1 . The candy we eat, the tea we drink, the lotion we use---they all likely contain ingredients from wild plants. While natural ingredients can be beneficial to buyers, the way those plants are harvested could harm ecosystems. In a recent United Nations report, medicinal plant experts revealed the risks behind several of them, including Brazil nuts, frankincense, goldenseal, gum arabic, and licorice.
Plant derivatives （衍生物） in household products “sit there somewhere in the middle of the ingredients list” on product labels, often going unnoticed, says Caitlin Schindler, lead author of the report. Even if consumers do take note, there’s no information about what’s involved in obtaining or processing the derivatives.
Many of these plants are threatened with extinction from overharvesting, disease and pests, climate change, and habitat loss. The endangered state of more than 20,000 medicinal plant species has never been assessed, which means it’s impossible to know whether their use is sustainable.
Meanwhile, the trade in wild plants is booming. U. S. consumers spent more than $12.3 billion on herbal dietary supplements in 2021---up more than 9 percent from 2020. Wild plants have been used locally for centuries, but today’s global demand puts many at risk. And international customers often have no idea where these products originate.
Should consumers stop buying the products? No. Schindler says, because “the ingredients are really critical to a lot of people’s livelihoods.” Solutions for transforming the trade in wild plants are rooted in awareness. The first step for consumers is to “just notice that you’re buying something that has a wild ingredient,” she says. It’s generally safer to purchase local products and splurge on more expensive ones, if possible.
Consumers can also look for organic and fair-trade certifications. Various programs evaluate wild-plant supply chains for sustainability, and many companies advertise these certifications, either on the product or online. One of the most prominent is Fair Wild, which assesses environmental risks and recommends best sourcing practices. If certifications are missing, Schindler encourages people to challenge companies to do better. “Until businesses get a bit more pressure from consumers, we won’t see any changes happening,” she says.
1. What can we learn about wild plants according to the report?| A．Their current situation is ignored. | B．They are limited on a global scale. |
| C．They have been evaluated regularly. | D．Their process information is on the label. |
| A．Get rid of. | B．Spend much money on. |
| C．Pay attention to. | D．Conduct many experiments on. |
| A．They confirm the quality of the wild plants. |
| B．They offer consumers rights to assess the products. |
| C．They ensure the use of wild plants at a steady level. |
| D．They inspire companies to make more advertisements. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
2 . In 1986, when he was only a prince. King Charles told a television interviewer that it was important to talk to plants. He was widely laughed at. But his wisdom seems to have been ahead of its time, for there is now plenty of evidence that plants can detect (察觉) sound, react to it, and even perhaps produce it.
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, announced that an Asian plant grew much larger leaves when exposed to 56 days of Buddhist chants — but not if it was exposed to Western pop music, or silence. Another, published last year, found that plants exposed to the noise of traffic from a busy motorway suffered slow growth, and produced a range of stress compounds (成分).
Another research reports that certain frequencies (频率), played in some environments like greenhouses, can affect seed growth and even improve crop production. And plants can make noises, too. Earlier this year a group of researchers at Tel Aviv University published an article in Cell Press, reporting that several plants gave out different noises in response to different stresses — although not at the sorts of frequencies that humans can hear. Humans can only hear frequencies of up to 16 kilohertz. Scientists discovered sounds given out by plants were up to 250 kilohertz.
If all that sounds strange, perhaps it should not. After all, sound carries useful information.
From an evolutionary point of view, there is no reason to expect that information to be applied only by animals.
1. What was most people’s attitude to Charles’ opinion?| A．Unclear. | B．Positive. | C．Cautious. | D．Negative. |
| A．Different sounds have different effects on plants. |
| B．Buddhist chants don’t make a difference to plants. |
| C．Western pop music does good to plants’ growth. |
| D．The noise of traffic produces stress compounds. |
| A．The sounds are strange. | B．The plants grow in greenhouses. |
| C．The plants are under great stress. | D．The sounds are at high frequencies. |
| A．It’s the important to talk to plants. |
| B．Sounds make a difference to plants. |
| C．Plants can discover and even make sound. |
| D．Humans can’t hear sounds produced by plants. |
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. |
4 . A new study reveals that trees can communicate and warn each other of danger. “For the first time, researchers have been able to visualize plant-to-plant communication,” said Masatsugu, senior author of the study.
