1 . How to Help Your Garden Get Through the Heat
Record-breaking heat is affecting plants in many places around the world. But gardening expert Jessica Damiano says selecting the right plants and a little care could save them.
Damiano says that in serious heat, and when that heat is dry, the soil loses water in it quickly.
Many foreign plants, including most plants that live for just one year, have root systems that are not deep. This means they must depend on the top few centimeters of soil for all of their water needs.
Planting advice
When planting, Damiano says she always covers root balls with fungi (真菌) called mycorrhizae. It helps roots grow and helps plants deal with high temperature. She also treats her plants once a month with two materials: a seaweed-containing fish mixture and a vitamin—hormone—kelp material.
Seaweed and kelp are plants that grow in water.
Finally, Damiano says the last addition is a good deal of covering on top. Covering not only keeps things looking clean, but it also helps to keep soil wetness and soil temperatures even.
| A．When the top soil dries up, so do they. |
| B．Study which plants are native to your area. |
| C．And it also keeps unwanted plants from growing. |
| D．She has watered her flower garden just two times this summer. |
| E．They have been proved to help other plants in difficult environments. |
| F．Plants will turn to their own limited water storing when they need water. |
| G．When plants are native to an area, they naturally develop deep, large root systems. |
2 . About 17 years ago, I became allergic to Delhi's air. My doctors told me that my lung function had gone down to 70 percent. My doctor told me that there were three plants, with which I could grow all the fresh air indoors to keep me healthy.
The three plants are Areca palm, Mother-in-law's Tongue and money plant. Areca palm is a plant which removes CO2 and turns it into oxygen. We need four shoulder-high plants every person. The second plant is Mother-in-law's Tongue. It is called a bedroom plant because it turns CO, into oxygen at night. And we need six to eight waist-high plants every person. The third plant is money plant, and it preferably grows in hydroponics. This particular plant removes some harmful chemicals.
My team and I have tried these plants at our own building in Delhi, which is a 50,000-square-feet, 20-yearold building. And it has close to 1,200 such plants for 300 families. Our studies have found that there is a 42 percent probability of one's blood oxygen going up by one percent if one stays indoors in this building for 10 hours. Our experience also points to an amazing reduction in energy requirements in the building by an outstanding 15 percent. The government has published a study to show that this is the healthiest building in Delhi. And the study has also shown that, compared to other buildings, there is a reduced incidence of headaches by 24 percent.
In my opinion, these studies above are also important for the environment because the world’s energy requirements are expected to grow by 30 percent in the next decade. 40 percent of the world's energy is taken up by buildings currently, and 60 percent of the world's population will be living in buildings in cities with a population of over one million in the next 15 years. And there is a growing preference for living and working in air-conditioned places.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To show the results of growing plants. | B．To give the reason for the author's studies. |
| C．To introduce the author's life. | D．To praise the author's doctor. |
| A．CO2. | B．Oxygen. | C．Money plant. | D．Mother-in-law's Tongue. |
| A．The building with the three plants is the healthiest in Delhi |
| B．The possibility of headaches reduces by 40 percent. |
| C．The energy requirements in the building drop by 42 percent. |
| D．People can stay in the building for only 10 hours. |
| A．Complex. | B．Boring. | C．Meaningful. | D．Useless. |
1. What has happened in the park?
| A．Some flowers are dying because of the dry weather. |
| B．Lots of flowers are opening up. |
| C．Some flowers have been planted in the park. |
| A．It is the hottest place in the world. |
| B．It is the driest place in the world. |
| C．It is the smallest park in the world. |
| A．In 2005 and 1998. | B．In 2004 and 1998. | C．In 2000 and 2005. |
Herbal tea has v
5 . Gardening’s many “rules” have been repeated so often that they can seem like unquestionable truths. But many have little basis in fact, so following them may be unnecessary at best and could give you poorer results at worst.
A classic example is the long-held idea that watering plants around noon on a sunny day should be avoided, since it might harm their leaves. The explanation is that tiny water droplets can act like lenses (透镜), focusing the sun’s rays onto leaves, resulting in scorched (灼伤的) leaves and reduced plant health.
Four researchers set out to learn more, running experiments on living plants and carrying out computer modelling. They found that spreading small glass spheres (球体) over the surface of smooth-leaved plants could indeed have this effect, causing damage right across the leaf surface. But when this was repeated with actual water droplets, such damage didn’t occur.
This is because water behaves rather differently to glass. The shape of a water droplet on a leaf is more elliptical (椭圆的) than spherical. The computer modelling showed that the extreme damage through a lens of this shape would occur when the sun was at a low angle in the sky, that is, in the morning or in the afternoon. However, the sun’s strength at these times is too low to cause any harm. Even if the light of the midday sun did somehow come at the strongest angle, the heat at this time of day would always cause the water droplets to evaporate (蒸发) before they had an effect.
