmersC.
A.need special equipment
B.need a new kind of tool
C.have to move to Central America
D.have to destroy many forests
11.What is the last paragraph mainly about?A
A.Coffee plantations make farmers rich
B.The bad effect of planting the new coffee
C.What farmers can get from the new coffee
D.A brief introduction to modern coffee plantations.