The population of Earth is still going up. There will be less and less 1 land for growing crops in the future. People worry that there will not be enough 2 for everyone in the middle of this century.3 scientists have discovered that one strange plant named fedtschenkoi (玉吊钟) may help. It can take up carbon dioxide (CO2) at night. It only needs 10 times less 4than food plants like beans. This means it can grow in the desert. in which ways could this plant help us? Since deserts are increasing in size 5 the changes in Earth's climate, growing plants in the desert will be more and more important.
Although it is dangerous to eat this plant, scientists can still 6 something about it: how it takes up CO2 at night while many other plants only do this during the day, and 7 it is suited to the desert.
There are 8 directions to take this research. Producing a desert plant to eat will be difficult, but it may be 9 to use the genes (基因) from this plant and put them into food plants.
The other direction is to grow this type of plant for fuel (燃料). At the moment we 10 plants for fuel in good land. If we do it in deserts instead, more good land can be used to grow plants for food.
