1 . 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. |
2 . Hundreds of native North American plants, often dismissed as weeds, deserve a lot more respect, according to a new study. These plants, distant cousins of foods like cranberries and pumpkins, actually represent a botanical treasure now facing increased threat from climate change, habitat loss and invasive species.
The crops that the human race now depends on, including grains like wheat and tree fruit like peaches, originally were selected or bred(培育) from plants that grew wild hundreds or thousands of years ago. And those ancestral plants like the small wild sunflowers that can be found across the United States, still exist. “If you see them growing along roadsides, those are the ancestors,” says Colin Khoury, a research scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. Khoury says wild lettuce(莴苣) plants grow along roads, or in backyards, but go unrecognized. “They look nothing like lettuce,” he says. “They are scratchy, thorny, little and ugly.”
Khoury loves these wild relatives of food crops, not just for emotional reasons. “These wild plants are of great value,” he says. That wild sunflower, for instance, can survive in a salty environment that would kill most plants. So plant breeders cross-pollinate(使异花传粉) it with commercial sunflowers and create new varieties that can grow in places where the soil contains more salt. Other wild relatives may be hiding similarly remarkable gifts, Khoury says, such as genes that could help their domesticated(家养的) relatives survive diseases, deal with pests, or adapt to disruptions in the climate.
Khoury and some of his colleagues just finished a survey of about 600 wild crop relatives that grow in North America, and published it this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that the survival chances for most of these plants are being undermined because of things like fires, farming and commercial development. The scientists argue that these endangered species deserve more protection. “It’s more just being aware that these plants actually exist,” Khoury says. “They need protection.”
1. What is the characteristic of wild lettuce plants?| A．They can be commonly seen. | B．They look the same as lettuce. |
| C．They are selected from grains. | D．They are smooth and beautiful. |
| A．They can improve soil quality. |
| B．They can slow down climate change. |
| C．They can kill most dangerous wild plants. |
| D．They can help with domesticated plants’ growth. |
| A．Assessed. | B．Destroyed. |
| C．Obtained. | D．Offered. |
| A．The Distant Cousins of Food Crops Are What We Really Need |
| B．Scientists Have Found a New Way to Increase Our Food Crops |
| C．Wild Relatives of Food Crops Deserve Respect and Protection |
| D．Everyone Should Take Action to Protect Botanical Treasures |
3 . Trees have long played a special role in all aspects of human life. In ancient times, trees provided a place for humans to take shelter from storms, heat and even enemies. Today, the importance of trees continues to increase.
Trees provide the necessary oxygen to breathe. Many industrial and development activities add huge quantities of carbon dioxide to the environment. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and in turn release fresh oxygen in the environment.
Trees can prevent soil erosion (侵蚀) and clean soil. Trees bind (捆绑) the soil of the earth tightly.
Trees provide life to birds and insects.
| A．This lowers global warming. |
| B．Trees are of commercial importance. |
| C．This increases the drying effect on the soil. |
| D．More benefits of trees are being discovered. |
| E．They give them food, shelter, cover, and nest sites. |
| F．Trees provide wood for making furniture and paper. |
| G．Therefore, fast flowing water or heavy wind is unable to take away soil with it. |
4 . Though they have a small figure, plants are armed with a metabolic (新陈代谢) system that allows them to collect, store and spend hard-earned energy for their survival. Perhaps the best-known part in this plant metabolic network is their ability to turn light into sugars and other forms of energy through photosynthesis (光合作用), a unique ability that allows plants to live in different environments.
But a plant’s dependence on sunlight has always presented one key question: What happens to a plant’s energy supply when night falls and sunlight becomes no longer available? A study published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences answered the question. Researchers report that a key factor to a plant’s ability to keep energy and survive the darkness of each nightfall rests in what experts call the circadian clock (生物钟).
Circadian clocks are basically chemical timekeepers each plant owns that allow them to work out the passage of time and the duration of their chemical reactions, and give them a rough idea of their daily routine every 24 hours. Experts say like most clocks, these inner timepieces for plants also come with an alarm of sorts. Through a network of genes and cells, researchers say that plants have an inborn ability to adjust (调整) their clocks each night for the benefit of their own survival. Through this network they can know the rising and falling of the sun, how long each night will last and how much energy they need to keep to make it to each morning. This alarm, according to researchers, can single-handedly tell plants how to adjust their nightly metabolic schedule—and give their energy supply suitably—every night with shocking correctness.
The study shows that experts came to this conclusion after experimenting with genes inside Arabidopsis, a small flowing plant related to cabbage. In these plants, researchers discovered a collection of genes largely controlled by a special thing known as superoxide (过氧化物), which is often linked to a plant’s metabolism.
1. What is the plant metabolic network most famous for?| A．Taking in sugars. | B．Helping grow faster at night. |
| C．Collecting energy from others. | D．Making energy with sunlight. |
| A．How plants survive the night. |
| B．How sunlight affects plants’ circadian clock. |
| C．How long plants’ energy lasts during the night. |
| D．How the circadian clock gives plants information. |
| A．It sometimes can’t work well. | B．It can adjust according to the weather. |
| C．It is controlled by some genes and cells. | D．It differs from one plant to another. |
| A．How cabbage can survive the night. |
| B．What is a plant’s metabolism. |
| C．What role superoxide plays in the circadian clock. |
| D．What genes control the speed of plants’ growth. |
5 . Located in a comer of north Brooklyn is a 3,000-square-fbot patch of open space. Keap Fourth, at the intersection of Keap and South 4th Streets, is a community garden established in 2013. It’s a well-known part in this largely Dominican and Puerto Rican neighbourhood, at the edge of trendy Williamsburg. The sun is out, and “it’s nearly planting season,” says Crito Thornton, a volunteer who manages the garden, with a grin. After a long winter made worse by Covid-19 there are finally signs of life in the daffodils blooming around the garden.
