Seamus Blackley is well known as the man who came up with the idea for the Xbox game system. But Mr.Blackley was a scientist long before he worked on video games. Most scientists always want to study everything in the world, and that’s true of Mr. Blackley, too.“I had been baking when I was a child and I picked it back up 10 years ago.” he said. Now Mr. Blackley calls himself a “bread nerd”, and what really interests him is yeast (酵母).

When many people think of bread yeast, they think of something you buy at the store. But yeast is tiny living things found just about everywhere.

Though yeast is animate, it isn’t always active.When there’s not enough food ( like sugar or flour ), yeast becomes dormant (休眠的). Basically, it dries out and goes to sleep. It can stay dormant for thousands of years.

Dormant yeast can be made active again with warmth. In April, Blackley made bread with yeast that someone told him was 5,200 years old. But when he realized he had no way of knowing how old the yeast really was, he decided to colleet his own ancient yeast.

To do this, he worked with two other scientists: Richard Bowman, who studies tiny forms of life, and Serena Love, who studies and teaches about ancient Egypt. Dr. Love was able to connect the scientists with 4,500-year-old Egyptian clay pots (陶土罐) at two museums in Boston.The team successfully collected yeast from the tiny holes in the clay pots.Mr.Bowman took most of the samples (样品) to do other tests. Mr. Blackley kept one sample. He wanted to test it in his own way by making bread.

Mr. Blackley worked carefully to get the dormant yeast active again. Then he made a piece of bread using the yeast.Mr.Blackley said the taste of the bread was “unbelievable” and anyone could tell the difference. But he was still not 100% sure whether he’d baked with 4,500-year-old yeast. It’s possible that some more recent yeast got in the clay pots.

【小题1】What sort of man is Seamus Blackley?

A．A man who’s outgoing.	B．A man who’s confident.
C．A man with wide interests.	D．A man with a warm heart.

【小题2】What does the underlined word “animate” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Alive.

B．Popular.

C．Cheap.

D．Useful.

【小题3】Why did Mr. Blackley work with Serena Love?

A．To get a sample of yeast.	B．To learn tiny forms of life.
C．To make the yeast active.	D．To make clay pots.

【小题4】What made Mr. Blackley doubt the age of the yeast?

A．He found the taste of the bread was wrong.

B．He doubted the clay pots were not that old.

C．He had done a terrible job in activating the yeast.

D．He thought there might be recent yeast in the clay pots.