So, if your plants need a good watering, give them some water. Not watering thirsty plants on a sunny day for fear of leaf scorch will almost certainly lead to more damage from drought stress than could be caused by the magnifying glass (放大镜) effect. While it remains generally true that the ideal time to water a plant is in the morning or evening — to lessen the amount of water that evaporates before reaching the plant’s roots — the evidence doesn’t support the idea that watering at midday will cause burning.
1. What is the long-held idea talked about in the passage!| A．Watering plants counts a lot. |
| B．Plant leaves might act like lenses. |
| C．Watering at midday may harm plant health. |
| D．Sun’s rays might be focused onto water droplets. |
| A．The same degree of damage occurred. |
| B．Damage was caused right across the leaf surface. |
| C．Unlike the glass spheres, the water droplets didn’t damage leaves. |
| D．The smooth-leaved plants were extremely affected by water droplets. |
| A．The explanation for the finding. |
| B．The process of the experiments. |
| C．The time of evaporating. |
| D．The harm caused by the sunshine. |
| A．The long-held idea is well worth advocating. |
| B．Plants’ roots get no water if watering occurs at noon. |
| C．Watering in the morning can prevent water evaporation. |
| D．Watering thirsty plants on a sunny noon makes sense. |
6 . Gotham Greens started as a single rooftop (外屋顶) greenhouse in Brooklyn. New York City. Now, it is one of the largest greenhouse lettuce (生菜) producers in North America, with soon-to-be 13 sites across nine states.
“Ninety-nine percent of the food that we eat in New York City has to be brought in from other places and has to travel very far. For example, lettuce like this usually comes from places like California that are 3,000 miles away.” explains Chief Executive Officer Viraj Puri.
The company plans to grow 100 million heads of lettuce this year. Puri founded Gotham Greens because he wanted to bring farms close to the communities they serve. For example, the lettuce grown on the roof on Third Street in Gowanus only needs to be transported down using a lift to reach the supermarket Whole Foods.
Many people might not think of New York City as a place to grow produce, but rooftop farms can be easily found in the city. “Here, it’s about 70 degrees and the plants are growing well because we are creating the perfect growing conditions for them,“ Puri explains.
Grown completely in water in renewably-powered greenhouses, the farms use less water and land. “The plants are grown in water to which nutrients (营养物) are added, making them grow very quickly. We can avoid the use of chemicals (化学品),” says Puri.
The company also donates (捐赠) tens of thousands of young plants a year to organizations that work to feed people and provide educational programming around city farming. In the Claremont Village area of the Bronx, local students like 16-year-old Jill Bonilla care for towers of herbs and vegetables in a unique classroom.
”Plants don’t take that long to grow; you just got to take care of them properly,“ she says. ”It helps me stay healthy and stay away from junk food.“
Bonilla and hundreds of other kids are part of the educational organization Green Bronx Machine, which partners with Gotham Greens to educate students. Green Bronx Machine’s programs are in 675 schools across the country. Last year, it grew more than 8,000 pounds of food in the Bronx, and donated 150,000 pounds of healthy produce.
1. What can we learn from paragraphs 2 and 3?| A．Most of New York City’s lettuce comes from Brooklyn. |
| B．Rooftop farms are becoming popular in New York City. |
| C．Planting lettuce in New York City makes a big difference. |
| D．Gotham Greens was founded to make New York City greener. |
| A．Their numbers are growing rapidly. |
| B．They are environmentally friendly. |
| C．Their market has already opened up. |
| D．They are less costly than traditional farms. |
| A．It is worth the time. |
| B．It is a bit challenging. |
| C．It has built up her confidence, |
| D．It has changed her ideas about farmers. |
| A．They support poor students. |
| B．They have their own schools. |
| C．They run educational programs. |
| D．They have farms in the countryside. |
7 . The forests of today will not be the forests of tomorrow.
Rising temperatures, deforestation (森林砍伐), development and climate-caused disasters are changing the very form of Earth’s forests, new research published in the journal Science finds.
Older, bigger trees are being lost at an amazing rate, making the planet’s forests shorter and younger in general.
The shift is being driven at different rates by different causes in different places, the study’s authors say, but the consequences will be global.
Old growth forests absorb and store massive amounts of climate-warming carbon dioxide (二氧化碳). They provide home for rare and critically endangered species and make the biology diverse. And they’re disappearing fast.
Warming temperatures, wildfires, and insect outbreaks were among the many causes of the decline, says Nate McDowell, the study’s lead author.
Just in the past year, the world has watched as massive wildfires across Siberia, the Amazon and Australia. Deforestation in Southeast Asia and Brazil continue rapidly.
Human-driven climate change is also making it difficult for many forests to fully recover from the type of natural behaviors — wind events, flooding or fire — that would normally occur.
The researchers did find evidence that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could increase tree growth in some places, but not to an extent where it would outweigh the harm being done by increased temperatures. The most important trend was one of loss.
“I would recommend that people try to visit places with big trees now, while they can, with their kids,” McDowell says. “Because there’s some significant threat, that might not be possible sometime in the future.”
