Nhận biết (M1)

Could field mustard take root on Mars? Could peas? You might guess the answer is flatly no, and yet a Dutch research team recently demonstrated that seeds of many ordinary plant species will germinate in soil engineered to imitate Martian conditions, so long as they are watered. A handful of species even fared better in the imitation Martian dirt than in soil from home: field mustard seeds germinated at a 30 percent rate in the artificial ground, against a mere 4 percent of those planted in ordinary terrestrial soil.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

• A.

  To resolve open questions about reproducing the conditions of Martian soil in a lab on Earth

• B.

  To share an unexpected result concerning plants raised in dirt designed to mimic that of Mars

• C.

  To examine a startling outcome regarding water’s part in growing plants in fake Martian dirt

• D.

  To lay out a sweeping study of how the makeup of Martian and Earth soils differs