High in the treetops, strange ferns(蕨类植物) hold a tree trunk. Below these fork-leaved ferns and closer to the centre of the ferns are disk-shaped, brown ferns. The ferns form a type of complex, interdependent society previously considered limited to animals, researcher reported in Ecology.
Kevin Burns, a biologist at Victoria University of Wellington was attracted by one species—the staghorn ferns while conducting fieldwork. “I realized they never occur alone,” says Burns. He compares the fern groups to an upside-down umbrella made of plants. Ferns with long, green strap fronds(带状蕨叶) appeared to direct rainwater to their centre, where disk-shaped, brown “nest” fronds live. That reminded Burns of eusocial(群居社会性的) insect groups, where different generations live together and divide labour and reproductive roles. Burns wondered if the ferns could be eusocial.
His team’s analysis of fronds revealed 40 percent couldn’t reproduce, and the members were mainly nest fronds. This suggests a reproductive division of labour. Tests on the fronds’ absorbency confirmed nest fronds take in more water. Previous research found networks of roots running widely, meaning nest fronds have the ability to satisfy strap fronds’ thirst. The fronds divide labour, much like ants. They also analysed genetic samples and found most groups consisted of genetically identical individuals. High degrees of genetic relatedness are also seen in eusocial insects.
Taken together, Burns thinks the features show ferns’ eusociality. Water and nutrient exchange is known in other plants. Though, the division of labour is a key feature setting staghorn ferns apart. A stressful life in treetops—far away from the soil—may have contributed to the ferns forming such a lifestyle by providing water and nutrient security, Burns says.
Scientists see benefits in broadening eusociality to include plants. “They’re some of the most flexible livings things,” biologist Karen Kapheim says. She thinks the ferns’ behaviour reasonable. “A received opinion is that plants are simpler organisms and they could be made light of(轻视). Science is revealing more about how plants communicate. Adding social behaviour fits in with this new understanding of plants.”
1. What’s the role of the nest fronds?| A．Producing new ferns. | B．Collecting water. |
| C．Fighting enemies. | D．Dividing labor. |
| A．Lack of nutrients. | B．Their genetic relatedness. |
| C．Limitation of their shapes. | D．Their unpleasant habitat. |
| A．Plants are more complex than usually thought. |
| B．New ways to study plants should be adopted. |
| C．Behavior of plants was often ignored once. |
| D．Plants are more flexible than animals. |
| A．Eusociality Shared by Both Plants and Animals |
| B．The First Plants Found to Share Work Like Ants |
| C．How Plants Communicate with Each Other |
| D．Why the Ferns Grow in Treetops |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】I was reading these interesting stories behind a group of great logos in the world. Personally Nike is my favorite one – it’s so simple. And I liked the stories behind them, which made me forget all other things. McDonald’s, Apple, Mercedes Benz and Adidas own great logos as well, and they are among my favorites.
Nike
In the Greek myth, Nike is the goddess of victory and the source of inspiration for soldiers. This logo represents the wing in the famous statue of the Greek goddess. Nike’s logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson in 1971 for $ 35, and was registered as a trademark in 1995.
McDonald’s
The logo was designed in 1962 by Jim Schindler to resemble the archshaped(拱形的) signs on the side of the company’s then walk-up hamburger stand. Later on, the two golden arches were combined together to form the M. The McDonald’s name was added to the logo in 1968.
Apple
There are different stories behind Apple’s logo. The first logo was a reference to the religious story of Adam and Eve, in which the apple represented the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One year later, the second logo was designed in 1977 by Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and it described Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. This logo didn’t stay long. One year later it was replaced almost immediately by graphic designer Rob Janoff’s “rainbow apple”, a rainbow-colored silhouette(轮廓)of an apple with a bite taken out of it. And then the rainbow-colored apple was replaced by the one-colored logo in 1998. It has not been changed so far.
Mercedes Benz
The Mercedes Benz logo, which was originally created by Gottlieb Daimler in 1909, consists of a simple description of a three-pointed star that represents its rule of the land, the sea and the air. The company was founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. Mercedes is the name of Maybach’s elder daughter, while Benz came as a result of a combination with Benz, Cie and DMG in 1926.