The idea of talking trees started to take root in the 1980s. Two scientists found that damaged trees began producing chemicals that made their leaves unappetizing and indigestible to discourage insects. The trees then sent chemical signals to one another through the air. Over the past four decades, scientists have observed this cell-to-cell communication in more than 30 plant species.
Past research shows plants communicate with their surroundings by releasing chemicals known as volatile (易挥发的) organic compounds. One class of these compounds are released when a plant is injured: green leafy volatiles. These are released by, as the name suggests, pretty much every green plant with leaves, and are produced when a plant experiences physical damage. An example of these compounds is the smell released from fresh-cut grass.
In the new study, Masatsugu and his colleagues manually damaged leaves and placed insects on tomato plants to trigger the release of various green leafy volatiles. After testing many of them, the team found it seemed to increase calcium ions (钙离子) inside cells. The calcium signaling is like a switch to turn on the defense responses from the plants.
With this new understanding, researchers say plants could be immunized against threats and stressors before they even happen. For instance, exposing healthy plants to insect-ridden plants or the associated green leafy volatiles could boost their genetic defenses, so farmers use less pesticides. The revelation could also help make plants more resilient (有复原力的) during a drought, signaling the plants to conserve more water.
1. What does the new research find?| A．Trees can inform other trees of potential threats. | B．Trees can make themselves attractive. |
| C．Trees will send signals first once damaged. | D．Trees will work together to trick insects. |
| A．They defend insects. | B．They kill insects. |
| C．Some of them can be smelt. | D．Some of them can be seen. |
| A．By protecting trees from insects. | B．By classifying green leafy volatiles. |
| C．By increasing calcium ions inside cells. | D．By causing the release of certain chemicals. |
| A．Its target. | B．Its process. | C．Its application. | D．Its background. |
5 . When most of us read the words “plant-based diet”, we tend to think of foods such as salads and grain. But there is another option — the newest super-food: seaweed. The brownish-green oceanic plant like matter that washes up on beaches is in fact edible. Nori, the papery sheets used to wrap sushi rolls, is likely the most well-known and enjoyed seaweed, but these large leafy algae (海藻) come in hundreds of colorful varieties. Seaweed helps to support other life in the ocean and to clean the water surrounding it. When out of the water, seaweed can bring more nutrition and minerals to our diets.
“Even though we try to eat healthily, we’re relying on land-based and soil-based agriculture for the most part,” said Sarah Redmond, founder and owner of Springtide Seaweed in Gouldsboro, Maine. “Seaweed is a really interesting alternative because it provides the nutrients that are really hard to find in other land plants.”
For humans, seaweed is a one-stop shop for our necessary nutrient needs. “Seaweed is an excellent source of dietary fiber and minerals,” said Mary Ellen Camire, professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Maine.
Though nutrition varies slightly between green, brown and red varieties, across the board seaweed contains a number of vitamins, including B,C,E and K, omega-3 fatty acids, protein and 10 times more minerals than land-based plants, according to a recent study.
However, you don’t need to pile your plate high with seaweed. “Some brown seaweed is very high in iodine (碘),” Camire said. “It has so much iodine that consumers are advised to eat it no more than three times per week.”
Seaweed is just as beneficial to the planet as it is to our personal health. Seaweed pulls carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and uses it to make more carbohydrates (碳水化合物). “We are not sure how much seaweed farming it would take to have a significant effect on global warming, but it helps,” Camire said.
Seaweed also consumes elements that can harm the ocean. It can also provide a place for smaller sea creatures to hide from their enemies, establishing environments that can help restore diverse ocean life in over-fished habitats.
