1 . Scientists have been experimenting with playing sounds to plants since at least the 1960s, during which time they have been exposed to everything from Beethoven to Michael Jackson. Over the years, evidence that this sort of thing can have an effect has been growing. One paper, published in 2018, claimed that an Asian shrub known as the telegraph plant grew substantially larger leaves when exposed to 56 days of Buddhist music — but not if it was exposed to Western pop music or silence. Another, published last year, found that marigolds and sage plants exposed to the noise of traffic from a busy motorway suffered growth difficulty.
Plants have been evolving (进化) alongside the insects that eat them for hundreds of millions of years. With that in mind, Heidi Appel, a botanist now at the University of Houston, and Reginald Cocroft, a biologist at the University of Missouri, wondered if plants might be sensitive to the sounds made by the animals with which they most often interact. They recorded the vibrations made by certain species of caterpillars (毛毛虫) as they chewed on leaves. These vibrations are not powerful enough to produce sound waves in the air. But they are able to travel across leaves and branches, and even to neighbouring plants if their leaves touch.
They then exposed tobacco plant — the plant biologist’s version of the laboratory mouse — to the recorded vibrations while no caterpillars were actually present. Later, they put real caterpillars on the plants to see if exposure had led them to prepare for an insect attack. The results were striking. Leaves that had been exposed had significantly higher levels of defensive chemicals, making them much harder for the caterpillars to eat. Leaves that had not been exposed to vibrations showed no such response. Other sorts of vibration — caused by the wind, for instance, or other insects that do not eat leaves — had no effect.
“Now speakers with the right audio files are more often being used to warn crops to act when insects are detected but not yet widespread,” says Dr. Cocroft. “Unlike chemical pesticides, sound waves leave no dangerous chemicals.”
1. What can we learn about plants from the first paragraph?A.They may enjoy Western music. | B.They can’t stand Buddhist music. |
C.They can react to different sounds. | D.They can make different sounds. |
A.Plants can make a cry for help. | B.Plants evolve alongside insects. |
C.Plants are sensitive to the sounds. | D.Plants have been studied for years. |
A.They can recongnize harmful vibrations. | B.They look like laboratory mice. |
C.They can threaten the caterpillars. | D.They can release poisonous chemicals. |
A.Disadvantages of chemical pesticides. | B.Application of the experimental results. |
C.Interaction between plants and insects. | D.Warning system of widespread insects. |
2 . How to Start a Garden in 2024?
Gardening is a powerful outlet for creativity, enabling you to surround yourself with beauty. It can provide homegrown food for your family, keep you in touch with nature and is also an invaluable form of exercise.
It all starts with good soil. Whatever you’re growing, fertile soil is the key. Investing in rich soil initially creates a suitable environment.
Grow vegetables that keep on giving. If you’re a newcomer, choose ones you can harvest more than once. Lettuce and basil are quick and easy to grow.
Save money with seeds and cuttings. Buying all of your plants from the garden center is expensive. However, you can grow a huge range of plants from seeds or cuttings. Reach out to friends and family who garden and ask them to share spare seeds with you.
A.Plant for every season. |
B.Size up your growing space. |
C.They’ll replace their leaves every time you cut them. |
D.In short, gardening is beneficial to both body and soul. |
E.Choose a container size appropriate for what you are growing. |
F.It promotes root development, supplying nutrients for plant growth. |
G.Also check to see if they have any plants you can take cuttings from. |
3 . Bred to be more sweeter, today’s cherries, bananas and apples taste different than they used — to but not necessarily better. Among fruit farmers, the word “quality” is now routinely used as a standard for “high in sugar”, though firmness, color and size are also considerations. In a recent study about ways to enhance the sweetness of fruit using “molecular (分子的) approaches”, a group of plant scientists wrote that, in general, the sugar content of many fruits are now higher than before owing to continuous selection and breeding. Modern apple varieties, the scientists stressed, were on average sweeter than older ones.
The sweetness of fruit depends not just on how it is bred but also on growing conditions, yield and harvest. The lead researcher, Sugiura, said, “If you could taste an apple harvested 30 years ago, you would feel the difference.” He believed that modern apples are picked so early that even if they are bred for sweetness, they often don’t develop their full character. The fragrance (香味) never develops in fruit that is harvested too early.
Jim Cooper, an apple farmer in England, is regretful to admit the fact that many people will never taste the “strawberry hint” in a really ripe Pearmain, a type of heritage apple. In a way, the rise of consistently sweeter fruit in our lifetimes has been a victory of plant breeding. After all, it’s a rare person who would seek out bitter grapes if they could have sweet ones instead.
But the sweetness of modern fruit is not without its problems, especially for people with diabetes (糖尿病), who have to reduce their intake of higher-sugar fruits. Fruit that is bred sweeter also tends to be lower in the chemicals that make it healthy. Considering health, maybe the real problem with modern fruit is that it has become yet another sweet thing in a world with sugar. Even grapefruits, which used to be quite bitter, are sometimes now as sweet as oranges. If you’ve never tasted a sour cherry, how can you fully appreciate a sweet one?
1. In what aspect is many fruits different from before?A.Sugar content. | B.Soft skin. | C.Bright color. | D.High yield. |
A.They are bred too early. | B.They taste so sweet. |
C.They are losing a good flavor. | D.They need a higher yield. |
A.Favorable. | B.Critical. | C.Ambiguous. | D.Indifferent. |
A.It’s a wise choice to breed fruits for sweetness. |
B.Breeding sweet fruits improves the quality of fruits. |
C.Some fruits like grapes and cherries taste the same. |
D.The sweetness of fruits will cause health issues. |
Hua Weiguang,
A decade ago, the arrival of tree planters
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China’s forest resources have increased by over 70 million hectares in the past decade,