1 . 课文语法填空

    1     has been believed for a long time that talking plants are fantasy. But new research has revealed that they really can communicate with each other.

Some plants are believed to communicate with each other through chemicals. When     2     (attack) by insects, they release tiny amounts of chemicals. This is     3     a warning or a call for help. When other plants detect     4     warnings, they release their own chemicals to drive insects away. Some of the chemicals also attract wasps to kill these insects.

More     5     (surprising), plants also use sound     6     (communicate) with each other though people can’t hear the sound. Some plants make noises with their roots. Some plants “listen” to tell if their neighbouring plants are     7     (help) or unfriendly. Some plants make clicking noises,     8     (indicate) that drought is coming. Most surprisingly of all, plants can form the “wood wide web” to share information or even food with each other.

    9     (scientist) will learn more about the way in     10     plants communicate with each other.

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。

Travelling around Europe is always     1     (excite), because it’s full of interesting things to see, from historical, culturally important monuments (历史遗迹) to natural sites. But Europe is also full     2     magical and mysterious locations that will surprise even the experienced travellers and blow the minds of anyone who sees     3     (they).

Some of them are natural, while others are man-made. But there’s something similar about all these places — all of them are so mysterious     4     if you go there, you’ll feel completely different and you’ll never forget your experience.

Are you ready     5     (take) the most amazing journey of your life? First and foremost, put Crooked Forest in Europe on your list!

One of the most wonderful     6     (forest) in the world, Crooked Forest is located in Poland, close to the border with Germany. It’s a small grove (小树林) and all trees in it have a quite strange shape. They     7     (bend) over almost 90 degrees at the trunk and then they twist back straight again and keep on growing straight up, like all normal trees do.

The only thing we know about this forest is that it was planted in     8     1930s. Why the trees took this strange shape still remains a mystery. According to one of the theories, it was done to produce     9     (natural) bended wood for boats, but the     10     (produce) was stopped as a result of the German invasion.

3 . 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。

A new study reveals that plants have their own “ bedtime alarm clock ” that helps them survive the night. Researchers at the University of York have discovered that plants possess an internal signal which they believe tells them     1     amount of sugar they have in their systems at dusk. Plants use sunlight to make     2     ( they ) own sugars from photosynthesis (光合作用）during the day and store them to provide energy during the night.

Plants’ ability to predict sunrise and estimate the     3     ( long ) of the night, as well as adjust metabolism (新陈代谢),     4     ( depend ) on a biological time-keeper called a circadian clock. This is a network of genes which drives rhythms of     5     ( rough ) 24 hours. Biologists think it is this signal, or so-called “ alarm ” ,     6     gives plants the information they need to adjust their metabolism in the dark nighttime hours to stay alive.

The researchers discovered a set of genes     7     ( regulate ) by the chemical compound superoxide, which     8     ( associate ) with metabolic activity. And they found by stopping the production of superoxide, they also stopped the effect of sugar     9     these circadian clock genes in the evening,     10     ( reveal ) the plants’ so-called “ alarm ” .

4 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct.For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other words, use one word the best fits each blank.

Cactuses are a kind of juicy plants     1     leaves are reduced to spines(针刺).There are no different branches, leaves and stem area.Instead, the whole body     2     (cover) with spines which are reduced leaves.

Whole fleshy area of the plant is doing the work of photosynthesis(光合作用), in which green plants take in water and carbon dioxide(CO2) and produce their own food     3     the help of sunlight.Cactuses have spines on their stems, which can stop the water in it from     4     (evaporate使蒸发).It has a very good root system to take in water from the underground.It stores water in its body.

In some times of the year, cactuses have flowers and even fruits.However, their flowers usually last only for a few days to a few weeks.These days cactuses become very popular and are used widely    5     ornamental（装饰的）plants in houses and offices etc for their beauty.They are also main food of animals     6     (live) in deserts as cactuses contain water important for their survival.What’s more, they can also be made into delicious dishes or foods at table.     7     , cactuses have been spread almost everywhere all around the world.

These are more than 4000 different varieties of cactuses     8     (find) all over the world.They are quite different     9     their sizes, colors and shapes.The Asian biggest cactus garden lies in Panchkula, sector 5 in north India.It is a very big cactus garden and there are hundreds of varieties of cactuses over there.In some varieties, leaves are present but in very reduced form.The American biggest cactus garden lies in Mexico,     10     some species can grow up to 15-20 feet tall like big trees.