Every year, at the end of October, tens of thousands of people flock to a Buddhist temple in China to see a huge gingko biloba tree (银杏树) drop its foliage (枝叶) and turn
Due to the increasing
2 . Plants are our useful companions on Earth. They consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen, provide us with dietary and medicinal products and brighten up our environment. However, they are the victims of circumstances. Planted in an adequately sunny spot and provided with water they thrive (茁壮成长). However, put in unfortunate conditions, they have no choice but to wither (枯萎) and die. Bu what if plants could relocate to better places?
It was this question that Sun Tianqi, founder of a Chinese robotics firm Vincross, asked himself while watching a dead sunflower. "I thought if it could have taken a 30-foot walk out of the shadow to where the other sunflowers were, it would have lived healthily," he said.
He decided then to build a robot that would let plants do just that. The innovative roboticist took one of his company's traditional HEXA robot models and built a "flowerpot," which replaced HEXA's shell.
According to its site, HEXA is a "six-legged robot that comes complete with all the necessary sensors." The result is an impressive plant robot that can chase (追逐) the sun, hide for shelter, interact with humans when tapped and perform a funny dance to indicate it is thirsty.
Although the plant robot may have many useful future applications, Tiangi's reasons for creating it seem to have been philosophical. "Plants are passive. No matter if they are being cut, bitten, burned or pulled from the earth, or when they lack sunshine, water, or are too hot or cold, they will hold still and take whatever is happening to them," he said. "They have the fewest degrees of freedom among all the creatures in nature. This is simply the setting that nature gives to plants. I do hope that this project can bring some inspiration to the relationship between technology and unfavorable natural settings," concluded Tianqi.
1. What information is implied in the underlined sentence in paragraph 1？| A．Plants need great care to grow well. |
| B．Plants are used for many purposes |
| C．Plants have a life cycle like humans. |
| D．Plants are important to the environment |
| A．His environmental awareness. | B．His love for sunflowers. |
| C．A broken flowerpot. | D．A dead flower. |
| A．It is solar-powered. | B．It enables plants to move. |
| C．It feeds nutrients to plants. | D．It offers growers useful tips |
| A．His robot needs much improvement. |
| B．Technology can set human beings free. |
| C．His robot has many useful future applications. |
| D．Technology can remove natural disadvantages. |
3 . In Australia, plenty of wild things can bite or sting(刺伤) you. Strangely enough, one of them is a tree. Now scientists have figured out what makes the tree’s sting so bad.
The rainforests of eastern Australia are home to a stinging tree known as Dendrocnide. Many people call it the gympie-gympie tree—a name given to the tree by native Australians. It’s covered with sharp, needle-like hairs that carry poison. If you touch a gympie-gympie tree, you won’t forget it anytime soon. The pain can stay with you for hours, days or weeks. In some cases, it’s been reported to stay for months.
Scientists have long looked for the source of this powerful sting. Now researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered what makes this stinging plant so painful. After carefully studying different kinds of gympie-gympie trees, the scientists were able to separate out different chemicals that the trees produce. This allowed them to identify a group of chemicals that they believed was responsible for the pain.
The researchers created artificial versions of these chemicals, which they call “gympietides”. Sure enough, when the scientists injected mice with gympietides, the mice licked(舔) at the places where they’d been injected, indicating that they hurt in those places. When the scientists studied the way gympietides were built, they found that they formed a knot-like shape. The shape makes the chemicals very stable, which helps explain why the pain stays so long.
The knot-like shape of the gympietides was similar to the shape of poisons produced by poisonous spiders and cone snails. The scientists were surprised to see three very different kinds of life all using similar poisons. Spiders and cone snails carry poisons because they catch food by stinging other creatures. It’s not clear how stinging helps the gympie-gympie tree.
Though the tree’s sting may stop some animals from eating it, it doesn’t stop all animals. Beetles and pademelons (small relatives of the kangaroo) are able to eat the plant without trouble.
1. Why is a touch on the stinging tree unforgettable?| A．Because it has so unusual an appearance. | B．Because it is extremely rare in existence. |
| C．Because touching it creates a quite strange feeling. | D．Because the pain caused by it doesn’t go away quickly. |
| A．How it produces poisons. | B．What poisons it produces. |
| C．How it benefits from the sting. | D．The consequences of its sting. |
| A．It produces the same poisons as spiders. | B．Poisonous as it is, it also has natural enemies. |
| C．Animals are wise enough to stay away from it. | D．Only one chemical in it causes pain to the toucher. |
| A．Scientists Discover Stinging Tree's Secret | B．Caution: Stinging Tree Can Bite and Poison You |
| C．Scientists Discover a Strange Species in Australia | D．Effective Ways to Avoid Being Hurt by Stinging Tree |
When people think of plants, they usually think of gardens, parks, or even jungles. One place that does not usually come to mind is the desert. However, some deserts contain many plants that are able to grow and survive under difficult conditions.