1. What does the underlined word “edible” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Fit to be eaten. | B．Large in size. | C．Hard to notice. | D．Good for health. |
| A．It can replace most vegetables and grain. | B．It provides people with important nutrition. |
| C．It attracts Mary Ellen Camire to agriculture. | D．It is bad for people’s health in the long run. |
| A．Choose seaweed low in iodine. | B．Combine seaweed with other foods. |
| C．Control the amount of seaweed you eat. | D．Remove brown seaweed from your plate. |
| A．By setting up new habitats for sea creatures. |
| B．By releasing friendly gases into the atmosphere. |
| C．By providing plenty of carbohydrates for fishers. |
| D．By using carbon dioxide to produce useful substances. |
6 . Theoretically some trees could live forever, according to a recent essay that reviews growing evidence on long-lived trees.
Across the board, trees do not die so much as they are killed, write the authors of the review essay. Their killers are outer factors rather than old age alone. That is, there is no evidence that harmful genetic mutations (基因突变) occur over time or that trees lose their ability to continue to grow.
“Trees might live forever, but this does not happen,” says co-author Franco Biondi. “Tree killers include environmental risks such as droughts , wildfires, terrible weather and human behaviors such as woodcutting and fires set to clear forests for hunting or grassland.”
Tree longevity (长寿) interests researchers in part because trees and other plants remove carbon from the atmosphere, and older trees are thought to store more carbon than younger ones. The rings of old trees can also serve as an invaluable record of climate history, with wider rings indicating better years.
David Stahle, a geographer and tree longevity researcher at the University of Arkansas, takes issue with the belief that trees can possibly live forever. “The likelihood, all things being equal, that trees can live forever seems unlikely to me,” he says.
This hypothesis (假设) has become popular in the past 20 years as researchers continue to report having found little genetic evidence of aging in extremely old trees. And this is one of the review essay’s most important points. But evidence of aging could be out there and just not yet found.
1. What does the recent review essay mainly indicate?| A．There are a great variety of tree killers. | B．Trees could keep on surviving forever. |
| C．More trees die naturally than being killed. | D．Genetic mutations stop trees from growing. |
| A．Because the way trees grow rings is more interesting. |
| B．Because trees make clearer climate records than other plants. |
| C．Because older trees contribute more to the environment. |
| D．Because younger trees are less likely to have genetic mutations. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uninterested. | C．Reserved. | D．Favorable. |
| A．The assumption has been proved true. | B．Evidence of aging trees might exist. |
| C．Tree research has grown in the past 20 years. | D．Some key points disappear in the review essay. |
7 . Scientists have known for years that plants respond to sounds around them. For example, flowers make sweeter nectar (花蜜) to the sound of buzzing bees. But now scientists in Israel have shown that plants also seem to be doing some “talking”.
Professor Lilach Hadany and her team at Tel Aviv University set up microphones to record tomato and tobacco plants under different conditions. Their recordings showed that the plants made ultrasonic (超声波的) sounds.
When the researchers adjusted their recordings so that humans could hear them, they heard sharp clicking noises. Plants clicked hardly at all when they had enough water. But as their soil got drier, they clicked more and more. When scientists cut off a stem (茎) from the plants, the plants also clicked more. But the clicking wasn’t the same as when the plants needed water.
It’s not clear how the plants make the sounds and whether the plants are making the sounds on purpose. But the plants are definitely making noises, and creating much more noises when they’re stressed (not enough water, stem cut off) than when they’re not.
The researchers trained an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to identify the different kinds of clicking sounds. The system was able to tell the difference between plants that needed water and plants with cuts about 70% of the time. The result suggests that researchers may one day be able to use a plant’s sounds to figure out when it is having trouble, and what trouble it is having. That could be very helpful to farmers.
The new discovery raises many more questions. One important question is: Do plants make sounds to communicate with each other? Other research has shown that plants do seem to communicate in some ways. Plants being attacked by insects send chemicals into the air. Soon, nearby plants (that haven’t been attacked yet) start to make other chemicals that don’t taste good to insects. It’s possible that the ultrasonic sounds could work in a similar way.
