As with any house guests, indoor plants require a certain amount of basic, regular attention if they are going to feel at home. The first consideration when purchasing plants is to make reasonably sure that they are suitable for the condition in which they are going to be housed.
A general rule for most plants being brought indoors for the first time is to ensure that they have reasonable temperature of not less than 60 degrees Fahrenheit, a position out of cold air, safe from pets and not exposed to strong sunlight.
Plants love company. When plants are growing together, they create an atmosphere of damp around themselves which is far more beneficial than hot dry conditions. A group of plants will also present a more pleasing picture and provide an opportunity for a creative arrangement. There is no secret to this. Just rely on your natural feeling for harmony.
Watering and feeding plants are probably the two areas of care that are the least well understood, but, again, if you follow a few simple rules, your plants should do well. Cold Slightly warm water is therefore the answer. It is usually better to pour water on to the soil on the surface of the pot rather than put the water into the pot holder at the bottom. Avoid giving small amount of water at regular intervals- it is much better to wet the soil right through the pot in one go and then to allow it to dry noticeably before giving it a further watering.
The majority of indoor plants will be in active growth from March until October, and during this time, the established ones will benefit from regular feeding. This may mean feeding with a weak liquid fertilizer (肥料) at each watering or at intervals of a week or ten days with fertilizer at a standard strength. It is important, however, to ensure that plants are not fed when growth is inactive, when the soil in the pot is dry, or too soon after the plants has been potted up.
1. In Paragraph 2, the author mainly tells us to___________.| A．but plants that help clean indoor air |
| B．create a new environment with plants |
| C．put plants on the sunny side of the room |
| D．make sure of suitable conditions for plants |
| A．It provides owners good company. |
| B．It helps the air around them slightly wet. |
| C．It makes it convenient to look after them. |
| D．It allows owners to draw a pleasant picture. |
| A．Use water that is a little warm. |
| B．Pour the water into the pot holder. |
| C．Give small amount of water at one time. |
| D．Consider further watering in dry weather. |
| A．When the soil is dry. |
| B．When their growth is active. |
| C．When the temperature is high. |
| D．When they have just been planted. |
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【推荐1】Jeremiah Letting learned about coffee from his father. As a child in the late 1980s, he worked on his family’s coffee farm in the hills of western Kenya. “ Every year was the same: seed, plant, ripen, harvest and sell, ” he says.
But no longer. Jeremiah Letting and other coffee farmers are suffering from rising temperatures.
Some of the world’s best Coffea arabica is grown on Mount Kenya. The plant produces tastier beans than its poor cousin robusta, which often ends up in instant coffee granules (颗粒). Global warming may reduce the total area that is most suited to growing arabica beans by about half by 2050, according to a recent published paper.
Although coffee is only Kenya’s fourth-largest export, it directly or indirectly provides an income for about 6 million people, which accounts for over a tenth of the entire population, according to the Kenyan government. “ People are not even able to have three meals a day without a secure income, ” Mr. Letting says.
Some farmers are trying to adapt to warming by moving uphill. Yet this pushes them into areas long used for growing tea, threatening tea growth. Kenya’s government-funded Coffee Research Institute is trying to find other solutions, such as encouraging farmers to plant trees to shade their coffee bushes. It also suggests growing a hybrid (杂交植物), Arabusta, to combine the hardiness (耐寒性) of robusta with the flavour of arabica. People who are particular about coffee may turn up their noses at it, but they may have little choice but to swallow it.
Another option may be entirely new varieties. Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, are investigating a wild type of coffee, Coffea stenophylla. It is delicious and can also take the heat. But it produces less coffee beans than existing varieties and it may be years before it is widely grown. Without a breakthrough of some sort, Vern Long of World Coffee Research warns, “ We’re just going to be drinking instant coffee. ”
1. What’s the effect of global warming on coffee farming?| A．More export of coffee for farmers. | B．Less revenue for the government. |
| C．Moving downhill for suitable farmlands. | D．Reduced production of tasty coffee beans. |
| A．Feel unsatisfied with the coffee. | B．Sing high praise for the coffee. |
| C．Become interested in the coffee. | D．Pay high attention to the coffee. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Uncertain. | C．Concerned. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．Arabica Coffee Beans are Dying Out in Kenya |
| B．Kenyan Tea Exports Decline in World Trade |
| C．Short Supplies are Letting Tea Lovers Down |
| D．Coffee Farmers Struggle Against Climate Killer |
【推荐2】People take up volunteering for different reasons. Some want to “give something back” while others want to meet new people or learn new skills.
