1 . The story started from a popular video, in which a tourist pulled a flower out of the ground in Tibet and boiled it with other food.
He might not know what he dug up was not an ordinary one but snow lotus, an extremely rare species. The exact number existing in the wild is unknown, but scientists believe that the species is dying out and people are not allowed to collect them for private or even scientific use since 2000.
The snow lotus generally only grows above the snowline of the Tibetan Himalayas or Heaven Mountain in Central Asia. In order to survive the harsh environment and strong wind, it grows thick hair on the outside, which keeps the plant from the cold. And it often has to grow around six to eight years before its only flowering time in life.
Only very few plants and animals survive in such an environment. Therefore, each snow lotus is key part of fragile (脆弱的) ecosystem around it. When someone digs one out of the ground, he/she not only wastes the plant’s own years of efforts, but also threatens the ecological (生态的) balance of about one square kilometer around it.
For a long time, many people collect the lotus flowers to sell as herbal (药草的) plants to others, even though their herbal effects are not proved. Regardless of the fact, some traders do misleading advertising about them and illegally sell them at high prices. As a result, the species is in danger. The snow lotus is not the only plant that suffers from the illegal sale of certain people because they carry a sense of mystery. It is time the law offered stricter protection of these rare plants for the ecological environment.
1. What did the author intend to tell us about the tourist?| A．He destroyed an endangered plant. | B．He has good outdoor survival skills. |
| C．He discovered a special kind of flowers. | D．He has made many popular short videos. |
| A．To fight for enough living space. | B．To make the flower less obvious. |
| C．To protect it from extreme conditions. | D．To prevent it from being dug out easily. |
| A．It is hard for people to find a snow lotus. |
| B．It takes many years for a snow lotus to fully grow. |
| C．Some rare plants usually grow in weak environments. |
| D．The snow lotus is very important to the local ecosystem. |
| A．We should call on the public to protect rare plants. |
| B．We should learn to recognize different plants. |
| C．We should follow all the laws in our country. |
| D．We should avoid taking wild plants as food. |
Cactuses are a kind of juicy plants
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
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
These are more than 4000 different varieties of cactuses
3 . We're all familiar with migration（迁徙）: Wildebeests dash across Africa, Monarch butterflies fly across the Americas...but did you know that forests migrate, too?
In his new book The Journeys of Trees, science writer Zach St. George explores an extremely slow migration, as forests creep inch by inch to more pleasant places.
“The migration of a forest is just many trees sprouting（发芽）in the same direction,” St. George writes. “Through the fossils that ancient forests left behind, scientists can track their movement over thousands of years. They move back and forth across continents, sometimes following the same route more than once, like migrating birds or whales.” This has happened over thousands of years, and climate change tends to be the driving force.
Of course, today, climate change is speeding up, and trees can't keep pace. Take California: it's getting hotter and dryer and scientists estimate that before too long, Sequoia National Park may not be able to keep giant sequoias（巨杉）.
“The scientists there had never seen anything like it,” St. George says. “They worried, and I think at some point we will lose these ancient trees and we will have to think about what we do with the places, and do we plant new groves where they are easy to grow?”
This is known as “assisted migration”—humans planting trees in other places where they're more likely to flourish. But this process carries risks—people can accidentally introduce insects and diseases to new places, where they may wipe out entire native populations. So, St. George writes, there's a debate among conservationists and foresters today: Should humans help the trees escape?
“There may be cases where people are probably going to step in and help species move to places where they'll be more suitable in the future,” St. George says. “So far, there are no huge movements of citizen groups moving trees north. But that is kind of one vision of the future that the people I interview sort of hope to see.”
1. What can be learned about the migration of a forest?| A．It is mainly the result of climate change. |
| B．It often follows certain migrating species. |
| C．It takes thousands of years to complete. |
| D．It is very difficult to track the migration. |
| A．To stress the Park are facing a severe situation. |
| B．To show trees fail to adapt to the climate change. |
| C．To prove the assisted migration carries risks. |
| D．To state scientists are hopeful about the environment. |
| A．Become valuable. | B．Develop rapidly. |
| C．Grow well. | D．Escape disease. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Objective. | D．Disapproving. |
4 . Every year the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the New York Botanical Garden open their doors to thousands of visitors. They go there for the world-famous orchid (兰花) shows. But these organizations are not just protecting living plants but also recording the culture connected with them.
Working with the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Beijing, Kew has developed a collection of plants--including orchids. The plants are collected in the forms they are used in traditional Chinese medicine. This is a storehouse of medical knowledge and a tool for cultural research.
Dr. Barnabas Seyler, assistant researcher in the department of environment at Sichuan University, believes in the key role of botanical gardens. As an ethnobotanist (民族植物学家), Seyler is looking at the relationship between orchids and local culture of Liangshan. “They can help the culture continue to exist through providing protection, educating the general public, and supporting traditional knowledge, stories, and cultural traditions connected with these plants,” he says.
In China, orchids are more than just wild plants. “If you walk into any Chinese-restaurant around the world, or into any teahouse in China, you will likely find paintings, place settings, or other cultural things showing orchids,” he says. “Many people, especially in the west, do not fully understand the weight that the plant has held throughout history in traditional Han Chinese culture.
The researchers have noticed that orchid species native to Sichuan are disappearing rapidly. Their beauty is killing them. Wild-collected rare forms could be sold for thousands of dollars. In his study, Seyler asked locals of Yiand Han communities whether they could recognize different orchid species. They also asked them about how to find and grow orchids, and knowledge about orchids in arts and language. They found that when species were locally dying out, knowledge about them would be forgotten.
Culture doesn't soon disappear because of the loss of one plant or group of plants. But what happens if species loss continues?
1. Why does the author mention the collection of plants?| A．To explain why the two orchid shows are so popular. |
| B．To explain how Kew saves living plants across the world. |
| C．To show the importance of working with foreign countries. |
| D．To show how botanical gardens are protecting the environment. |
| A．They can help keep orchid culture alive. |
| B．They will win more support from the public. |
| C．They should pay more attention to local cultures. |
| D．They can play a key role in environmental protection. |
| A．The long history of orchids in China. |
| B．The many uses of orchids in the world. |
| C．The importance of orchids in Chinese culture. |
| D．The great influence of orchids on Western people. |
| A．How to prevent orchids from dying out. |
| B．What will happen to orchids in Sichuan. |
| C．How to increase knowledge about orchids. |
| D．What the loss of orchids will bring about. |
