1 . Vertical (垂直的) farming involves using vertically piled layers and other innovative resources to help your crops grow.     1     You get to grow your plants while using the small space at home. Below are some benefits of vertical farming for small house owners.

Reduce water usage. Watering a vertical garden is easy, simple, and uses less water. If your plants are grown in a traditional way, you’ll need lots of water to keep up with your plants’ growth.     2    

Save space. As a small, house owner, space is a big concern. However, vertical farming ensures that you can create a garden in your home and fully enjoy the experience.     3     So, if you aim to save space in your home and still have a garden, vertical farming is perfect.

    4     Vertical farming is mainly done indoors and entirely depends on you to provide the best conditions. With commitment, you can continuously ensure consistent food production despite the seasons.

Cut down on chemicals and pesticides. Vertical gardens will not require you to invest in pesticides and chemical fertilizers to keep your plants alive. In addition, insects will not have easy access to your plants since you’ll be gardening in a controlled environment.     5    

A．Increase food production.

B．Produce food consistently.

C．Having a garden means you need to work with the space available.

D．It comes in handy without causing any inconvenience to your living arrangements.

E．However, if you invest in vertical farming, your water usage will dramatically drop.

F．So the food grown is organic and safe for consumption making it an excellent choice.

G．It enables you to take full advantage of walls and spaces that would otherwise stay useless.

2 . Britain has a stubborn enemy called the “devil plant”, the Japanese knotweed (虎杖). The name originated in Japan, but it became a promoter behind a plant disaster in Britain. Initially it was introduced to England as a landscape plant. However, over time it has evolved into a harsh plant difficult to control.

The plant is disreputable (坏名声的) mainly because of its strong ability to survive. The Japanese knotweed can grow at an amazing speed. What’s more, Japan’s knotweed is penetrating. As long as you give it a small gap, it can follow it and make rapid growth. This gap may be a crack in the road, or a wall crack in the house, and even some Japanese knotweed will start to grow from the foundation of the house, gradually “destroy” the whole house. Such an invasion (入侵) is a nightmare for the British. The British simply love and hate the plant, but so far, they are still unable to find an effective way to remove it.

Fortunately, China’s knotweed is not identical to Japan’s, and in the China’s ecosystem, there are many natural enemies against it. As a result, China has not experienced a knotweed invasion as severe as Britain. Additionally, its tender stem can be made into delicious food. The root of knotweed is a very good Chinese medicine. Therefore, in some places there’s also a need to plant knotweed, to obtain economic benefits.

This case gives us a profound inspiration that it is important to be careful when introducing alien species and to fully understand the characteristics of plants or animals and the effects they may cause in a new environment, otherwise it may be easy to spend a huge amount of money every year to clean up the Japanese knotweed, as in the UK.

1. Why did Britain bring in Japanese knotweed at first?

A．To make profits.	B．For decoration.
C．For scientific research.	D．To promote biodiversity.

2. What does the underlined word “penetrating” mean in paragraph 2?

A．Fading away.	B．Dying out.
C．Multiplying rapidly.	D．Growing steadily.

3. What can we infer from paragraph 3?

A．China’s ecosystem is not damaged by knotweed.

B．Knotweed is in great demand in the whole China.

C．Knotweed has made most of the Chinese people rich.

D．Chinese medicine includes knotweed’s stems and roots.

4. What’s the best title for the text?

A．A Natural Phenomenon We Know

B．A Plant That People Love and Hate

C．Alien Species’ Effect on the Local Economy

D．The Fight Against Invasive Plants and Animals

3 . Thirsty or stressed plants do not suffer in silence. Instead, they make high-pitched(尖锐的) sounds, according to a study published in the journal Cell.

The reason why you have probably never heard the plants’ sounds is that most humans are only able to hear sounds as high as 20 kilohertz (kHz), but the plants made sounds mostly between 40 and 80 kHz, Lilach Hadany, a co-author of the study at Tel Aviv University, tells Business Insider’s Marianne Guenot.

Plants, obviously, do not have organs to make sounds. Lilach says, the present popular theory on how they make noises centers on plants’ xylem(木质部), the tubes that transport water from their roots to their stems(根茎) and leaves. In the process of transporting, when an air bubble(气泡) forms or breaks in the xylem, it might make a little noise; bubbles are more likely to form when a plant is suffering from drought. But the exact process requires further study, Lilach explains.