● Choose a charity (慈善机构) or organization. Firstly, what sort of organization do you want to help?
Find a position. Most charities have a website with a section aimed at attracting potential volunteers and they advertise specific roles available.
Apply for suitable positions. Be prepared with information about your previous (or current) employment and the sort of skills you have, so that the charity can match you to the most appropriate role. You might think that you have no such skills.
| A．Decide on the kind of work. |
| B．Don’t let your lack of confidence stop you. |
| C．You might have a particular charity in mind. |
| D．Consider how much time you want to commit. |
| E．Without them, they wouldn’t carry out their work. |
| F．But smaller charities might not have money to do this. |
| G．Whatever the reason, you need to make some decisions. |
【推荐3】A parent might place his daughter’s drawing on the fridge out of a love for his child rather than for the wonderful image, but for many people, that children art is actually quite amazing. In fact, adult artists were often inspired by children’s drawing. For the museum-goers out there who tend to point to a piece of modern art and say, “My kid could have made that !”It’s worth remembering that often, that’s actually just what the artist had in mind.
For many kids, drawing is exciting not because of the final product it leads to, but because they can live completely in the world of their drawing for a few minutes. Even children are scribbling(涂鸦), they’re representing through action, not through pictures. Liane Alves, a prekindergarten teacher, recalled a student who presented her with a drawing featuring a single straight line across the page. Alves assumed the child hadn’t given too much thought to the drawing until he explained that the line was one of the stems (茎) from The Princess and the Pea, one of the fairy tales they read in class.
Maureen Ingram, who’s a preschool teacher at the same school,said her students often tell different stories about a given piece of art depending on the day, perhaps because they weren’t sure what they intended to draw when they started the picture. “We as adults will often say, ’I’m going to draw a horse, ’and we set out. . . and get frustrated when we can’t do it, ”Ingram said. “Children seem to take a different approach, where they just draw, and then they realize, ’it is a horse. ’”
And what about those odd or scary-looking drawings? Does that mean kids are telling themselves stories that are odd or scary? It’s hard to say, but it’s rarely a good idea to over-interpret it. Ellen Winner, a psychology professor, pointed to parents who worry when their kid draws a child bigger than the adults. What’s most important to remember is that“children’s art has its own logic,” Winner said. “Children are not being crazy. ”
1. What may the author agree most probably according to the first paragraph?| A．Children are more skilled and creative than adults in art. |
| B．There might be similar patterns in artists’ and kids’ drawings. |
| C．No one knows what the drawing experience means to children. |
| D．Parents should become drawing teachers of their children. |
| A．simple scribbles from children are meaningful |
| B．not all the children like drawing in the classroom |
| C．children’s drawing is too complicated to understand |
| D．teachers often find it hard to teach children drawing |
| A．The best image. |
| B．Drawing process. |
| C．A copy of real things. |
| D．The ending of story. |
| A．Ask teachers to show the children how to draw. |
| B．Help the children to draw the picture again. |
| C．Invite other children to have a discussion about the drawing. |
| D．Take it easy and listen to the story behind the picture. |
【推荐1】Bottlenose dolphin moms adapt their individually special whistles (口哨) when their babies are nearby. This “parentese” might increase attention, bonding (联系) and vocal learning in babies, as it seems to do in humans.
During the first few months of life, each common bottlenose dolphin develops a unique tune, or signature whistle, similar to a name. The dolphins shout out their own “names” in the water “likely as a way to keep track of each other,” says marine biologist Laela Sayigh. But dolphin moms seem to adjust that tune in the presence of their babies, which tend to stick by mom’s side for three to six years.
