1 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What does Jacob ask Amy to do?

A．Enjoy the flowers.

B．Provide help.

C．Grow flowers.

2. How often does Jacob water flowers?

A．Every day.

B．Every two days.

C．Every three days.

3. What do we know about Jacob’s flowers?

A．They lack water.

B．They lack sunshine.

C．Their leaves turn yellow.

4. What will Jacob do?

A．Water flowers in time.

B．Learn about growing flowers.

C．Grow flowers with Amy.

2 . 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。

Plant lovers believe that talking to plants helps them grow. Scientists have discovered there could be real     1     (true) in this belief. Researchers have discovered that plants give off sounds when they are stressed. The sounds are quite similar     2     a human cry. Unfortunately, plant sounds are at too high a frequency for the human ear     3     (pick) up. Humans can only hear frequencies of up to 16 kilohertz (赫兹). Using special Al technology, scientists can now pick up sounds     4     (send) out by plants that are up to 250 kilohertz. The Al can also tell differences between different types of plant sounds.

The research     5     (do) in a greenhouse at Israel’s Tel Aviy University. Lead researcher Professor Lilach Hadany said: “Plants usually give off sounds when they     6     (be) under stress. Each plant and each type of stress is connected with     7     specific sound.” She suggested that crop fields could be quite     8     (noise), saying “While unable to be picked up by the human ear, the sounds given off by plants can be heard by bats,     9     (mouse) and insects. Understanding these sounds could help us know when crops need watering,     10     means farmers could water their crops more efficiently and thus save water and money.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. How many people died in a landslide in 2003?

A．About two hundred.

B．Over one thousand.

C．About two thousand.

2. What has the Philippines banned for several years?

A．Growing grass.

B．Cutting down trees.

C．Growing population.

3. What does the speaker advise to protect our environment?

A．Growing more forests.

B．Chopping down the old forests.

C．Getting busy in protecting our country.

4 . Between 20 and 40 per cent of planet Earth is covered in grasslands, across every continent except for Antarctica. Grass is a low-growing, flowering plant with groups of narrow leaves growing from its base. Strong roots typically hold this plant’s leaves firmly to the ground.

One of the most common sights along stretches of grass is grass-eating animals. This is because many large animals rely on extensive grasslands to survive, and grass grows well with this regular trimming (修剪). The plants gain their energy from sunlight and require healthy cells to do so. If the leaves aren’t cut, the tips die and start to rot. When they are damaged with a clean cut, however, the cells are caused to grow quicker and produce new, healthy tissue. This is also why cutting your garden’s grassland regularly can make your grass look thicker and healthier.

Humans rely on grass for food, too. Many grasses, such as w heat or corn, are harvested as a main part of some diets. Meanwhile, grass is used indirectly to produce food in the form of livestock (牲畜). Cattle farmers require grass in their fields to feed cows and sheep before they are turned into meat for human consumption.

One of the most debated questions is how long ago grass evolved. Because grass doesn’t preserve well as a fossil, a definitive answer is hard to come by. Until recently, many scientists estimated that grass began to grow on Earth between 50 and 65 million years ago.

However, within the last decade, a piece of 100-million-year-old amber (琥珀) was found that appeared to contain the oldest grass fossil to date. Studies of fossilized dinosaur faces (粪便) also suggest that some dinosaurs lived at the same time that grass grew on the planet, incorporating it into their diets.

1. What is the function of the roots mentioned in Paragraph 1?

A．To fix the leaves to the soil.	B．To store water and nutrients.
C．To support the growth of the plant.	D．To protect the plant from animals.

2. How does regular cutting of grass benefit the plants?

A．By improving soil quality.	B．By encouraging cell growth.
C．By preventing the tips from dying.	D．By attracting more animals to eat them.

3. Why is it difficult to determine when grass evolved?

A．Grass doesn’t preserve well as a fossil.	B．There are no fossils of grass available.
C．There is no solid evidence of its evolution.	D．Scientists can’t agree on its origin.

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

A．The Variety of Grass	B．The Development of Grass
C．How Grass Change Life	D．How to Make Grass Grow Well

5 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. How does the woman feel at first?

A．Curious.

B．Surprised.

C．Excited.

2. What in the forest made the man think about rotting?

A．Flowers.

B．Mushrooms.

C．Trees.

3. How many colors of the mushrooms does the woman mention?

A．Two.

B．Three.

C．Four.

4. When will the speakers return to the forest?

A．On Thursday.

B．On Friday.

C．On Saturday.

6 . 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.

2. What’s the basis for Appel and Cocroft’s research?

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.

3. What can we infer about plants from Paragraph 3?

A．They can recongnize harmful vibrations.	B．They look like laboratory mice.
C．They can threaten the caterpillars.	D．They can release poisonous chemicals.

4. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about?

A．Disadvantages of chemical pesticides.	B．Application of the experimental results.
C．Interaction between plants and insects.	D．Warning system of widespread insects.