Deserts can reach temperatures of 50 degrees or more in the daytime and can also drop below 0 degrees at night. This is a huge temperature difference under which desert plants have to live. Besides the high and low temperatures, all deserts receive very little water in the form of rain; sometimes it doesn’t rain for months. So, how do desert plants get water when there is no rain?
There are three main ways plants survive in the desert. First, some desert plants grow without leaves. Others have developed special ways of storing whatever water they can find, such as growing a waxy leaf covering that helps keep water inside the leaf. These plants can survive for weeks or months on the water collected from just one rainfall.
A second way desert plants survive even in the most difficult conditions is by growing very long roots. These roots spread out and search for any water they can find. Once they find water, the roots suck up as much as they can and then hold it, only allowing the plant above the ground to have small amounts at a time.
The third way plants survive in the desert is by “sleeping”. Some plants can turn off almost all their processes and just remain inactive, almost as if dead, while they wait for rain. When the rain does come, they quickly drink up every drop they possibly can and burst back into activity.
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5 . When my friend offered me a spider plant sprout, I decided to try something I'd never done before: commit to becoming a plant person. After doing research and changing my perspective, I can proudly say I am succeeding.
Start with Easy Plants
Research
It might seem like a pain but doing a little research can be the difference between your plant surviving and thriving. Looking up how much sunlight the plant needs, how often to water it,
Too much water can drown the plant. Not watering your plant enough can cause it to dry out and die very quickly. You'd better make a watering schedule to make sure you don't over or under water your plants.
Cater to the Plant
Just after a few weeks, I noticed the plant leaves were losing their green color. I found spider plants don't do well with intense afternoon sunlight. So I completely rearranged all my plants in my living room to cater to their specific sunlight needs.
| A．Do It with Love |
| B．Plants Need Watering Every Day |
| C．Create a Watering Schedule |
| D．what temperature it does best in |
| E．Now my plants are thriving more than ever |
| F．Like taking on any major project, it's best to start simply |
| G．Here are some tips to take on house plants when you do not have a green thumb |
6 . The prickly pear cactus (仙人掌) is such a powerful symbol in Mexico that it occupies a prime spot on Mexico’s national flag. The plant was considered sacred(神圣的) by the ancient Aztecs, and modern-day Mexicans eat it, drink it, and even use it in medicines and shampoos. Now scientists have come up with a new use for the bright green plant: producing renewable energy.
Known locally as nopal, the prickly pear is farmed on a massive scale in Mexico. Over the years, only the edible(可食用的) soft inner flesh has been used. The cactus’s thick outer layer (i.e., husk), with all those spines(刺), had always been viewed as a waste product until researchers developed a biogas generator to turn the husks into electricity.
The pilot project(试点项目) devoted to developing the cactus biogas generator began in the south of Mexico City. The area produces 200,000 tons a year of prickly pear cactus—up to 10 tons of which ends up as waste on the floor of the cactus market each day. Then, a local green energy startup company got the idea to turn that waste into energy. The generator is now in place at the cactus market, where the vendors(商贩们) are enthusiastic about this new way to make use of the tons of cactus husks that once went directly into the trash.
The prickly pear has a number of advantages over other biofuel crops, such as wheat, sugarcane(甘蔗), and soybeans(大豆). For one thing, only the husk of the cactus is used for generating biofuel, while its inner flesh is still preserved for food. Therefore, using the plant as a fuel source will not put pressure on food prices.
Moreover, the cactus requires minimum water, and thus is not grown on traditional agricultural lands. This means that no increased competition arises for the water or land presently used for food production.
The project in Mexico City has brought new hope to reducing the use of fossil fuels. If it can be expanded, the prickly pear could be the key to Mexico’s energy future.
1. What is the main purpose of this text?| A．To argue for the benefits of nopales. |
| B．To introduce a new source of energy. |
| C．To predict the future agriculture policy of Mexico. |
| D．To change people’s ideas about energy consumption. |
| A．Its soft inner part is often discarded. |
| B．It was not discovered until the modern era. |
| C．It turns into 200,000 tons of waste in Mexico each year. |
| D．It appears in an eye-catching place on Mexico’s national flag. |
| A．It generates more energy. | B．It will not influence food prices. |
| C．It may replace feed for livestock. | D．It can increase global food production. |
7 . Plenty of harvests of corn and other major crops rely on a mysterious phenomenon known as hybrid vigor (杂交活力). When highly naturally-born varieties are crossed, their next generations are taller, hardier, and bear more grain, Researchers report that this vigor is somehow influenced by microbes (微生物) in the soil, perhaps through a plant's immune system .
Charles Darwin was one of the first researchers to describe hybrid vigor. In the early 20th century, biologists began to apply this effect to agriculture by creating naturally-born parent plants that produced hybrid seeds. By the 1940s, almost every farmer in the United States was planting hybrid corn, and the harvests multiplied.