1. What do the researchers find in their recordings?| A．Plants’ stems click less when they are cut off. |
| B．Plants click harder if they have enough water. |
| C．Plants make more noises when they are thirsty. |
| D．Flowers make sweeter nectar to the sound of bees. |
| A．There are still some unknown issues. |
| B．Not all of them are able to make sounds. |
| C．There are ultrasonic sounds around them. |
| D．They make less noises when they’re stressed. |
| A．To help farmers drive away insects. |
| B．To identify people who are in trouble. |
| C．To show the growing process of plants. |
| D．To distinguish types of clicking sounds. |
| A．Methods for plants to protect themselves. |
| B．Other questions raised by the new finding. |
| C．When plants communicate with each other. |
| D．Under what conditions plants attract insects. |
8 . Fashion house Alabama Chanin has a new line of organic cotton clothing made from its own cotton field. It’s not just an experiment in keeping production local but also an attempt to bring back to life the tradition of clothes-making in the Deep South.
Alabama Chanin, the fashion and lifestyle company founded by Natalie Chanin and Billy Reid, is best known for her flowing, made-to-order organic garments (衣服), entirely hand-made and inspired by the rural South of the 1930s and ‘40s’. “It’s not just ‘factory work’,” Chanin says. “This is a skill that’s dying out in this country. ” “It’s part of the nation’s ‘cultural sustainability to preserve these things’,” Chanin says, “to be able to make our clothes.”
Her business partner, K. P. McNeill, is the one who first thought about growing their own cotton. The ideas of going from field to garment made Chanin think of how generations ago, manufacturing was of a vertical (纵向的) affair. Could that be done today? And organically? They came up with a plan to test it. Reid says it meant no artificial chemicals. “A lot of the weeds had to be pulled by hand. It’s not just your normal cotton operation that’s automated,” Reid says.
Chanin holds a piece of ivory-colored cloth made from the hand-picked cotton grown in the Alabama field. “I’ve never seen cotton quite as clean and clear as this,” Chanin says, “I don’t think people have seen that since cotton was really a driving factor of destruction in this country.”
Chanin says this project is about transforming cotton into something more modern. “I mean, cotton has an ugly history. It has built fortunes, it’s destroyed nations, it’s enslaved people,” says Chanin. “But to me this cotton is part of making a new story for cotton.”
1. What do we know about Alabama Chanin?| A．It just focuses on the ready-made suits. |
| B．It preserves traditional craftsmanship. |
| C．It leads the way in the fashion industry. |
| D．It ensures sustainable economic growth. |
| A．To highlight production efficiency. |
| B．To question the cotton’s cleanliness. |
| C．To contrast cotton’s historical image. |
| D．To praise the cotton of high quality. |
| A．Fashion keeps changing all the time. |
| B．A bad reputation often ruins tradition. |
| C．Honoring the past builds the future. |
| D．Modernization easily beats tradition. |
| A．From Cotton Field to Garment |
| B．Creating Clothes That Do Matter |
| C．From Old Times to Modern Days |
| D．Launching a Fashion Movement |
9 . On the streets of Manhattan and Washington, D. C., in neighborhoods in Seoul and parks in Paris, ginkgo (银杏) trees are losing their leaves in reaction to the first gust of cold winter air. This leaf drop, gradual at first, and then sudden, carpets streets with golden, fan-shaped leaves. Scientists are documenting evidence of the event happening later and later, a possible indication of climate change. But the story of ginkgos is not the familiar one of human carelessness with nature.
Thanks to fossils found in North Dakota, scientists found a ginkgo has genetically similar ancestors dating back 170 million years to the Jurassic Period. “It almost went extinct. Then humans rescued it and spread it around the world. It’s such a great evolutionary (进化) and cultural story,” says Peter Crane, a ginkgo expert.
One theory for the decline of the ginkgo species began 130 million years ago, when flowering plants began spreading. They grew faster and attracted more pollinators (传粉者) than ginkgos. “It’s possible that ginkgos were elbowed out of the way,” says Crane. Already competing to survive, ginkgos began to disappear during a time of global cooling that began around 66 million years ago. By the time the last ice age ended 11,000 years ago, the remaining survivors were found in China.
