UNESP 2016 – Questão 29

Linguagens / Inglês / Text Comprehension / Identify the main idea of the text
GM wheat no more 
pest-resistant than ordinary crops, trial shows 
GM wheat designed to repel aphids is no more effective at repelling the bugs than standard varieties a major field trial has revealed.
lan Sample June 25, 2015
 
A major field trial of GM wheat that is designed to repel aphids (small insects) has found the crop is no better protected against the pests than conventional wheat. The results come from two years of trials that compared aphid attacks on standard wheat plants with those suffered by a GM version modified to release a natural aphid repellent.
Scientists created the GM wheat strain in the hope that it would deter aphids, which devour the crops and can leave them with infections. They modified the wheat to produce a natural pheromone which aphids release when under attack from predators. The “aphid alarm” makes the bugs flee to safety. Aphids are not the only organisms that release the odour though. More than 400 plants have evolved to secrete the same substance, called E-betafarnesene, or EBF, including peppermint. The chemical doubles up as an attractant for some insects that kill aphids, such as parasitic wasps.
Prior to the field trial, lab tests at Rothamsted found that the pheromone worked as a highly-effective aphid repellent. The work bolstered researchers’ hopes that the trial would demonstrate the crop’s resilience against aphids in the wild. An aphid-resistant wheat crop could have huge benefits for farmers and the environment because the plants would no langer need to be sprayed with insecticides.
“The disappointing thing is that when we tested it in the field, we didn't find any significant reduction in aphid settlement in the test plots,” said Toby Bruce, who worked on the trial. Details of the trial are published in the journal Scientific Reports.
(www.theguardian.com.Adaptado.) 
The field tests with the GM wheat proved ineffective because
a) the crop was environmentally unsafe.
b) the wheat was infected by EBF.
c) they did not display the expected outcome.
d) insecticides could be replaced by pheromones.
e) the EBF pheromone acted as an actual aphid repellent. 
Esta questão recebeu 2 comentários

Veja outras questões semelhantes:

UNESP (julho) 2008 – Questão 11
Um lote de um determinado produto tem 500 peças. O teste de qualidade do lote consiste em escolher aleatoriamente 5 peças, sem reposição, para exame. O lote é reprovado se qualquer uma das peças escolhidas apresentar defeito. A probabilidade de o lote não ser reprovado se ele contiver 10 peças defeituosas é determinada por a) b) c) d) e)
UNESP (julho) 2008 – Questão 16
Leia as descrições seguintes. ...
FAMERP 2016 – Questão 73
No trecho do primeiro parágrafo “who conducted the study while a doctoral candidate”, o termo em destaque tem o sentido de: a) during the time b) until c) in spite of d) wherever e) as soon as
UNESP (julho) 2009 – Questão 11
Um retângulo está inscrito em um semicírculo de raio 1, tendo um de seus lados (base) sobre o diâmetro. Calculando a razão entre a altura e a base desse retângulo, de modo que sua área seja máxima, a resposta será ...
Base dudow 2000 – Questão 51
According to the text: a) Jo Cresdee wrote a famous book about traditional English recipes. b) Jo Cresdee failed to prove that lasagna is an Italian recipe. c) A medieval festival will be held in England this month. d) The basic English diet does not include potatoes. e) Jo Cresdee tasted lasagna, for the first time, at a medieval festival in England.