7 . 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

8 . Scientists have shown how plants can protect themselves against genetic (基因的) damage caused by environmental stresses. The growing tips of plant roots and shoots have an in-built mechanism (机制) that spells cell death if DNA damage is detected, avoiding passing on faulty DNA.

Plants have small populations of stem cells (干细胞) at the tips of their roots and shoots, which enable them to continuously grow and produce new tissues throughout their lifetime. These stem cells serve as ancestors for plant tissues and organs. However, any genetic faults present in the stem cells will continue to exist and be passed on permanently throughout the plant’s life, which could last thousands of years.

Given the critical role of stem cells and their exposure to potentially dangerous environments at the growing tips of roots and shoots, safeguards are necessary to prevent stem cell faults from becoming fixed. Researchers Nick Fulcher and Robert Sablowski, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, aimed to uncover these protective mechanisms. Through experiments involving X-rays and chemicals, they discovered that stem cells were more sensitive to DNA damage compared to other cells.

When DNA damage occurs, the cells have the capacity to detect it and cause programmed cells to die, preventing the propagation of the damaged genetic code to the rest of the plant tissues. This process has similarities to the safeguard mechanism found in animal cells, which has been broadly studied due to its relevance in preventing cancer.

The identification of a similar protective system in plants is of great interest in the field of plant development. It also helps scientists develop plants that can better handle environmental stress. So knowledge of how plants deal with these stresses is of fundamental significance to agricultural science’s response to climate change.

1. What is the function of the in-built mechanism in plants?

A．To produce more roots and shoots.	B．To increase the overall lifetime of the plant.
C．To enhance plant growth and nutrient intake.	D．To stop genetic faults in stem cells passing on.

2. What can we know about stem cells in plants according to the text?

A．They are relatively abundant in quantity.	B．They are resistant to environmental stresses.
C．They make quick response to DNA damage.	D．They have the ability to repair damaged DNA.

3. What does the underlined word “propagation” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Spread.

B．Change.

C．Existence.

D．Self-repair.

4. What does the last paragraph focus on?

A．The way of dealing with climate change on the earth.

B．The significance of identifying the protective system in plants.

C．The method of ensuring plant survival under environmental stress.

D．The urgency of developing plants that can handle environmental stress.

9 . Imagine if your houseplant was thirsty and it could tell you so. Chances are, it can—you just can’t hear it. According to the findings from researchers in Israel, tomato and tobacco plants stressed from lack of water or having their stems (茎) cut make sounds comparable in volume to normal human conversation.

The sound is kind of a snap (咔嚓声) and pop. While the frequency of the plant outcry is too high for our ears, they can likely be heard by insects, other animals and other plants.

The team started with healthy and stressed tomato and tobacco plants—the stressed ones were either unwatered for several days or had their stems cut. They recorded the group in an acoustic chamber (隔音箱) and then in a noisier greenhouse. They also used a machine-learning algorithm (算法) to distinguish between happy plants, thirsty plants, and cut plants.

The team found that stressed plants make more sounds than unstressed plants, with a stressed plant making 30 to 50 clicks per hour at seemingly random intervals. Unstressed plants were much less active.

“Water-stressed plants began making noises, and the frequency of sounds peaked after five days with no water before decreasing again as the plants dried up completely. The types of sound differed with the cause of stress,” according to a press release for the research. “The machine-learning algorithm could accurately distinguish between lack of water and stress from cutting and could also tell whether the sounds came from tomato or tobacco plants.”

The researchers explain that it’s unclear whether the sounds result from an effort to communicate—yet they note that the sounds have ecological and evolutionary meaning. “It’s possible that other organisms could have evolved to hear and respond to these sounds,” says Hadany. “For example, an insect that intends to lay eggs on a plant or an animal that intends to eat a plant could use the sounds to help guide their decision.”

1. What did the Israel researchers find?

A．Plants cry loudly when they are cut	B．Certain plants like to help each other.
C．Plants communicate as humans do.	D．Certain stressed plants make sounds.

2. What is paragraph 3 of the text mainly about?

A．Why a noisier greenhouse was used.	B．How the researchers did the research.
C．The importance of recording the plants.	D．The varieties of plants for the study.

3. When did water-stressed plants make the most noises?

A．The moment they were lack of water.	B．When the experiment began.
C．After five days of water shortage.	D．After drying up completely.

4. What do the researchers think of the sounds made by the stressed plants?

A．They are of much significance,	B．They help animals escape danger.
C．They affect the ecological balance.	D．They are mainly for communication.

10 . 某中学生英文报近期开展了“保护古树名木共享绿水青山”的主题征文活动，以鼓励人们积极参与对古树的保护。请你以“Why We Need to Protect Century-old Trees”为题写一篇英语短文，向该英文报投稿。要求包括以下要点：
1．古树保护的意义；2．古树保护面临的问题；3．你的建议。
注意：1．词数100左右；2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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