Sayigh and colleagues analyzed signature whistles from 19 female dolphins both with and without their babies close by. Audio recordings were got from a wild population that lives near Sarasota Bay, Fla., during catch-and-release health assessments that occurred from 1984 to 2018. The researchers examined 40 examples of each dolphin’s signature whistle, confirmed by the unique way each vocalization’s frequencies change over time. Half of each dolphin’s whistles were voiced in the presence of her baby. When youngsters were around, the moms’ whistles contained, on average, a higher maximum and slightly lower minimum pitch(音高)compared with those voiced in the absence of babies, contributing to an overall widened pitch range.
These whistle adjustments echo baby talk because human caregivers use real words and language, just with certain inflections (变调), Sayigh says. Formally called child-directed communication, these inflections typically involve higher pitches and a wider pitch range, like what was observed in the dolphins. “Bottlenose dolphins are a main candidate for child-directed communication,” says Quincy Gibson, a marine mammal behavioral ecologist. Similar to humans, these dolphins form strong mother-baby bonds and learn vocalizations.
But to confirm this study’s results, scientists should analyze signature whistles of freely swimming, uncontrolled dolphin moms, notes Gibson. “We do need to look at this question in more natural and undisturbed conditions.” Still, Gibson says, “The idea that there might be similar forces driving parentese in such different species is just really cool.”
1. What can be learned about a bottlenose dolphin’s signature whistle?| A．It warns of danger. | B．It’s voiced by females. |
| C．It’s targeted at babies. | D．It varies individually. |
| A．Whistles with a stable frequency. | B．Whistles hard to record. |
| C．Whistles with a broader pitch range. | D．Whistles with a lower maximum pitch. |
| A．more dolphins had been involved |
| B．the subjects had included different species |
| C．the dolphins had been studied in the natural environment |
| D．the dolphins had been studied when they were younger |
| A．Dolphins and Humans Have Much in Common |
| B．Bottlenose Dolphins Communicate Like Humans |
| C．Dolphin Moms Use Baby Talk to Bond with Young |
| D．Dolphins Have a Highly Advanced Spoken Language |
【推荐2】Ryan is a good kid. He gets great grades, he plays lacrosse (长曲棍球), and he is well-liked. So Jennifer and her husband didn’t see any reason why their sixth-grade son couldn’t have an Instagram account, until Ryan posted a photo of himself holding an empty beer bottle that his father had just finished. “My husband saw the photo pop up on Ryan’s account and went up the stairs in seconds, demanding that he should take it down,” Jennifer says. “I don’t think my son realized how bad his picture looked. He was trying to be funny, but he’s in sixth grade! Even if he was simply posing, that picture was inappropriate.”
With the popularity of photo-sharing site Instagram, it’s easy for parents to have a false sense of security. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Instagram is only for posting pictures and with the 13+ age requirement and privacy feature, so it seems like an almost harmless site for children. How much trouble could they stir up? But that’s not the fact.
Shockingly, some kids are paying for attention on social media. When Paula Pryor found a mysterious $700 charge on her credit card, the last thing she suspected it to be was payment to a company that helped acquire “likes” on Instagram pictures. “My son Hayden thought it was only ten dollars, but it was ten dollars per ‘like’,” says Pryor.
Often, it’s not your own teen that’s cause for concern — it’s someone else’s kid. Megan Koster couldn’t figure out why her daughter Delaney suddenly became so anxious about whether her panty line could be seen through her jeans. Finally, Delaney said that she was worried someone would take a photo and post it on Instagram. “I don’t think I would have survived middle school if sites like this had existed back then,” Koster says.
1. What made Jennifer think her son Ryan could have an Instagram account?| A．He gained popularity in school. | B．He was skilled at using Instagram. |
| C．He showed interest in taking photos. | D．He was old enough and behaved well. |
| A．Instagram accounts. | B．Social media. | C．Pictures. | D．Children. |
| A．To obtain the picture he liked. | B．To pay attention to social media. |
| C．To get his photos noticed and liked. | D．To pay the charge on his credit card. |
| A．Teen’s problems with Instagram. | B．Inappropriate pictures from children. |
| C．The influence of the Internet on young users. | D．Concerns for the Internet security for children. |
【推荐3】I’m Andrew Siegel and this is my garden. This is where my family and I grow a lot of different vegetables, flowers and herbs. Gardening has been really important to my family because it gives us an opportunity to spend time outside together, away from all the electronics.