Adidas
The Adidas logo, which was created by the founder of the company Adi Dassler, represents mountains, pointing towards the challenges that are seen ahead and goals that can be achieved. The logo was used for the first time in 1967.
1. What does Nike’s logo stand for?| A．The goddess of victory. |
| B．The source of inspiration for soldiers. |
| C．The statue of the Greek goddess. |
| D．The wing of the Greek goddess. |
| A．the religious story of Adam and Eve |
| B．a bitten apple with only one color |
| C．Newton’s sitting under an apple tree |
| D．the rainbow-colored bitten apple |
| A．Nike’s logo | B．Apple’s logo |
| C．The Mercedes logo | D．The Adidas logo |
| A．Mercedes Benz – McDonald’s – Nike – Apple. |
| B．Nike – McDonald’s – Apple – Mercedes Benz. |
| C．Mercedes Benz – Apple – Nike –McDonald’s. |
| D．Nike –Mercedes Benz –McDonald’s – Apple, |
【推荐2】Sitting up straight in your chair isn’t just good for your posture(姿势)-it also gives you more confidence in your own thoughts, according to a new study.
“Our body posture can affect not only what others think about us, but also how we think about ourselves,” said Richard Petty, co-author of the study.
The study included 71 students at Ohio State. They were told they would take part in two separate studies at the same time, one organized by the business school and one by the arts school.
They were told the arts study was examining factors contributing to people's acting abilities, in this case, the ability to maintain a specific posture while engaging in other activities. They were instructed to either “sit up straight” or “sit slouched(无精打采)forward”.
While in one of these positions, the students participated in the business study, which supposedly examined factors contributing to professional performance. While holding their posture, they listed either three positive or three negative personal traits(特质)relating to future professional performance on the job. After completing this task, they took a survey in which they rated themselves on how well they would do as a future professional employee.
The results were striking.
Students who held the upright, confident posture were much more likely to rate themselves in line with the positive or negative traits they wrote down. In other words, if they wrote positive traits about themselves, they rated themselves more highly, and if they wrote negative traits about themselves, they rated themselves lower.
However, students who assumed the slouched, less confident posture, didn’t seem convinced by their own thoughts-their ratings didn’t differ much regardless of whether they wrote positive or negative things about themselves.
“Their confident, upright posture gave them more confidence in their own thoughts, whether they were positive or negative,” Petty said.
“Sitting up straight is something you can train yourself to do, and it has psychological benefits-as long as you generally have positive thoughts,” he said.
1. When did the business study take place?| A．When the students took the survey. | B．When the arts study was going on. |
| C．After the arts study was conducted. | D．After the students took the survey. |
| A．Sitting up straight. | B．Working as an employee. |
| C．Listing personal traits. | D．Participating in the arts study. |
| A．They were rather high. |
| B．They were relatively low. |
| C．They agreed with the written-down traits. |
| D．They were different from the written-down traits. |
| A．Body posture affects our confidence level. |
| B．Confidence leads to good body posture. |
| C．Body posture affects professional performance. |
| D．Personal traits affect professional performance. |
【推荐3】Last April, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, attempted a takeover of Twitter, for $ 44 billion, which quickly turned into public controversy and court battles. But the most interesting part of the story is the more fundamental question: Why would Musk want to buy Twitter in the first place?
If you look at the size of Twitter, its appeal isn’t obvious. The company makes a relatively small profit each year, and in terms of the number of users, Twitter has around 436 million users every month, which is still a long way behind the likes of Facebook (near three billion), Instagram (two billion), and TikTok (one billion). So why does Musk want to spend a considerable amount of money on Twitter?
The answer might be what makes Twitter so interesting: it carries enormous cultural power and has an unmatched ability to shift the course of news and culture. Twitter’s cultural power is easy to see. Click on any random news article, and there’s a good chance that somewhere in the text, it’s quoting what someone said on Twitter.
What makes the platform important is essentially its clients. Twitter is the place where the most powerful and influential people like to hang out. Because Twitter is mostly based on short, text-based posts, it is perfect for conveying information, an argument, or a joke, at enormous speed, making it extremely useful for the likes of politicians, journalists, executives and celebrities.
