1 . People depend on plants. We use plants for food, cloth, shelter(住处), and even the air we breathe(呼吸).
Plants keep our air and water clean. Green plants give us oxygen (氧气). Oxygen is part of the air we breathe.
Plants are also part of the water cycle(水循环). Most of the water that a plant takes in goes back into the air.
Plants give us a lot of the food on the earth. Fruits, vegetables, and grains(谷物) come from plants. Without plants, we would not have bread, ice, carrots, apples, oranges, or bananas! Many people are growing plants to eat in their own gardens at home.
Having your own garden helps the earth as well.
When you grow your own fruits and vegetables, you help cut down on pollution amount because big trucks don’t need to take your food to shops. You also help reduce the amount of rubbish because you don’t need to use bags for packing your food. You can just pick it out of the ground or off a plant and put it into a basket!
Trees are an important plant resource(资源). Trees provide wood to build homes and furniture to make lots of things around your home and at your school. And tree provide fruits that are good for you. Without trees, the earth would be a very different place.
1. What happens to most of the water that a plant takes in? ________| A．It goes into the air. | B．It stays in the plant. |
| C．It goes into the ground. | D．It stays in the river. |
| A．Cause. | B．Accept. | C．Reduce. | D．Expect. |
| A．Different Place | B．The Uses of Plants |
| C．Food on the Earth | D．Gardens at Home |
| A．an interesting novel | B．a book about animal |
| C．a popular play | D．a book about nature |
2 . Plants on Earth are important to us, because they give us food, wood and oxygen (氧气) . They also make our Earth beautiful.
What would the Earth be like if there aren’t
We enjoy
But do you really like plants? Do you talk to them? Is it useful to love and
| A．animals | B．vegetables | C．people | D．plants |
| A．birds | B．flowers | C．fish | D．cats |
| A．smell | B．touch | C．hear | D．watch |
| A．quiet | B．dirty | C．boring | D．cold |
| A．seeing | B．selling | C．cutting | D．taking |
| A．parks | B．factories | C．zoos | D．markets |
| A．look for | B．wait for | C．talk to | D．listen to |
| A．catch | B．water | C．teach | D．change |
| A．never | B．only | C．still | D．often |
| A．cleverer | B．smaller | C．stranger | D．stronger |
| A. Its flowers look like egrets. What are egrets? They are a kind of bird. Because this plant’s flowers look like flying egrets, people call it the egret flower. It grows in eastern Asia. B. We all know that people can be shy. But how can a plant be shy? When something touches this plant’s leaves, they close up tightly. After a few minutes, the leaves open up again. C. When it comes to laughing, this tree is funny. This is because the fruit of this tree has a hole in it. If the wind blows, this amazing tree “laughs”. When people first hear it laughing, they are usually quite surprised and begin to laugh along with the tree, It grows in the middle of Africa． D. This plant grows in the southwest of Africa. Like most plants, it has roots. But it has only two leaves and a stem （茎）. Its two leaves continue to grow for its whole life. This plant can live as long as 1500 years, so people call it a living fossil. E. When this tree hurts, a kind of red liquid will come out. It looks like blood. People say it will cry when it hurts. It grows in western Africa. F. An interesting plant in North America eats “meat”. When an insect（昆虫）comes near its leaves, the leaves close up tightly until the insect dies. Then, it enjoys its delicious meal. |
4 . Can plants eat people? Probably not. But there are many plants that eat meat. Some of them are big and some of them are small. They can eat small animals or small insects. One famous meat-eating plant is the Robcantleyt (猪笼草). The Robcantleyt is a very strange plant with a cage. It grows in some parts of South Asia, Africa, Australia and China. Inside the cage, there is some water. When the small insects come in, they cannot easily get out and die. Then, the plant eats them slowly.
Why do plants do it? Most meat-eating plants grow in poor ground. They cannot have all important things from the sun, the air and the ground, like other plants get what they need, especially nitrogen (氮). These small insects have a lot of nitrogen. So, some plants eat them to get what they need. Let’s hope that some of the bigger plants don’t get the same idea.
1. The Robcantleyt is a kind of ________.| A．plant | B．animal | C．meat |
| A．wet parts of South Asia, Africa, Australia and China |
| B．some parts of the sea |
| C．some parts of South Asia, Africa, Australia and China |
| A．all plants can eat animals |
| B．plants want to get what they need from animal meat |
| C．plants want to protect themselves against animals |
| A．animals are dangerous to plants |
| B．plants want to get what they need from animal meat |
| C．plants want to protect themselves against animals |
| A．Some plant can eat people. |
| B．There are some meat-eating plants in the world. |
| C．Plants are hard to get nitrogen from the poor ground. |
5 . From plastic bottles to disposable (一次性的) coffee cups, humans produce a lot of plastic waste. Plastic pollution has become a serious problem. To solve this problem, many companies and designers are starting to turn to nature. They have made products out of plants, which will help to reduce plastic waste.
Bamboo is a fast-growing plant. Some kinds of bamboo can grow about 60 cm a day. This makes bamboo best suited to making consumable products, such as paper. If we cut down a bamboo plant to make paper, within weeks another fully-grown bamboo plant will be ready for harvesting (收获).