Especially for my five-year-old, it really gives her an opportunity to be in touch with nature-all the little animals, insects and things that come out here.
We find that a lot of the things that we plan for in the garden don’t always go the way that we’d like them to, and some of the things that we don’t plan for become what we enjoy the most that year. So it’s something that my family and I have learned: To appreciate(欣赏) all of it.
My advice for beginner gardeners is to just start. Get a pot, get a little bit of dirt, get a tomato plant or whatever plant you want and just get started.
I think sometimes it seems a little challenging. Trust me, it does not need to be perfect. You will enjoy every little thing you get out of it.
Gardening has taught me patience, something I don’t naturally have a lot of. It takes weeks, takes months before the work you put into it comes out. You learn not only to be patient, in that end product, but you’ve also learned that, after years of gardening, the end product is just part of it.
The journey of growing has become much more important to me than the actual produce that we get in the end. Nothing has been so valuable as the time I spend out here. I’m by no means in a farmland, but I do have my own little piece of what I consider heaven, and I’ve really learned to appreciate every little moment-every insect, every plant, every flower-and when you can appreciate it in that way, there’s nothing better.
1. What does the underlined word “five-year-old” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The author. | B．The author’s daughter. |
| C．The insect. | D．The little animal. |
| A．Planting different vegetables and flowers. |
| B．Staying at home together with her family. |
| C．Enjoying the whole process of growing. |
| D．Harvesting what the family planted. |
| A．The Joys of Gardening | B．The Benefits of Gardening |
| C．Being in Touch with Nature | D．Being Patient with Life |
【推荐1】In Australia, plenty of wild things can bite or sting(刺伤) you. Strangely enough, one of them is a tree. Now scientists have figured out what makes the tree’s sting so bad.
The rainforests of eastern Australia are home to a stinging tree known as Dendrocnide. Many people call it the gympie-gympie tree—a name given to the tree by native Australians. It’s covered with sharp, needle-like hairs that carry poison. If you touch a gympie-gympie tree, you won’t forget it anytime soon. The pain can stay with you for hours, days or weeks. In some cases, it’s been reported to stay for months.
Scientists have long looked for the source of this powerful sting. Now researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered what makes this stinging plant so painful. After carefully studying different kinds of gympie-gympie trees, the scientists were able to separate out different chemicals that the trees produce. This allowed them to identify a group of chemicals that they believed was responsible for the pain.
The researchers created artificial versions of these chemicals, which they call “gympietides”. Sure enough, when the scientists injected mice with gympietides, the mice licked(舔) at the places where they’d been injected, indicating that they hurt in those places. When the scientists studied the way gympietides were built, they found that they formed a knot-like shape. The shape makes the chemicals very stable, which helps explain why the pain stays so long.
The knot-like shape of the gympietides was similar to the shape of poisons produced by poisonous spiders and cone snails. The scientists were surprised to see three very different kinds of life all using similar poisons. Spiders and cone snails carry poisons because they catch food by stinging other creatures. It’s not clear how stinging helps the gympie-gympie tree.
Though the tree’s sting may stop some animals from eating it, it doesn’t stop all animals. Beetles and pademelons (small relatives of the kangaroo) are able to eat the plant without trouble.
1. Why is a touch on the stinging tree unforgettable?| A．Because it has so unusual an appearance. | B．Because it is extremely rare in existence. |
| C．Because touching it creates a quite strange feeling. | D．Because the pain caused by it doesn’t go away quickly. |
| A．How it produces poisons. | B．What poisons it produces. |
| C．How it benefits from the sting. | D．The consequences of its sting. |
| A．It produces the same poisons as spiders. | B．Poisonous as it is, it also has natural enemies. |
| C．Animals are wise enough to stay away from it. | D．Only one chemical in it causes pain to the toucher. |
| A．Scientists Discover Stinging Tree's Secret | B．Caution: Stinging Tree Can Bite and Poison You |
| C．Scientists Discover a Strange Species in Australia | D．Effective Ways to Avoid Being Hurt by Stinging Tree |
【推荐2】Plants don't bleed red and scream the way antelopes (羚羊)do when lions bite them, but they often die all the same if they can't defend themselves. A study by researchers at Missouri and the University of British Columbia proves that plants not only know when they're being eaten,but that they can tell several different insects apart even when they cat at the same time.