What Twitter is really good at is acting as a global watercooler-a persistent backchannel for gossip (流言蜚语), jokes and informal connections. It’s a place where new ideas emerge, or arguments happen, and because the people doing the gossiping are important, influential types, what happens on Twitter can actually affect the rest of the world. I think this explains why Elon Musk might want to pay big money for it. If you own Twitter, you suddenly have a say in the world’s most important watercooler conversation.
1. What can we know about Twitter?| A．Elon Musk’s purchase of it went smoothly. |
| B．It has significant power to shape culture. |
| C．What people say on Twitter comes from random articles. |
| D．Its influence can’t compare with those of its competitors. |
| A．The volume of information. | B．The potential clients it attracts. |
| C．The profit it generates. | D．The efficiency of spreading ideas. |
| A．To promote new ideas. | B．To improve its products. |
| C．To have a greater voice. | D．To control powerful people. |
| A．Why Is Twitter so Valuable? |
| B．Who Are Twitter’s Target Users? |
| C．What Did Elon Musk Do to Twitter? |
| D．How Does Twitter Dominate the World? |
【推荐1】Tree-planting, intended to help draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, has become a synonym (同义词) for climate action. In our constant focus on trees, we’ve developed a fixed understanding: Trees absorb carbon dioxide, end of story. The reality is that trees don’t grow well alone. They exist within complex communities, helped along by each other as well as the animals they coexist with. The woodland isn’t nature’s only carbon sink: Grasslands and oceans also help reduce the carbon level and rely on a healthy amount of biodiversity.
That’s what the paper, published in Nature, wants to get across. Co-author Oswald J. Schmitz, a professor of ecology at Yale University, said trees might not be able to do their carbon-uptake job efficiently without the right animals in their ecosystem. That’s because animals animate the carbon cycle through their behavior and roles in the ecosystem. He added that the very presence of wild animals could cause feedback effects that change the ecosystem’s capacity to absorb, release, or transport carbon.
In Serengeti, for instance, the sharp decline in wildebeest (角马) population s during the mid-20th century allowed grass to grow wildly, eventually promoting wildfires that consumed 80 percent of the ecosystem annually and led to a net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When disease management and bans on illegal hunting helped animal populations recover, a greater share of the carbon stored in plants was consumed by wildebeest and released as waste, keeping it in the system and restoring the grassland as a carbon sink.
Researchers rarely consider wildlife conservation as a strategy to increase an ecosystem’s carbon storage capacity, said Schmitz. “They think that animals either aren’t important enough or that you can’t take up carbon and conserve animals at the same time,” he said. “Our message is that you can and should. It can be a win-win for both biodiversity conservation and carbon uptake.” We need a full picture-with both trees and animals-to explore nature’s full potential.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Actions are needed to reduce carbon dioxide. | B．Trees are a quick solution to the climate crisis. |
| C．People are not thinking through trees properly. | D．Grasslands and oceans help maintain biodiversity. |
| A．Activate. | B．Restart. | C．Disturb. | D．Break. |
| A．The conservation of animals is still a serious issue. |
| B．Animals can swing the ecosystem’s capacity to store carbon. |
| C．Human impacts bring about the reduction in wildlife populations. |
| D．The increase in animal species causes a decrease in carbon uptake. |
| A．Animals Adjust Themselves to Climate Change |
| B．Woodland Isn’t the Only Carbon Sink on the Earth |
| C．The Serengeti Ecosystem Needs Urgent Improvement |
| D．Trees May Fail to Fulfil Their Duties without Animals |
【推荐2】Many green plants that are used to decorate living rooms and kitchens are marketed as air-purifying. However, scientists largely agree that plants can’t do very much to clean an entire room. Now, a Parisian company known as Neoplants is trying to change that by growing genetically modified (转基因的) plants that help remove harmful chemicals from the air.
Its first product, called the Neo P1, is a bioengineered version of the pothos (绿萝). Pothos is characterized by its green leaves and is relatively easy to care for. The Neo P1 is meant to capture and recycle dangerous air pollutants commonly found in homes called volatile organic compounds (挥发性有机化合物VOCs), which are often human-made chemicals. So it’s a popular choice for people looking to beautify their living spaces. But the Neo P1 starts at $179, and to purchase one, potential shoppers must first join a waitlist.
