1 . Bottle gardens are loved by many people. What’s a bottle garden? A bottle garden is exactly what it sounds like: a tiny garden planted in an object like a bottle._     1    According to professionals, the oldest bottle garden in the world was first created in 1960.

    2    There are several characteristics that make a bottle garden fun to own and great to create. Whether you’re short on outdoor gardening space or just want an eye-catching indoor garden, bottle gardens are a great way to grow many of your favorite plants. Moreover, they help recycle (回收利用) bottles and are easy to create.

By following some tips, you’ll have your bottle garden planted and thriving (茁壮成长) in no time. The first step in creating a bottle garden is selecting (挑选) the bottle. Clear bottles can allow the most sunlight to enter.     3    

Then you should keep in mind that bottles with openings big enough to fit your hand through can make planting easier.     4     Likewise, you could choose a bottle and simply cut an opening for your plants to fit in. If you choose to reuse a bottle, wash it completely before adding plants.

When the bottle is ready, put inside some rich soil and plants suitable for a bottle garden. Once you grow the plants in the way you like, remember to place your bottle in a bright space which won’t have direct sunlight. East-facing windows often work well for this purpose.     5    Then you’ll just need to water them and watch out for signs of disease or crowding inside the bottle.

A．How do the bottle gardens work?

B．Such gardens don’t have a very long history.

C．They make thoughtful and eco-friendly gifts.

D．Why would anyone want to grow a garden in a bottle?

E．If you choose a colored bottle, select plants that prefer low levels of light.

F．If not, you’ll have to use tools to work the soil and plants inside the bottle.

G．You can also use a grow light if your home doesn’t have any suitable windows.

2 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Why is the baobab tree thought to be strange-looking?

A．Its trunk sometimes measures more than ten metres in diameter.

B．Its trunk is thicker at the top than at the bottom.

C．Its branches near the top are longer than those near the ground.

2. Which part of a baobab tree can be used to make ropes?

A．Its leaves.

B．Its trunk.

C．Its skin of the tree.

3. Which of the statements about the baobab tree is correct?

A．Its empty trunk can be used by people to build everything.

B．Its flowers can turn into a kind of cucumber.

C．Its leaves and branches can keep the rain water cool and clean.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for this text?

A．The baobab—unusual but useful.

B．The baobab—a tree that people can make good use of.

C．The baobab—a strange tree that can make ropes.

3 . When micro-plastics end up in farm fields, the pollution can damage plant growth. But two young researchers now report that combining fungi (真菌) with certain farm wastes can partly overcome that problem.

May Shin, 20, and Jiwon Choi, 18, met in a research design class at the Fryeburg Academy, a high school in Maine. May had desired to explore how micro-plastics might affect the ecosystem. Jiwon was crazy about plants and fungi. The young scientists cooperated to test how long-lived plastics might affect farm crops.

Scientists have shown certain fungi can aid root growth and a plant’s nutrient uptake. Those organisms are named arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Certain farm wastes, like straw, can provide nutrients to plants and help stabilize their roots. Such wastes are also known as mushroom substrate (基质) and people often grow mushrooms in them.

May and Jiwon planted over 2,000 scallion (大葱) seeds in pots of soil. Half the seeds got soil polluted with micro-plastics. The rest grew in plastic-free soil. The plants then were further divided into four groups. The young scientists added AMF to the soil in one group. Another group had a top layer of mushroom substrate. A third group got both treatments. The last group got none. For three weeks, the pair tracked how many scallions sprouted (发芽) in each group and measured the plants’ height once each week.

About twice as many scallions sprouted in clean soil compared to that containing plastic bits. But among plants surviving in the polluted soil, a combination of AMF and mushroom substrate helped them out. Those getting both treatments grew 5.4 centimeters per week. That was faster than either of the treatments alone or those getting none.

Jiwon and May then looked at the plant roots with a microscope. Where AMF had been added, it grew into those roots. That increased the scallion roots’ surface area, May said, which should promote their uptake of nutrients. So “I see this project as coming up with a sustainable solution for plant growth in polluted soils,” said May.

1. Why did May and Jiwon work together?

A．To see the effects of long-lived plastics on farm crops.

B．To find the relationship between plants and fungi.

C．To design a research on the growth of plants.

