Summer tomatoes are so filled with promise: the red color; the grassy tomato-leaf smell; the expectation of a mouthful of sweet-salty tomato dishes. But supermarket tomato after supermarket tomato does little more than disappointment. How can a fruit with so much potential constantly taste slightly juicy at best and a globe of cardboard at worst?

We know that modern tomatoes sold at the supermarket are picked green and grown for pest resistance, shipping, and shelf life-and that the agriculture industry creates produce designed for profit, not flavor. Are these the factors to blame for the tomato’s poor taste?

But even when allowed to ripen (成熟) before they are harvested and shipped with great care, modern tomatoes are still tasteless. When researchers looked into this tomato matter, they uncovered a fascinating genetic cause for the fruit’s dullness. What to blame is a gene mutation (基因突变) discovered accidentally around 70 years ago, onto which tomato growers quickly relied. In fact, now the mutation has been deliberately grown into nearly all modern tomatoes.

Why? It makes them a uniform and attractively red when ripe. Unfortunately for tomato lovers far and wide, the red-making mutation stops the activeness of an important gene responsible for producing the sugar and smell that are essential for a good smelling and flavorful tomato, as reported in the paper, which was published in the journal Science. When the researchers “turned on” the gene that had stopped working, the fruit had 20% more sugar and 20 — 30% more carotenoids (胡萝卜素) when ripe. Yet the fruit’s non-uniform greenish color suggest that mainstream growers will not be following suit anytime soon.

However, for anyone with a nearby farmer’s market, a supermarket that offers traditional produce, or a garden in the back, there is another choice instead of cardboard-flavored tomatoes. Traditional tomatoes and wild species have not had the essence of tomatoes sucked out of them by selective growing-so shop for those or grow them yourself. They may not look like the Disney version of a perfect fruit, but they actually taste like tomatoes.

【小题1】Why is a question raised at the end of paragraph 1?

A．To introduce the topic.

B．To draw a conclusion from comparison.

C．To encourage readers to take action.

D．To express disappointment at supermarket tomatoes.

【小题2】Why are modern tomatoes tasteless?

A．They have ripened when picked.

B．They are affected by gene mutation.

C．They are kept on the shelf for too long.

D．They are treated with chemicals for shipping.

【小题3】What’s a disadvantage of the tomatoes the researchers grew according to paragraph 4?

A．Taste.

B．Color.

C．Size.

D．Production.

【小题4】What’s the author’s attitude towards traditional tomatoes?

A．Critical.

B．Unconcerned.

C．Curious.

D．Favorable.