To listen in to plants, Lilach and her co-workers placed tobacco and tomato plants in small boxes equipped with microphones. First, they stopped providing water to some plants in the boxes and cut the stems of others. Then, the microphones were used to pick up any noises made by the plants even though they couldn’t hear them. Researchers found that the sounds did show the specific types of stresses plants were experiencing. Thirsty tomato and tobacco plants made an average of about 35 and 11 sounds per hour, individually, while cut tomato and tobacco plants made 25 and 15 noises per hour.

In theory, these recorded sounds could help farmers know about which crops are most in need of water. “When more and more areas are exposed to drought due to climate change, efficient water use becomes even more important, for both food security and ecology,” Lilach with her co-workers write.

1. Why do humans fail to hear the sounds of plants?

A．The sounds are stressful.

B．The sounds are beyond human’s hearing range.

C．The sounds are low-pitched.

D．The sounds are between 20kHz and 40kHz.

2. What might cause thirsty plants to produce sounds?

A．Suffering from lack of air.

B．Stems and leaves transporting water.

C．More air bubbles gathering in the roots.

D．Air bubbles’ forming or breaking in the xylem.

3. What did Lilach and her co-workers find in the study?

A．Noises can be picked up by microphones.	B．Plants make more sounds in small boxes.
C．Cut plants suffer the same as thirsty ones.	D．Different sounds indicate plants’ stress types.

4. What’s the potential use of the sound recordings?

A．To harvest the crops.	B．To solve the food problem.
C．To locate the thirsty crops.	D．To prevent climate change.

4 . Digging out potato tubers (茎块) is one of the greatest rewards gardens have to offer. Children in particular are surprised at seeing these tubers that almost magically become chips, mash (泥) or baked potatoes.

Happily, potatoes are very easy to grow. Seed tubers are placed in good garden soil, ideally with some compost (堆肥) for every square meter, in a sunny spot, about 10cm deep at 30cm intervals in rows 60-70cm apart.

Seed tubers are offered as earliest and second earliest and maincrop. The second earliest and maincrops can be stored for winter use but earliest are usually consumed in summer.

Seasoned potato growers buy early seed potatoes in February and place them in a cool, reasonably light place and let them sprout (发芽). It takes six weeks for small sprouts to form.

Early potatoes are typically planted from middle March in the South, but are likely to emerge before the first season finishes in May. The shoots are frost-sensitive requiring protection on cod nights with either earth or newspapers.

Second early and maincrop potatoes are planted in middle April—the frost risk will be low, but not absent, by the time they emerge. As the stems (茎) grow, soil should be drawn around them until the leaves meet in the row in early summer. At this stage, the potato field is a series of ridges (脊，垄). The tubers form in the ridge, protected from light that turns them green. Covering with black plastic or a thick layer of compost is also accessible instead of ridging, but plastic is not sustainable and slugs (鼻涕虫) can multiply in compost.

Once the flowers are fully open, it is time to dig plants when the tubers are the size of a hen’s egg. They grow rapidly but gradually lose their juicy new potato flavour, so harvest freely.

1. What’s the writing purpose of paragraph 1?

A．To describe a magic process.

B．To recall a childhood memory.

C．To raise a potato-related topic.

D．To introduce a gardening award.

2. What can we learn about seed tubers?

A．The closer the intervals are, the faster they will grow.

B．The warmer the weather is, the better they will grow.

C．The earlier they are planted, the healthier they will grow.

D．The deeper they are planted, the stronger they will grow.

3. What helps potatoes grow in the long term?

A．Frost.

B．Plastic.

C．Ridges.

D．Slugs.

4. What’s the text mainly about?

A．How to cook potatoes.	B．How to grow potatoes.
C．How to harvest potatoes.	D．How to preserve potatoes.

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

With high yield and superior quality, Chinese hybrid rice varieties have been introduced around the world,     1     (benefit) more people. The export of China’s hybrid rice technology started many years ago. In 1979, China provided hybrid rice seeds to another country for the first time, and 40 years later, in     2     (real), China’s hybrid rice has been planted in dozens of countries in the world.

In the past 40 years, Chinese scientists     3     (devote) to providing assistance to many other countries. China has trained more than 14,000 hybrid rice professionals for more than 80 developing countries through international training courses. This technology has spread     4     more and more places in the world so far.