D．To explore the way that the ecosystem works.

2. What is the author’s purpose in writing paragraph 3?

A．To prove the existence of micro-plastics.	B．To compare fungi with farm wastes.
C．To tell the advantages of farm wastes.	D．To provide some related information.

3. What aspect of the study is the fourth paragraph mainly about?

A．Its purpose.

B．Its design.

C．Its findings.

D．Its reasons.

4. How can AMF and mushroom substrate make plants grow faster?

A．By keeping the plants more resistant to pollution.	B．By allowing the plants’ deep area more freedom.
C．By making nutrients more available to the plants.	D．By exposing the roots to a larger surface area.

4 . Wildfire season has begun in many places around the world. The dangerous smoke wildfires produce can spread far and wide. It blocks sunlight, poisons the air and damages the health of people and other living things.

Some of those living things could be the plants in gardens, says gardening expert Jessica Damiano, who writes gardening stories for the Associated Press. Damiano lives in New York City and recently experienced several days of very smoky air. Wildfires in eastern Canada were the source.

Damiano, like other people, limited the time she spent outdoors when the air quality was poor. She also wore a face covering when she had to go outside.

But the plants in her garden had no such escape. They had to breathe the poisoned air through the extremely small holes in their leaves.

Pollutants in smoke landing on plants can block sunlight, which is essential for photosynthesis (光合作用). Reduced photosynthesis results in reduced energy. That means slower growth. Additionally, smoke can also affect a plant’s ability to take in nutrients(营养物质).

Brooke Edmunds, a plant scientist and community horticulturalist with Oregon State University Extension, said plants that are affected by smoke for a short amount of time will usually recover quickly. “It depends on how close they are,” she said. “There could also be a localized effect, where one garden is covered in ash(灰烬), and a half-mile away, there’s nothing because that’s the way the wind was moving things around.”

The best thing home gardeners can do is keep an eye on plants. Edmunds suggests giving plants some extra love and care. “Wash the plants gently to remove pollutants left by smoke. Then give them a long, slow drink of water. Most will pull through,” Edmunds said. However, people should not use leaf blower machines to remove ashes from plants because they will risk breathing in what is blowing around.

1. What happened to Jessica Damiano?

A．She had her house burned in a fire.

B．She couldn’t afford face coverings.

C．She suffered from health problems.

D．She had to deal with poor air quality.

2. What is paragraph 5 mainly about?

A．The bad effects of smoke on plants.

B．The benefits of growing plants.

C．The role of plants in the environment.

D．The importance of water to plants.

3. What can we learn from Brooke Edmunds’s words?

A．Wind has little effect on plants.

B．Plants can sometimes make a quick recovery.

C．Ashes can spread more than half a mile.

D．Plants close to smoke usually grow well.

4. How should people protect plants affected by smoke?

A．By pulling them out of the ground.

B．By using leaf blower machines.

C．By washing them with great care.

D．By giving them a fast drink of water.

5 . Too often, houseplant decisions are made suddenly. We find a fine plant at the supermarket and say, “That’s so pretty. I want it.” So we bring home a healthy, tropical (热带的) plant only to find it, weeks later, on death’s doorstep.

Before buying a tropical plant or indoor flowering plant, look around your house and decide where you would like to see it. It is not necessary to choose the brightest place, as there are great houseplants for nearly all light conditions. After determining where new plants are needed, decide what shape the plants should be. Perhaps you need something tall to fill an empty corner or soften an empty wall.

Once you have a list of the spaces you need to fill and the plant forms you would like to try, visit the garden center or greenhouse and look at the offerings. Mid-winter is the best time for tropical plant shopping since most stores fill the gap between gardening seasons with tropical orders. Ordered a lot, they are cheaper in the winter as well.

Ask the salesman which plants are the easiest to grow; this list should include cast iron plant, parlor palms, snake plants, peace lilies and so on. Flowering plants are the most difficult to grow and should be avoided if you are new to indoor plants. If you must have one, look for Jasmine Sambac, an easy plant.

Don’t lose heart if you buy something and it doesn’t survive. Tropical plants are suited to warm, moist (潮湿的) and protected air. They are not suited to some places in hot northern homes. Remember that a lovely plant that looks good in your living room for only a year is still a better action than last night’s pizza.