1. What does the author mean by saying “The forests of today will not be the forests of tomorrow”?| A．Tree species in forests will be changed as governments plan. |
| B．The climate of tomorrow will be different from that of toady. |
| C．The form of forests will be changed due to various reasons. |
| D．Animals in the forests will die away at an amazing rate. |
| A．People are planting a great deal of trees. |
| B．People are involved in protecting forests. |
| C．The growth of new trees is threatening that of big ones. |
| D．The number of older and bigger trees is dropping greatly. |
| A．They are harmful to the growth of younger trees. |
| B．They are home to many rare and endangered trees. |
| C．They rely largely upon weather conditions. |
| D．They serve as the habitats for most birds. |
| A．Because they would be impressed by their beauty. |
| B．Because they would keep away from busy life temporarily. |
| C．Because there might be no big trees at all in the future. |
| D．Because warmer climate might destroy all trees globally. |
8 . As Earth’s climate continues to change, a plant’s ability to adapt to its changing environment is important to its survival. Often, to stay alive, a plant must move locations by releasing its seeds, but plants are rooted in the ground and cannot move themselves. Instead, they are dependent on animals or the wind to carry their seeds to a new location.
Playing an essential part in an ecosystem (生态系统), plants create resources like food and medicine for us human beings. A team of researchers developed the model to better understand how plants can stay resiliency (韧性) when facing challenges like climate change.
“Once seeds are released from a plant, we wanted to know how far they can go because as wind conditions shake, the seeds will be moved around differently because of various weights, sizes, and shapes,” says Binbin Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri.
Changes in one part of the ecosystem can create a “snowball effect” on other parts. That’s why understanding seed spread is important. Plants can only make this move once during their life — as a seed, says Lauren Sullivan, an assistant professor at Michigan State University.
“Understanding how plants move as seeds year-round is important for us to analyze how they’ll be able to handle climate change,” Sullivan says. “This movement is also important for how we can increase diversity (多样性) in the ecosystem.” “We’re now able to partner with researchers. This innovative approach can help us develop accurate models that are simple enough to make good predictions in a short time.”
The model, which makes predictions based on seed and plant type, plant height, and wind speed, can develop an entire year’s worth of predictive data in just one or two days. As part of their future work, the team will develop educational programming for K-12 and college students. For example, they will provide opportunities for college students to explore how different disciplines, such as agriculture, biological sciences, and engineering, can work together to solve different real-world problems.
1. Why did the researchers develop the model?| A．To learn how plants handle challenges like climate change. |
| B．To find out what helps seeds travel to different places. |
| C．To study the effects climate change has on plants. |
| D．To create more food and medicine resources. |
| A．Its weight. | B．Its location. | C．Its size. | D．Its shape. |
| A．It is caused by the change of the climate. |
| B．It can happen during the whole life of a plant. |
| C．It has an effect on other parts of the ecosystem. |
| D．It’s hard to be predicted for the diversity of ecosystem. |
| A．Explore different disciplines for college students. |
| B．Work together to solve different real-world problems. |
| C．Develop educational programming for students to explore. |
| D．Make valuable predictions about the type and height of the plants. |
1. What is the most important thing when planning a garden?
| A．Growing what one loves. |
| B．Picking the right soil. |
| C．Choosing the location of the garden. |
| A．5. | B．4. | C．3. |
| A．They’re less expensive. |
| B．They grow more easily. |
| C．Their fruits will grow big enough. |
| A．Plant right before the growing season. |
| B．Ask an expert for the right soil. |
| C．Enjoy the process of planting. |
10 . Healthy House Plants: A Complete Gulde to Gardening Indoors
BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine has collaborated (合作) with digital educational platform, FutureLearn, to bring you a brand new online gardening course — Healthy House Plants: A Complete Guide to Gardening Indoors. This four-week online course has been designed to provide you with tips and advice on growing indoor plants and take you on a world journey, exploring imported plants.
Your course instructor
The course is led by expert tutor and Associate Editor, David Hurrion, who will share his 50 years of gardening experience and bring his skills to you online, so you can learn from him in the comfort of your own home.
Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What’s covered in this course?
Week 1: What will you grow?
Week 2: Growing conditions and the indoor environment.
Week 3: Caring for your house plants.
Week 4: Making more plants and problem-solving.
Course registration (注册) and cost
There are three options for registering for this course：
*FREE — Access to the course is limited to six weeks, and no certificate (证书) is given.
*Upgrade for £32, unlimited time access, and a printed and digital certificate.
*Unlimited access to all FutureLearn short courses: £16.68/month.
More online courses with FutureLearn
Gardening for Beginners: The Basics and Beyond: Grow your gardening skills with easy-to-follow techniques aimed at both new and experienced home gardeners in this five-week online course.
1. What can the learners of this four-week course do?| A．Learn at their own pace. | B．Receive personalized guidance. |
| C．Attend more online courses for free. | D．Hand in a composition online. |
| A．Week 1. | B．Week 2. | C．Week 3. | D．Week 4. |
| A．£16.68. | B．£32. | C．£33.36. | D．£48.68. |