Appel and her coauthors-Jack Schultz, a University of Missouri researcher who led the study, and Joerg Bohlmann, a University of British Columbia researcher who performed genetic (基因的) studies, along with six others-planted Arabidopsis seeds in a lab and allowed them to grow to a size that caterpillars (毛毛虫)and worms love. Then they let the insects eat the plants. Plants lose water and tissue and, worse, might get infected (感染)with some sort of bacteria, but generally they live to see another day.
The researchers found that the plants produced chemicals that gave them the unpleasant smells to drive the insects away. Moreover, there were different genetic responses to each worm, showing that the plant actually knew what was eating them.
The study, financed by the National Science Foundation and published in the journal Frontiersin Plant Science, wasn't carried out for charity. Arabidopsis is an important plant that can bring in a lot of money for farmers.
This could allow agriculturalists who grow and design cash crops to give them the skills to drive off farm pests (害虫).“If we want to grow plants that can keep insects away,” Appel said, we might as well find out how they respond to different insects that feed on them.
1. What is the best title of this text?| A．Plants can know which insects are eating them |
| B．New plants help farmers earn more money |
| C．Scientists found a new way to grow plants |
| D．Scientists found plants could protect themselves |
| A．By changing their genes. | B．By producing special chemicals. |
| C．By loosing water and tissue. | D．By telling who is eating them. |
| A．Plants have different genetic reactions. |
| B．Plants produce the same chemicals. |
| C．Plants have skills to drive off farm pests. |
| D．Plants can tell several different insects apart. |
| A．protect a rare plant from dying out | B．deal with pests |
| C．to design a new kind of insect | D．raise money for charity |
【推荐3】Contrary to the longheld belief that plants in natural world are always in competition, new research has found in bad environments mature (成熟的) plants help smaller ones — and thrive as a result. The research team, led by Dr.Rocio PérezBarrales studied adult and young plants in the “ecological desert” of soil in the southeast of Spain.
The findings could have significance for those managing bad environments like coastal areas. Dr.PérezBarrales said, “What we have found surprising is that a strong large plant, called a ‘nurse’， shields a young one, and it also produces more flowers than those of similar size growing on their own.” Dr.PérezBarrales and her team studied plant growth in southern Spain for over three months during summer and found that the young and “nurse” are more likely to thrive when grown together, compared to either plant growing alone.
The young plants benefit from shade, more moisture and more nutrients, from the leaf litter (落叶层) of the “nurse” plants, and probably higher bacteria and fungus (真菌) in the soil. As it matures, the “nurse” plant grows more flowers than those similar ones nearby growing alone, greatly increasing its chances of producing seeds and reproducing. Besides, vegetation of “nurse” and facilitated plants with more flowers might be able to attract a greater number and variety of pollinators (传粉昆虫) in an area. In turn, it supports insect and soil life, and even provides a larger range of different fruit types for birds and mammals. This is the greatest achievement of the ecosystem.
The research is likely to be of value to those who manage to protect plants in hostile and harsh environments, such as shingle and sanddune (沙丘) ecosystems, which are considered at high risk due to human action and climate change. Most home gardeners and farmers are happy with the research as well, but the findings might be of more value to those who garden in harsh places.
1. What's the finding of the study?| A．The mature and smaller plants benefit each other when growing together. |
| B．Large plants sacrifice themselves for the smaller ones. |
| C．Young plants compete with the adults for larger space. |
| D．Young plants struggle to survive in harsh environments. |
| A．Because it produces more flowers. |
| B．Because it competes with a larger one. |
| C．Because it protects and helps the young. |
| D．Because it grows well in bad environments. |
| A．The natural selection. |
| B．The biodiversity (生物多样性) in an area. |
| C．The improvement of the soil. |
| D．The high rate of animal reproduction (繁殖). |
| A．The effects of the research on agriculture. |
| B．The shortcomings of the research at present. |
| C．The influence of the research on climate change. |
| D．The significance of the research findings in some fields. |