The idea of air-purifying plants came from a 1989 study by NASA, in which regular houseplants were tested in two-by-two-foot rooms. When scientists filled these rooms with VOCs, they found the plants could absorb some of the harmful compounds. “Actually, it’d take about ten houseplants per square foot to noticeably improve air quality,” Michael Waring, an environmental engineer at Drexel University who wasn’t involved with Neoplants, reported in a 2019 study. “Plants, though they do remove VOCs, remove them at such a slow rate that they can’t compete with the air exchange mechanisms already happening in buildings,” Waring said.
As for Neoplants, its Neo Pl was tested in a 35-liter glass room. In it, the Neo P1’s results were 30 times better than NASA’s, according to the company — which means it’d still take a large number of them to clean a room. Currently, the company’s engineers are designing testing sites that more accurately resemble living spaces. To Neoplants’ executives, cleaning the air inside a home is a more logical starting point than trying to filter (过滤) the entire atmosphere.
1. What might prevent the Neo P1 from becoming popular?| A．Its poor quality. | B．Its unstable security. |
| C．Its high maintenance (维护，保养). | D．Its difficult availability. |
| A．Plants can significantly improve air quality in a room. |
| B．Plants contribute little to removing harmful chemicals. |
| C．The Neo P1 plays a big role in removing harmful compounds. |
| D．Houseplants are expected to replace air exchange mechanisms. |
| A．Exploring new ways to genetically modify plants. |
| B．Proving the Neo P1’s effectiveness in a living room. |
| C．Improving the air exchange mechanisms in buildings. |
| D．Designing testing sites that are similar to living spaces. |
| A．How do plants reduce air pollution? | B．What is the best plant to help clean the air? |
| C．Could genetically modified plants clean the air? | D．How can we decorate living rooms with plants? |
【推荐3】As we all know, trees are not moving: they stay more or less where you plant them, and no one worries about finding a tree wandering around a park or backyard.
However, there is one special exception, some say: the so - called walking palm tree (Socratea exorrhiza) found in the rainforests of Central and South America. Many people believe it can really walk around. This is because of its unusual root system; while most trees have one trunk (树干), the palm breaks into many smaller roots a few feet of the ground, giving it the appearance of many little legs.
The amazing walking ability of the palm tree has always been told by rainforest guides to tourists for years, and appears in many sources of documents as an amazing plant adaptation. As journalist Sherry Seethaler writes in her book Curious Folks Ask 2, “Screen writers searching for the perfect B - movie plant hero could take inspiration from the walking palm. The tree walks slowly from shade to sunlight by growing new roots toward the light.”
A tree that walks in search of the sun is a fascinating, strange story. And it's not true, either; the tree is real enough, but it doesn't walk. It sits where it began to grow, not moving except under the force of wind.
Biologist Gerardo Avalos is one of the world's top experts on the Socratea exorrhiza. His analysis of the plant and its roots shows that the walking tree can't walk because its roots don't move. A few roots on one side or another may die of, but the trunk itself remains, well rooted to the spot.
“My paper proves that the belief of the walking palm is just a myth (谎言) ,” Avalos said. “Thinking that a palm tree could actually track the sunlight changes by moving slowly over the forest floor. . . is a myth that tourist guides find its amusing to tell the visitors to the rainforest.”
1. Why do people think Socratea exorthiza can walk around?| A．It has no roots underground | B．It appears to have several trunks |
| C．It appears to have many little legs | D．It grows a few feet off the ground |
| A．can adapt to the environment quickly | B．grows in Central and North America |
| C．is a popular attraction among visitors | D．grow well in the shade of the rainforest |
| A．scientific | B．factual | C．correct | D．wrong |
| A．the palm tree can not walk at all | B．the palm tree can not move its leaves |
| C．the palm tree can not track the sunlight | D．The palm tree can not keep its trunk growing |
| A．To report a new discovery | B．To introduce a strange plant |
| C．To uncover a mystery in nature | D．To criticize people's bad behaviors |