There are many different kinds of squashes (南瓜属植物). The one you know best is probably pumpkin. But do you know squashes can be made into cups? Creme, a US company, has created squash cups. The company first grows a squash inside a 3D-printed mold. Then, the vegetable is dried out. After it is dried, you can use it to drink. When you’re done drinking from it, this environmentally-friendly cup can be used as fertilizer (肥料).
Some bottle packaging can be made out of mycelia (菌丝体) that come from mushrooms. Mycelia are very thin and they are found on the underside of certain mushrooms. Ecovative Design, a US company, mixes agricultural waste and mycelia from mushrooms together. Over time, the mycelium fibers begin to grow around the waste and form a shape. The mycelium fibers need six days to grow and about 180 days to break down in the soil.
1. From the passage we know some kinds of bamboo can grow about ________ in a week.| A．60cm | B．180cm | C．360cm | D．420cm |
| A．消耗品 | B．奢侈品 | C．耐用品 | D．纪念品 |
| A．bamboo | B．squashes | C．mushrooms | D．cabbage |
| A．Mycelia come from bamboo. |
| B．Squash cups can be used as fertilizer. |
| C．Bamboo isn’t suitable for making drinking straws. |
| D．It takes the mycelium fibers six days to break down in the soil. |
| A．People should protect plants. | B．People should grow more plants. |
| C．Plants can help reduce plastic pollution. | D．Plastic pollution is becoming more and more serious. |
6 . People all over the world eat rice. Millions of people in Asia, Africa and South America eat it every day. Some people eat almost
There are two main
| A．everything | B．nothing | C．anything |
| A．grow | B．eat | C．keep |
| A．which | B．what | C．where |
| A．played | B．won | C．wrote |
| A．really | B．probably | C．mainly |
| A．came over | B．came from | C．got back |
| A．sides | B．plans | C．ways |
| A．do | B．begin | C．make |
| A．at | B．on | C．by |
| A．too | B．also | C．either |
Some of the world’s biggest l
The red wood trees of Muir Woods near San Francisco are very famous. These trees are the
The redwoods are also very old. Some of them are so tall and heavy that they fall over after a thousand years, but many of them stand for as long as two
Every year thousands of visitors come to Muir Woods to see the redwoods. They
| A．biggest | B．oldest | C．tallest | D．longest |
| A．too | B．also | C．either | D．both |
| A．hundred | B．thousand | C．hundreds | D．thousands |
| A．other | B．the other | C．another | D．others |
| A．walk | B．run | C．work | D．visit |
9 . From red apples and yellow lemons to blueberries and green melons, fruit comes in many different colors. Why do different kinds of fruits have so many colors?
According to Chinese Academy of Sciences, fruit colors actually come from their different pigments (色素), such as red or yellow carotenoid (类胡萝卜素) and blue or purple anthocyanin (花青素). These pigments appear in different amounts, depending on the fruit’s environment. This causes the fruit to turn a certain color.
To find out how the environment affects fruit colors, Chinese scientists studied more than 280 different fruit colors, including white, red, blue, purple and black.
They found that red fruit tends to grow in cooler places. And instead of just growing in one place, you can find them growing in many places around the world. Blue and purple fruit mostly grows in warm places. These fruit tends to grow a lot in just one special area. The scientists also found that the closer the fruit is to the equator (赤道) , the darker its color will be.
Animals have also had an impact on the evolution (进化) of fruit colors. Animals eat fruit and drop the seeds in other places later. This helps the fruit spread and grow in different places. Therefore, in order to attract animals, some fruits develop colors that are easy for animals to see.
However, animals see colors in a different way. Fruit needs to develop colors that are suited to animals’ visual abilities. For example, birds can see red more easily than humans can. Therefore, there tends to be more red fruit in areas where birds live. The lemurs (狐猴) of Madagascar are red-green color-blind. Many yellow fruits can be found in their habitats (栖息地), as they can easily see this color.
1. You are more likely to find blue and purple fruit in ________ places.| A．cooler | B．warmer | C．higher | D．lower |
| A．scare animals away | B．absorb more sunlight |
| C．attract animals to eat them | D．protect themselves |
| A．Dark fruit tends to grow close to the equator. | B．Green fruit tends to grow in cool places. |
| C．Humans can see red more easily than bird. | D．Lemurs are color-blind and can’t see any colors. |
a. the environment b. the pigment c. animals d. scientists
| A．ad | B．bc | C．ac | D．bd |
Why do plants grow in some places and not in others? Some lands have so many plants (植物).
To grow, plants need some things. One is warmth. In very cold places almost(几乎) nothing grows.
Plants must also have a place to put down their roots(根) and grow.
What will happen if we try to make things grow on the sandy beach? A few plants, such as beach grass, will grow in sand.
| A．Plants also need water. |
| B．But most plants won’t grow. |
| C．Try to take good care of plants. |
| D．But some don’t have any plants at all. |
| E．They find it difficult to grow on hard land. |
| F．You need to help to water plants every day . |
| G．Plants must have food before they can grow. |