Biologists have proposed several theories about the cause of hybrid vigor, but no definitive explanation has emerged.
Maggie Wagner, plant biologist at the University of Kansas, and her colleagues wondered whether microbes might be it involved. Last year, Wagner and her colleagues found an interesting clue in a field study. They discovered that the leaves and roots of hybrid corn had microbial communities that are different from those living on naturally-born varieties of corn. “Something about being a hybrid makes a plant interact differently with microbes,” Wagner says. It could be that the naturally-born corn's immune systems react more actively to beneficial microbes, compromising their growth. Alternatively, hybrid plants may be better able to defend against weak pathogens (病原体) in the soil.
Wagner says the finding highlights the need for plant growers to match the hybrid crops to the microbial communities with which they live. The findings help scientists realize the importance of understanding the role of soil microbes in making agriculture more productive and sustainable, “This holds great promise.”
1. How did people use the effect of hybrid vigor in agriculture?| A．By producing naturally-born parent plants that bore hybrid seeds. |
| B．By creating naturally-born parent lines that produced hybrid vigor. |
| C．By providing more microbes communities that could produce more seeds. |
| D．By looking for hybrid parent plants in the field that produced hybrid seeds. |
| A．Hybrid plants react worse to weak pathogens in the soil. |
| B．Wagner connected hybrid vigor with microbial communities. |
| C．Being naturally-born makes a plant interact differently with microbes. |
| D．Hybrid corn and naturally-born corn have similar microbial communities. |
| A．Making farmers know what to grow to resist certain diseases |
| B．Helping scientist realize the importance of spreading soil microbes. |
| C．Showing the significance of associating soil microbes with specific crops. |
| D．Highlighting the need for plant growers to find more microbial communities. |
| A．Hybrid corn: a double-edged sword |
| B．How can farmers grow hybrid crops? |
| C．Hybrid vigor: a mysterious phenomenon |
| D．What role do soil microbes play in the harvests of corn? |
8 . The number of trees larger than two feet across has declined by 50 percent on more than 46, 000 square miles of California forests, the new study finds. No area was spared or unaffected, from the foggy northern coast to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the San Gabriels above Los Angeles. In the Sierra high country, the number of big trees has fallen by more than 55 percent; in parts of southern California the decline was nearly 75 percent.
What is the second paragraph mainly about?
| A．The seriousness of big-tree loss in California. |
| B．The increasing variety of California big trees. |
| C．The distribution of big trees in California forests. |
| D．The influence of farming on big trees in California. |
9 . The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown，Ohio，for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another, employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.
What is the first paragraph mainly about?
| A．A new study of different plants. | B．A big fall in crime rates. |
| C．Employees from various workplaces. | D．Benefits from green plants. |
10 . Can plants talk? Modern research has found something amazing: they do communicate with each other.
It has been known for some time that plants use chemicals to communicate with each other. This happens when a plant gets attacked by insects. The plant gives out chemicals from the leaves that are being eaten. This is like a warning, or a call for help： "I'm being attacked! " When another plant gets the chemicals, it starts to give out its own, different chemicals. Some of these chemicals drive insects away. Others attract the wasps（黄蜂；蜜蜂）！ The wasps kill the insects that are eating the plants. Scientists hope to learn more about this plant warning system, so that we can use it to grow more crops.
More surprisingly, plants also use sound to communicate. People can't hear these sounds ； but plants are making them. Some plants make noises with their roots. Corn and chili plants do this. Some trees make clicking noises when there is not enough water.
Most surprisingly of all, plants have an amazing system of communication that can link nearly every plant in a forest. Scientists call this system the “ wood wide web”. The wood wide web is linked underground by fungi（霉菌）.It links the roots of different plants to each other. It is in some ways similar to the Internet we use. Using the wood wide web, plants can share information and even food with each other. However, it may lead to bad effects. Plants may use it to steal food from each other, or spread chemicals to attack other plants. Perhaps one day scientists will learn how to create a “firewall“ to help prevent these attacks within the wood wide web.
Scientists are learning more every day about the secret ways in which plants talk to each other. Maybe one day we will know enough about plant communication to be able to "talk” with them ourselves.
1. What will plants do when they are attacked by insects?| A．They will kill the insects by themselves. |
| B．They will control the wasps to kill the insects. |
| C．They will send out signals to ask for help. |
| D．They will produce chemicals as a warning or a call for help. |
| A．By making noises with their roots. |
| B．By connecting the roots of different plants to each other. |
| C．By sharing food and information with each other. |
| D．By spreading chemicals to each other. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
4. Which is the best title for the passage?
| A．The Secret Language of Plants |
| B．The Study About the Plant Warning System |
| C．The Plants that Give Warnings |
| D．Why Scientists Do Research About Plants |
