1 . 阅读下面材料,在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式,并将本题的答案写在答题卡上。

There were other creatures that I didn’t want to get too close to—an eel with its strong sharp teeth, with only its head showing from a hole,     1     (watch) for a tasty fish (or my tasty toe! );and     2     giant clam half buried in some coral waiting for something     3     (swim) in between its thick green lips. Then there were two grey reef sharks, each about one and half meters long, which suddenly     4     (appear) from behind some coral. I told     5     (me) they weren’t dangerous but that didn’t stop me from feeling scared to death for a moment!

The water was quite shallow but     6     the reef ended, there was a steep drop to the sandy ocean floor. It marked a boundary and I thought I was very brave when I swam over the edge of the reef and hung there looking down into the     7     (deep)of the ocean. My heart was beating     8     (wild)—I felt very exposed     9     such deep clear water.

What a wonderful,     10     (limit) world it was down there. And what a tiny spot I was in this enormous world!

2 . We’ve been hearing for decades about the complex intelligence of plants; but a new study, conducted by researchers at the University of Missouri, managed to figure out one new important element: plants can tell when they’re being eaten, and they don’t like it.

The word “intelligence”, when applied to any non-human animal or plant, is imprecise and sort of meaningless: research done to determine “intelligence” mostly just aims to learn how similar the inner workings of another organism is to a human thought process. But these studies do give us insight into how other organisms think and behave, whatever “think” might mean.

The researchers were seeking to answer an unusual question: does a plant know when it’s being eaten? To do that, the researchers had to first make a precise version of the vibrations (振动) that a caterpillar (毛虫) makes as it cats leaves. The theory is that it’s these vibrations that the plant can somehow feel or hear. In addition, the researchers also came up with other vibrations the plant might experience, like wind noise.

This particular study was on the thale cress. It actually produces some mustard oils (芥子油), which are mildly poisonous when eaten, and sends them through the leaves to stop caterpillars. And the study showed that when the plants felt or heard the vibrations made by caterpillars, they sent out extra mustard oils into the leaves. When they felt or heard other vibrations? Nothing. It’s a far more dynamic defense than scientists had realized: the plant is more aware of its surroundings and able to respond than expected.

There’s more research to be done; nobody’s quite sure by what mechanism the plant can actually feel or hear these vibrations. But it’s really promising research; there’s even talk of using sound waves to encourage crops to, say, grow faster, or send out specific defenses against attacks. Imagine knowing that a frost is coming, and being able to encourage plants to fruit faster by simply blasting them with music. That’s the kind of crazy sci-fi future this indicates.

1. What does the underlined part “other organisms” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Intelligence of plants.	B．Non-human living things.
C．Human thought processes.	D．The inner workings of plants.

2. What is the role of mustard oils produced by the thale cress?

A．Keeping the plant’s surroundings safe.	B．Acting as defenses to stop caterpillars.
C．Making the plant aware of the vibrations.	D．Sending warnings against caterpillars’ coming.

3. What does the underlined word “Nothing” in Paragraph 4 indicate?

A．The plants failed to identify other vibrations.

B．The plants sent out more mustard oils into the leaves.

C．The plants could identify vibrations from caterpillars.

D．The plants prevented caterpillars from eating the leaves.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The plans for the study.	B．The problems with the study.
C．The significance of the study.	D．The achievements of the study.

3 . Plenty of harvests of corn and other major crops rely on a mysterious phenomenon known as hybrid vigor (杂交活力). When highly naturally-born varieties are crossed, their next generations are taller, hardier, and bear more grain, Researchers report that this vigor is somehow influenced by microbes (微生物) in the soil, perhaps through a plant's immune system .

Charles Darwin was one of the first researchers to describe hybrid vigor. In the early 20th century, biologists began to apply this effect to agriculture by creating naturally-born parent plants that produced hybrid seeds. By the 1940s, almost every farmer in the United States was planting hybrid corn, and the harvests multiplied.

Biologists have proposed several theories about the cause of hybrid vigor, but no definitive explanation has emerged.

