Question

In 1975, George Carlin appeared on a popular TV show, Saturday Night Live, with his famous words about blue food. “Why is there no blue food? I can’t find blue food—I can’t find the flavor of blue! I mean yellow is lemon; orange is orange and red is cherry. Where is the blue food?”

Well, Carlin pretty much has it right—there is not no blue food, but there’s certainly not a lot of it. Fresh-picked blueberries are blue, though they become purple when they are turned into jam. The blue in blueberries—like the purple in grapes and red in tomatoes—is found in nature. But it isn’t a hot color for food. People don’t seem to prefer blue food. Some diet programs even suggest that those determined to lose weight should make their food blue.

Eating, in part, begins with our eyes. Chares Spence—an experimental psychologist from Oxford University—points out that color can change our taste experience. Commonly, we consider red-colored foods up to 20% sweeter than they actually are; and green foods as being more sour. Spence suggests: human expectations may be influenced by our long history of watching—green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.

But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we see these days is dyed blue artificially. Food producers argue that artificial color doesn’t do much damage to health. A lot of research shows that some physical problems of kids are related to food dyes—while other studies show no effects at all. Blue birthday cake or even blue-dyed chicken can be served on the dinner table. So what?

1.George Carlin’s words are placed at the beginning of the passage to ________.

A. show the author’s opinion

B. tell a famous person

C. introduce a TV show

D. lead in the topic

2.Which of the following statements of blue is true?

A. Blue is not a very popular color for foods.

B. Blueberries are always blue, whether fresh or not.

C. The blue in blueberries is found unnatural.

D. People often feel cold when they eat blueberries.

3.Eating sometimes begins with our eyes because ________.

A. red-colored foods are 20% sweeter than green foods

B. our taste experience can be influenced by color

C. people prefer red-colored foods to green foods

D. before eating, people watch food for a long time

4.The underlined words “is dyed” in para. 4 are closest in meaning to “______”.

A. is eaten upB. has grown up

C. is changed in colorD. is harmful to

Answer

1.D

2.A

3.B

4.C

【解析】

试题分析：本文是一篇说明文，通过对科学实验结果和人们饮食习惯的分析，介绍了日常饮食中蓝色食物很少见的原因。

1. 推理判断题。文章首段George Carlin所说“Why is there no blue food?...”是为了引入文章主题，即：为什么生活中蓝色食物很少见。故该题正确选项是D。

2. 细节理解题。该题考查对第二段细节内容的理解程度。根据“Fresh-picked blueberries are blue, though they become purple when they are turned into jam.”可知，选项B错误。根据“The blue in blueberries—like the purple in grapes and the red in tomatoes—is found in nature.”可知，选项C错误。选项D的内容文中并未提及，故该题正确选项是A。

3. 细节理解题。该题考查对第三段的细节理解程度。根据“we consider red-colored foods up to 20% sweeter than they actually are; and green foods as being more sour.”可知，选项C错误。选项A是对“not hot”的错误理解，因此是错的。根据“human expectations may be influenced by our long history of watching”是指人类的饮食经历受长时间观察食物生长经验的影响，而不是说吃东西之前要观察很久，因此选项D错误。根据“that color can change our taste experience”，可知该题正确选项是B。

4. 词义猜测题。根据第三段结尾处“green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.”和后面“But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we encounter these days is dyed blue artificially.”可知，前文说食物生长过程中改变颜色，转折词“But”表示转折，“artificially”意为“人工地”，可知“is dyed”意为“被染色”，故该题正确选项是C。

【名师点睛】

猜测词义题。阅读材料中的每个词与它前后的词语或句子甚至段落都有联系。我们可以利用语境（各种已知信息）推测、判断某些生词的词义。做这种类型的题，要根据词、词组、句子所在的语境来判断其意义。我们要特别注意熟词生义，切不可脱离语境想当然。在句子或段落中，我们可以利用熟悉的词语，根据语言环境所表示的关系推断生词词义。5.词义猜测题。根据第三段结尾处“green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.”和后面“But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we encounter these days is dyed blue artificially.”可知，前文说食物生长过程中改变颜色，转折词“But”表示转折，“artificially”意为“人工地”，可知“is dyed”意为“被染色”，故该题正确选项是C。

考点：考查说明文阅读