Life as an astronaut has various unique attractions. This can include experiencing weightlessness and looking back at Earth as a pale blue dot. Food is not among them. Space travelers over the years have become used to certain foods such as freeze-dried ice cream and liquid salt and pepper. Now, the menu is set to be augmented, with the first space-grown lettuce (生菜) found to be as safe, nutritious and fresh as the Earth-grown variety.

Gioia Massa of NASA Kennedy Space Center is the lead scientist on the lettuce-growing project. She said that growing food in space could be wonderful for astronauts on missions lasting more than one month.   “If you store packaged food for a long time, not only will the flavour and nutritional quality decrease, but the vitamins will degrade. After eating such food, astronauts’ intake of nutrition is not ensured,” she said. “Besides, for them, there may also be psychological benefits of growing and looking after plants.

Lettuce has been grown in batches (分批) onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The vegetable production system is known as Veggie. It is composed of plant pillows (sealed units containing ceramic soil), LED lighting and a watering   system that allows astronauts to inject water through a tube. The lettuce crops grow undisturbed for 33 to 56 days before being harvested and eaten, or deep-frozen and returned to Earth for chemical and biological analysis.

The space-grown lettuces are similar in make-up to Earth-grown ones but they have higher levels of bacteria (细菌), possibly due to their growth in a warmer, more humid (潮湿的) and closed-air system. But they are not found to carry any harmful bacteria.

NASA is now enlarging the range of produce grown onboard the ISS. It will be quite some time before any vegetables can be transformed into a dish, however. “While we have nowhere to cook up there now, we can look forward to more things that taste fresh,” Massa explained.

【小题1】What does the underlined word “augmented” probably mean in Paragraph 1?

A．Enlarged.

B．Engaged.

C．Reduced.

D．Measured.

【小题2】What do we know about growing space-grown lettuce?

A．It’s flavor and nutritional quality decline.

B．It is terrible for astronauts on missions.

C．It can contribute to astronauts’ mental health.

D．It will make sure the astronauts’ intake of nutrition.

【小题3】What can we infer from the text?

A．Lettuces will be grown in batches onboard.

B．The vegetable production system consists of three parts.

C．It will take at least 56 days to harvest the space-grown lettuce crop.

D．Thanks to growing environment, the space-grown lettuces don’t contain any harmful bacteria.

【小题4】What does Massa mainly intend to explain in the last paragraph?

A．The difficulty in growing produce onboard.

B．The necessity to enlarge the space onboard.

C．The desire to enjoy cooked vegetables onboard.

D．The expectation to enrich the variety of produce grown onboard.