1. What should we consider before buying a houseplant?

A．Its color and shape.	B．Its flowering period.
C．The area which it belongs to.	D．The place where we will put it.

2. Why does the author suggest buying plants in mid-winter?

A．There are more plants to choose from then.

B．The gardening business then is increasing.

C．The plants look more beautiful then.

D．The plants grow better then.

3. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．We’d better not buy the pizza made last night.

B．The living conditions are important to plants.

C．Few people can keep tropical plants alive.

D．It is wrong to keep tropical plants indoor.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Where to buy houseplants.

B．When to grow houseplants.

C．How to choose a proper houseplant.

D．Whether houseplants are easy to grow.

6 . 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.

2. What is making Earth’s forests shorter and younger generally?

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.

3. What does the author say about old growth forests?

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.

4. Why would McDowell suggest people visit places with big trees now?

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.

7 . Plants have ears

It is generally believed that plants are silent. They don’t make noises. When a tree falls down in an empty forest, none of the other plants in the forest are listening.

    1     The flowers are listening, according to new research. Scientists from Tel Aviv University have found evidence that flowers are technically the “ears” of plants. They can actually hear the buzz of passing bees and produce sweeter nectar in response to draw the flying insects in.

The scientists went into the experiments with a hypothesis that plants can indeed pick up the vibrations of sound waves.     2     Their research was based on observations of evening primroses in both lab experiments and outdoor trials. Those experiments involved more than 650 evening primrose flowers. Their nectar production was measured in response to silence, sound at three different frequency levels, and a recording of the buzzing noise made by bees.

The team discovered that within minutes of sensing the sound waves of nearby bee wings, the concentration of the sugar in the plant’s nectar was increased by an average of 20%. The low-frequency sounds that closely matched the recording of buzzing bees were enough to change the mix of the nectar in just three minutes.     3     The flowers even seemed able to turn a deaf ear to some background noises, such as the wind. This capability may help maximize their chances of spreading pollen.

    4     No change in nectar production was found, suggesting that it is indeed the flowers that have the job of the ears. It’s not clear precisely how the vibrations are turned into a trigger for sweeter nectar production. But it’s an interesting first step into the study of how plants react to sounds around them. Next, the researchers want to look at how plants might respond to other sounds and animals, including humans.

A．They also believed that this might be part of the reason many plants’ flowers are bowl-shaped-to better trap the sounds.

B．Plants have plenty of interactions with animals.

C．The team also tried the experiments with plants that had some flower petals (花瓣) removed.

D．The silence and the high- and mid-frequency sounds had no effect.

E．However, these ideas may not be true.

F．Pushing out sweeter nectar means bees may stay feeding for longer.

8 . What if someone told you about a kind of grass as tall as the tallest trees? A grass as strong as steel? Would you believe that person? You should, for that grass is bamboo   (竹子), which has more than 1,000 uses. It is not just a material for making useful products. Young bamboo is eaten, often mixed with other vegetables.

Bamboo grows in many parts of the world. In the USA it grows in many states like Virginia and Florida. Most bamboo, however, is found in wet and warm climates, especially in Asia and on the islands of the South Pacific Ocean.

In most Asian countries, bamboo is nearly as important as rice. This unusual material is used to not only build large buildings but also make water pipes, musical instruments and paper. There are over 1,000 kinds of bamboo. No wonder the lives of nearly half the people on earth would change greatly if there were no longer any bamboo.

1. According to the text, bamboo is actually a kind of         .

A．grass

B．steel

C．tree

D．vegetable

2. Where does most bamboo grow?

A．Only in Asia.	B．Only in the USA.
C．In wet and warm climates.	D．All over the world.

3. What is bamboo used to do in paragraph 3?

A．Build large buildings.	B．Make water pipes.
C．Make musical instruments and paper.	D．All of the above.

4. How many kinds of bamboo are there according to the text?

A．Over 1,000.

B．Over 800.

C．Over 600.

D．Over 400.

9 . Animals can adapt quickly to survive unfavorable environmental conditions. Evidence is mounting to show that plants can, too. A paper published in the journal Trends in Plant Science details how plants are rapidly adapting to the effects of climate change, and how they are passing down these adaptations to their offspring(后代).