Maggie Wagner, plant biologist at the University of Kansas, and her colleagues wondered whether microbes might be it involved. Last year, Wagner and her colleagues found an interesting clue in a field study. They discovered that the leaves and roots of hybrid corn had microbial communities that are different from those living on naturally-born varieties of corn. “Something about being a hybrid makes a plant interact differently with microbes,” Wagner says. It could be that the naturally-born corn's immune systems react more actively to beneficial microbes, compromising their growth. Alternatively, hybrid plants may be better able to defend against weak pathogens (病原体) in the soil.

Wagner says the finding highlights the need for plant growers to match the hybrid crops to the microbial communities with which they live. The findings help scientists realize the importance of understanding the role of soil microbes in making agriculture more productive and sustainable, “This holds great promise.”

1. How did people use the effect of hybrid vigor in agriculture?

A．By producing naturally-born parent plants that bore hybrid seeds.

B．By creating naturally-born parent lines that produced hybrid vigor.

C．By providing more microbes communities that could produce more seeds.

D．By looking for hybrid parent plants in the field that produced hybrid seeds.

2. What can we know from paragraph 4?

A．Hybrid plants react worse to weak pathogens in the soil.

B．Wagner connected hybrid vigor with microbial communities.

C．Being naturally-born makes a plant interact differently with microbes.

D．Hybrid corn and naturally-born corn have similar microbial communities.

3. What effect would Wagner's finding have?

A．Making farmers know what to grow to resist certain diseases

B．Helping scientist realize the importance of spreading soil microbes.

C．Showing the significance of associating soil microbes with specific crops.

D．Highlighting the need for plant growers to find more microbial communities.

4. What may be the best title for the text?

A．Hybrid corn: a double-edged sword

B．How can farmers grow hybrid crops?

C．Hybrid vigor: a mysterious phenomenon

D．What role do soil microbes play in the harvests of corn?

4 . Now a group of Italians have created the world’s first underwater garden for terrestrial plants. Called Nemo’s Garden, the project was launched by the Ocean Reef Group as a means to experiment with food supply diversity, should climatic changes make parts of Italy too dry to farm. The large self-sustaining, totally-contained biospheres would in theory be scalable, and perhaps in the future might look like the underwater city from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

The challenge existing in growing plants underwater, given that they are normally at home in soil, was but one obstacle Nemo has had to overcome. The six air-filled greenhouses suffered major storm damage in October 2019, and before they could be fully repaired, COVID-19(新冠病毒) had all the researchers sheltering in place.

Yet the team never gave up hope, as Euronews reports, and the months of abandonment did not harm the facility in any way. June 6th saw the garden fully-operational again, including their live stream where one can watch the plants grow. The biospheres(生物圏), which sit eight meters under the surface off the coast of Noli in Liguria, use solar energy for their minimal electrical needs, and evaporated seawater condenses(凝结) on the glass of the ceiling which waters the plants. A diver swims under and up into the air pocket of the pod to harvest what’s ready to eat.

The project website says that increased pressure like that found under the ocean is actually beneficial to the speed at which plants can come up, though they admit very little research has been published on the topic—after all, not so many people are currently trying to grow strawberries it underwater.

The conditions create a really intense flavor in the vegetables, and also allow the plants’ environment to be completely controlled, with nothing impacting their life dial the growers don’t want. For now Nemo’s Garden is essentially a research lab, but if tie idea were expanded, it’s expected to be able to keep food security for the peninsula, and the world.

1. Why was Star Wars: The Phantom, Menace mentioned?

A．To stress it is known to the world.

B．To prove it has becomes u popular destination.

C．To illustrate it is the first existing underwater city.

D．To explain Nemo’s Garden has similarities with the underwater city.

2. What might be the difficulty in growing underwater plants according to Paragraph 2?

A．COVID-19.	B．Broken greenhouses.
C．Frequent storms   .	D．Shortage of soil.

3. Which word can best describe the group of Italians taking up Nemo’s Garden?

A．Strong-willed.	B．Self-confident.
C．Open-minded.	D．Well-paid.

4. What is the effect of increased stress on plants?

A．It helps them sell well.	B．It contributes to good taste.
C．It promotes their growth.	D．It increases growing period.