Yuan Longping,     5     cultivated the world’s first high-yield hybrid rice strain not only earned respect from Chinese people but also the global community. His hybrid rice research has been     6     (entire) saving millions of people from hunger. Yuan’s dream was     7     (solve) the global food shortage and promote hybrid rice around the world. China has achieved     8     great wonder, feeding nearly one fifth of the world’s population with less than nine percent of the world’s total land. And China is     9     (will) to contribute to global food security and calls for joint efforts to end global hunger and poverty.

It     10     (believe) that Yuan’s dream will come true one day.

6 . A native plant of China, bamboo mainly grows in regions south of the Yangtze River. In traditional Chinese culture, bamboo is a symbol of moral honesty, loyalty, flexibility and modesty, making it a frequent theme of Chinese poetry and paintings.

The bamboo forest creates unique prospect (风景) around Anji, a county in Zhejiang Province. As the Kingdom of Bamboo, the city is the filming location of the Oscar-winning movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The bamboo scenery, along with other bamboo-related attractions, including a bamboo museum, has created unique tourism resources.

Bamboo is not only pretty and elegant, and Xie Zhiguang, a 48-year-old local bamboo dealer for over 10 years, explained that it is used for much more than just as an alternative to wood. It is the main food for giant pandas, and bamboo shoots are regularly consumed by humans. Also, the stem of the plant can be made into various products, including chopsticks, furniture, tissue and paper.

What makes all the functions even more valuable is the speed at which bamboo grows. “During peak times, bamboo can grow one meter a day and over 20 meters within weeks,” he said. “It takes years to grow wood, while the growth cycle of bamboo is much shorter.” This advantage allows farmers to make money faster by growing bamboo than by growing wood. In the battle against extreme poverty in China, bamboo has played a supporting role.

The county introduced processing factories for bamboo shoots and developed a series of products. Bamboo weaving techniques, some of which are listed as intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产), also contributed to poverty reduction. A number of bamboo-weaving skill training centers were set up in poor areas to teach rural people, especially women, to transform bamboo into delicate items. With such items going to domestic and overseas markets, the bamboo weaving business has even become the mainstay industry for some of these regions.

“Bamboo is a sustainable, green resource,” said Wang Jingxin, a professor at Zhejiang University. “Such measures will help to speed up China’s economy and ecology.”

1. Why do poets and painters often use bamboo as the theme of their works?

A．Its various functions.	B．Its particular habitats.
C．Its commercial value.	D．Its symbolic meaning.

2. What does Xie Zhiguang say about bamboo?

A．Bamboo has a wide range of uses.	B．Bamboo can end the world poverty.
C．Bamboo has the fastest growth speed.	D．Bamboo can contribute to the environment.

3. What can be inferred about Anji County?

A．It is well known for bamboo carving techniques.

B．It is the filming location of many famous movies.

C．It sets up a lot of big factories for wood products.

D．It takes many steps to develop bamboo industries.

4. What is the attitude of Wang Jingxin towards bamboo industry?

A．Intolerant.

B．Doubtful.

C．Favorable.

D．Unclear.

7 . Do you know how blueberries (蓝莓) grow？They grow on bushes. Each blueberry is small and round. Many blueberries can grow on one bush. At first, the blueberries are green. The green berries are not ready to eat yet. They need a lot of sun and rain to help them become fat and sweet. When the berries turn blue, they are ripe and ready to be picked.

Farmers grow blueberries in big fields. The people who live nearby can earn money by helping to pick the blueberries. Each one takes a pail (桶) out to the field and fills it with blueberries. They work fast so that they can fill many pails. They want to earn as much money as they can. When they are done picking, their fingers are blue from the juice of the berries.

After the blueberries are picked, they are put into boxes and sent to stores. People buy the blueberries and take them home to eat. Some people like to wash the berries and eat them one by one. Other people like to cook with blueberries. They make blueberry cakes.

No matter how you eat them, blueberries taste great!

1. What color are the blueberries before they are ripe to be picked?

A．Green.

B．Blue.

C．Red.

D．Black.

2. Where do the blueberry pickers work?

A．In the mountains.	B．In a greenhouse.
C．In the forest.	D．In the field.

3. Where are the blueberries sent immediately after they are picked?

A．To the food shop.	B．To the farm house.
C．To the kitchen.	D．To the kitchen.

4. What would be the best title for this passage?

A．Cooking with Blueberries	B．Things about Blueberries
C．The Taste of Blueberries	D．Growing Blueberries