Plants are facing more environmental stresses than ever. For example, climate change is making winters shorter in many locations, and plants are responding. “Many plants require a minimum period of cold in order to set up their environmental clock to define their flowering time,” says Martinelli, a plant geneticist at the University of Florence. “As cold seasons shorten, plants have adapted to require shorter periods of cold to delay flowering. These mechanisms allow plants to avoid flowering in periods when they have fewer opportunities to reproduce.”

Because plants don’t have neural(神经的) networks, their memory is based entirely on cellular(细胞的),molecular(分子的),and biochemical networks. These networks make up what the researchers call somatic memory(体细胞记忆). “It allows plants to recognize the occurrence of a previous environmental condition and to react accordingly,” says Martinelli.

These somatic memories can then be passed to the plants’ offspring via epigenetics(表现遗传). “Several examples demonstrate the existence of molecular mechanisms modulating plant memory to environmental stresses and affecting the adaptation of offspring to these stresses,” says Martinelli.

Going forward, Martinelli hopes to understand even more about the genes that are being passed down. “We are particularly interested in decoding the epigenetic alphabet without changes in DNA sequence(序列),”he says. “This is especially important when we consider the rapid climate change, we observe today that every living organism, including plants, needs to quickly adapt to survive.”

1. What adaptations have plants made to shortened cold seasons?

A．They have shortened their flowering time.

B．They have got more chances to reproduce.

C．They have avoided flowering in cold seasons.

D．They have adjusted their environmental clock.

2. What can we learn about somatic memory?

A．It is entirely based on neural networks.

B．It can help the plants’ offspring to survive.

C．It can help relieve environmental stresses.

D．It disturbs the plants’ biochemical networks.

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

A．Adjusting.	B．Treasuring.
C．Recording.	D．Sharing.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Plants are smart about flowering time

B．Plants can also adapt to climate change

C．Environmental stresses challenge plants

D．Mysteries of plant genes are to be unfolded

10 . Though they may not know it, about half a billion people depend on the ecosystems created and sustained by corals. And with climate change threatening coral’s survival, marine scientist Enric Sala had a goal that might have seemed impossible.

“We wanted to get into a time machine, go back hundreds of years and actually see a coral reef like they used to be everywhere, before we started exploiting, polluting and killing them,” Sala said.

The goal was made possible during an expedition Sala led in 2009. The team traveled to a corner of the South Pacific Ocean, to see if the almost untouched reefs held any clues to bringing damaged reefs in other parts of the ocean back to health.

“The bottom was covered by thriving coral. Vivid colors surrounded me－purples, reds, oranges, yellows and greens. It was so beautiful,” Sala said.

His team presented their findings to officials in the island country of Kiribati. The government took steps to protect the waters from fishing. But between 2015 and 2016, record levels of ocean warming damaged half the coral reefs the team had been studying.

After hearing that news, they lost hope for the health of coral reefs. Last year, they went in for another dive. Despite the reported conditions, the reef had somehow restored itself, filled with life and color once more. Sala and his team were overjoyed. This is something that Sala says can be owed to two key factors.

The first is, thankfully, half of the corals had not died. Despite the rise in temperatures, there were enough surviving corals left behind to help reproduce the reefs. The second was the Kiribati government’s decision to fully protect those waters.

“It has an abundance of fish. So they were eating all the algae (藻类) that would cover the dead corals, and make it impossible for the corals to come back, which is what happens in other places like the Caribbean,” Sala explained.

1. What seemingly impossible goal does Sala have?

A．Educating the public to protect the ecosystems.

B．Calling on people to actively respond to climate change.

C．Going to old days when corals were in healthy condition.

D．Leading an expedition to the South Pacific Ocean.

2. What does the underlined word “This” in paragraph 6 refer to?

A．The bad news.	B．The second diving.
C．The reef’s restoration.	D．The cheerful mood.

3. What can we infer about Caribbean from Sala’s words?

A．There is abundant fish in its ocean.

B．Algae lie thick over corals there.

C．Global warming does little harm to its marine life.

D．Corals come back to life thanks to government’s efforts.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Kiribati—A Country of Biodiversity	B．A Scientist’s Love for Diving
C．The Coral Reef Restored Itself	D．Ocean Warming Bothered Government