题目内容：
根据材料，回答问题。"Salty" Rice Plant Boosts Harvests
British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow insoil containing salt water. Their work may enable abandoned farms to become productive oncemore.
Tim Flowers and Tony Yeo, from Sussex University's School of Biological Sciences, havespent several years researching how crops, such as rice, could be made to grow in water that hasbecome salty.
The pair have recently begun a three-year programme, funded by the Biotechnology andBiological Sciences Research Council, to establish which genes enable some plants to survivesalty conditions. The aim is to breed this capability into crops, starting with rice.
It is estimated that each year more than 10m hectares (公顷) of agricultural land are lostbecause salt gets into the soil and stunts (妨碍生长) plants. The problem is caused by severalfactors. In the tropics, mangroves (红树林) that create swamps (沼泽) and traditionallyformed barriers to sea water have been cut down. In the Mediterranean, a series of droughtshave caused the water table to drop, allowing sea water to seep (渗透) in Latin America,irrigation often causes problems when water is evaporated (蒸发) by the heat, leaving saltdeposits behind.
Excess salt then enters the plants and prevents them functioning normally.Heavyconcentrations of minerals in the plants stop them drawing up the water they need to survive.To overcome these problems, Flowers and Yeo decided to breed rice plants that take invery little salt and store what they do absorb in cells that do not affect the plants' growth. Theyhave started to breed these characteristics into a new rice crop, but it will take about eightharvests before the resulting seeds are ready to be considered for commercial use.
Once the characteristics for surviving salty soil are known, Flowers and Yeo will try tobreed the appropriate genes into all manners of crops and plants. Land that has been abandonedto nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food in the poorer countriesof the world.
Which of the following statements about Flowers and Yeo is true__________? A．They are students at Sussex University.
B．They are rice breeders.
C．They are husband and wife.
D．They are colleagues at an institution of higher learning.
参考答案：
答案解析：