Ginkgo trees are smelly. “My guess is that they were eaten by animals that liked smelly things. They then passed through their body and grew.” Crane says. Those same seeds may have helped ginkgo find favor with humans 1,000 years ago. Once cleaned of their outer layer, ginkgo seeds are safe to eat. It’s then, when the trees had long since disappeared elsewhere, that people in China may have begun planting them and eating their seeds. Then gradually ginkgos spread across the world. Now it’s seemingly naturally resistant to insects and high levels of air pollution.
Crane isn’t worried about its future, though: The popularity of the species will help it survive. “Though its status in the wild may be difficult to access, it’s a plant that’s unlikely to ever go extinct,” he says.
1. What may have caused the further delay of ginkgo’s leaf drop?| A．The colder weather in winter. |
| B．The protection from city councils. |
| C．The global warming phenomenon. |
| D．The careless interaction with humans. |
| A．The reasons why ginkgos almost died out. |
| B．The advantages of ginkgos over other plants. |
| C．The theories of experts for multiplying ginkgos. |
| D．The competition between various flowering plants. |
| A．Their eatable seeds. | B．Their unpleasant smell. |
| C．The natural evolution. | D．The careful planting. |
| A．Worried. | B．Optimistic. | C．Uncertain. | D．Hopeless. |
10 . To reduce the carbon emissions from passenger jets and long-haul trucks, a vast volume of soy-based renewable fuel will be needed. To produce it, American farmers could ruin existing cornfields to clear space, plant millions of additional acres of soybeans and shut down all soybean exports. Researchers at startups and biotech giants alike have found ways to create a new kind of soybeans through genetic recombination that generates more oil.
One of the startups, ZeaKal Inc., funded in part by seed giant Corteva Inc., plans to introduce its first batch of high-oil seeds for commercial planting in 2024. Scientists have tricked the plant into sustaining photosynthesis for longer with genetic recombination, ultimately producing more oil as well as more protein.
Companies are racing to build more capacity to process soy, a critical component for expanding green fuel supplies. Tax credits make companies in the transportation industry switch to fuel with lower carbon emission. S&P Global sees domestic demand for renewable biofuel reaching 4 billion gallons in 2030, up from around 2.7 billion this year. It projects that the use of sustainable aviation fuel will total 1.7 billion gallons annually by the end of the decade, compared with just 182 million gallons a year now.
Despite the bullish predictions, the soy-based transportation fuel market is still a drop in the bucket for the fuel industry. And even if the new breed of high-oil seeds takes off, widespread adoption will take time. Farmers may be reluctant to become early adopters of a technology that hasn’t yet proven its benefits, especially if the oil content comes at the expense of existing genetic recombinations that improve disease or pest resistance.
Chicken producer Perdue Farms Inc. has signed a deal with Zeakal, agreeing to pay farmers a higher price for harvested supplies of the new variety, which is good for chicken feed because of its higher protein levels. If large oil companies follow suit, the soybean market might never look the same. “We could have an opportunity for the oil component of soybeans to actually become more important in some markets than the protein aspect,” says Mike Dillon, vice president of ZeaKal, “That’s a very dramatic shift.”
1. How did researchers plan to produce more oil?| A．By planting more soybeans. |
| B．By banning soybean exports. |
| C．By fertilizing soybean fields. |
| D．By engineering soybean genes. |
| A．The continuous use of the fuel. |
| B．The growing demand for biofuel. |
| C．The serious lack of green fuel supplies. |
| D．The fierce competition between companies. |
| A．Companies. | B．Farmers. | C．Scientists. | D．Governments |
| A．Biofuel: A New Way to Cut Down Carbon Emissions |
| B．Oilier Soybeans: Possible Reliance of the Future Fuel |
| C．A Big Shift: From Conventional Soybeans to Altered Ones |
| D．Genetic Modification: A Technology to Breed New Soybeans |
