《2026年江苏13大市中考名卷优选38套英语》

D
A visit to a supermarket offers you choices from a wide range of products, not only vegetables of all sorts but also berries and other fruits. You can decide whether to go for strawberries or apples. However, it's not so easy for farmers. They have to decide what to grow while worrying about getting their crops enough water and wondering if they'll make money.
Many aspects of farming are difficult, says mathematician Estelle Basor. She's director of the American Institute of Mathematics in Palo Alto in Northern California. Farmers face a lot of unknowns, including weather, pests and an idea in economics（经济学）called supply and demand. Farmers may, for example, grow more strawberries than their customers are ready to buy (or demand). So, to use up the supply, they end up selling their strawberries at lower prices. If prices fall too low, farmers don't make enough to cover the cost of growing strawberries. Basor works with other mathematicians to come up with methods to help farmers make decisions about what to grow, and especially how to reduce water use.
Farms in California, including those in the Pajaro Valley, produce about 80 per cent of the fresh strawberries you can buy in American supermarkets. In recent years, however, California has suffered a drought. The Pajaro Valley and other areas of the state are feeling the effects of the shortage of rainfall.
Pajaro Valley farmers draw their water from an underground aquifer（含水层）. The trouble is that they have been pumping water out of the aquifer faster than it can be replaced by rainfall, and the drought has made things even worse. Many farmers are wondering whether they can switch to crops that use less water but that people will still buy.
The mathematicians started by collecting information on water use, crop prices, and other variables. They then programmed computers to, in fact, play a game. The goal was to find the combination of crops that would produce the highest profit（收益）using the least amount of water—all while meeting customer demand. This approach is an example of a mathematical strategy called optimization.
The first version modelled（模拟）a 100 - acre farm, planted with various combinations of five different crop types. On this virtual farm, raspberries, which use less water, proved to be more profitable than strawberries.
The researchers have been checking with farmers to see whether their model offers reasonable results, and so far the response is encouraging. They hope that their model will eventually help farmers all across the country, whether they are growing corn in Iowa or soybeans in South Carolina.
36. What is the writer trying to express in the first paragraph?
A. Farmers fail to provide enough products.
B. Supermarkets can satisfy customers' needs.
C. Customers are free to choose what they like.
D. Farmers face the challenge of choosing crops.
37. What does the underlined word “supply” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. The cost of growing strawberries.
B. The unknown problems to farmers.
C. The price of the strawberries on sale.
D. The amount of the strawberries for sale.
38. What problem do farmers in the Pajaro Valley face?
A. There isn't enough rainfall.
B. The quality of crops goes down.
C. They fail to draw water from rivers.
D. The production of strawberries isn't enough.
39. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A. The aquifer they draw water from.
B. The rainfall that falls into the aquifer.
C. The trouble farmers in Pajara Valley face.
D. The water the farmers have been pumping.
40. How do mathematicians help with the farming in the Pajaro Valley?
A. By studying customers' needs.
B. By modeling farming in the computer.
C. By improving the quality of crops.
D. By working out new ways of production.

答案： 36.D 段落大意。根据第一段可知，作者通过对比顾客选择的自由与农民的困难，强调农民面临选择作物的挑战。
37.D 词义猜测。根据第二段第四、五两句可知，他们最终会以较低的价格出售草莓，说明供给量大，供过于求，supply 指待售的草莓总量。
38.A 细节理解。根据第三段第二、三句可知，缺水，降雨量不足是核心问题。
39.D 代词指代。根据第四段第二句可知，他们一直在以比降雨还快的速度把水抽出含水层，it 指代农民已抽出的水。
40.B 细节理解。根据第五段第二句和第六段第一句可知，数学家通过计算机建模分析最优种植策略。