Keap Fourth is one of 550 community gardens which have sprung up at New York’s street comers since the 1970s, when the city’s economy collapsed and its landscape became dotted by abandoned lots. Activists sought to transform these urban scars into gardens where residents could relax and grow vegetables. These places now cover 100 acres across the city, tended by a volunteer army of nearly 23,000 green-fingered New Yorkers. The gardens are supported by GreenThumb, a government initiative established in 1978, which is now the country’s largest urban-gardening programme.
Running these spaces is no easy task. Keap Fourth’s neighbourhood has been troubled by drug dealers, who moved across the Williamsburg Bridge after being driven out of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The garden is a popular drop-off point, with suspicious packages found among the greens. But the recent death of a local kingpin (毒枭) in a car accident and the efforts of the police may make the gardens more peaceful, says Mr. Thornton.
The future looks bright. A key issue in the past has been a manpower shortage for the harvest. But volunteer numbers across the city’s gardens have gone up slowly since the pandemic’s onset, as locked-down residents have desired for more open space. And in Keap Fourth’s case, the whole neighbourhood seems to have come together over the past year as few people now undergo the daily commute (通勤) across the river to Manhattan. A bountiful harvest is in prospect.
1. What can we infer about Keap Fourth?| A．It’s mostly owned by volunteers. | B．It can help save people’s lives. |
| C．It was most depressing last winter. | D．It brings its liveliness to people there. |
| A．They have occupied New York,s street comers. |
| B．They have been regarded as urban scars. |
| C．They can be a way to take advantage of land. |
| D．They have covered 100 acres across the city. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．The pandemic loss last year. | B．More open space. |
| C．Togetherness of the neighbourhood. | D．Daily commute across the river. |
Yuan Longping, Father of Hybrid Rice,
Yuan was a co-winner of the 2004 World Food Prize, the top international honor recognizing the deeds of
Yuan’s pioneering research has
Barbara Stinson, president of the WFP Foundation, said Yuan was credited not only for hybrid rice, but also for the ability
Yuan started hybrid rice research in 1964 and
“He’s made such
7 . Houseplants have been rising in popularity for good reasons. They can brighten our spaces, freshen the air and benefit our mental health. While the benefits aren't quite as measurable as getting our daily minerals and vitamins, plenty of positive findings show plants help us thrive.
Plants bring color and vitality to our worlds. Though maybe only subtly, our mood can be impacted by the surroundings. Green plants and cheery flowers are known to have a positive effect on mood because the mind equates plant life to the soothing, uplifting area of nature.
Taking care of plants gives us a sense of pride and achievement.
Plants' presence can cut down on stress. Interacting with plants reduce signs of both psychological and physical stress. When we engage in positive tasks that require mindful focus, we can absolutely benefit on both physical and psychological levels.
We don't necessarily need houseplants to survive, but they certainly can make a positive difference in our lives when we bring them into our homes. The benefits of indoor plants are undeniable.
| A．Parenting plants can be tough. |
| B．Treat plant care as a mindfulness practice. |
| C．So give plant-parenting a shot for yourself. |
| D．Plants remind us that change is a part of life. |
| E．Keeping plants reminds us of our link to people around us. |
| F．Green gives the mind a comforting sense of calm and positivity. |
| G．Caring for plants during leisure time is beneficial to housewives. |
8 . Contrary to the long-held belief that plants in the natural world are always in competition, new research has found that in severe environments adult plants help smaller ones and grow well as a result.
The research, led by Dr Rocio, studied adult and seedling (幼苗)plants in the ecological desert in the south-east of Spain. Dr Rocio said, “If you're a seedling in a poor land — the top of a mountain or a sand hill, for example-and you’re lucky enough to end up underneath a big plant, your chances of survival are certainly better than if you landed somewhere on your own. What we have found, which was surprising, is an established large plant, called a ‘nurse’, protects a seedling; it also produces more flowers than the same plants of similar large size growing on their own.”
Other benefits of nurse-seedling partnerships include that more variety of plants growing together can have a positive effect on the environment. For example, vegetation areas with nurse plants with more flowers might be able to attract higher numbers of pollinators(传粉者)in an area, in turn supporting insect and soil life and even provide a greater range of different fruit types for birds and other animals.
“The biggest winner for this system of nursing a plant is biodiversity(生物多样性),” Dr Rocio said. “The more biodiverse an area, the greater number of species of plants, insect life, mammals and birds, and the better the chances of long-term healthy functioning of the environment and ecosystems. ” This system is win-win for adult and seedling plants in unfavorable environments.
The research is of value to those who manage and protect plants in tough environments. Most home gardeners and farmers plan to ensure their soil and conditions are the best they can be for plant growth, but the findings might be of value to those who garden in bare places.
1. What is a common understanding of plants?| A．They can help each other. | B．They can survive ill conditions. |
| C．They compete with each other. | D．They grow well on their own. |
| A．They will produce more flowers. | B．They will die owing to competition. |
| C．They will make adult plants larger. | D．They will get support from adult plants. |
| A．It leads to unfavorable environments. |
| B．It produces long-term healthy chances. |
| C．It attracts higher and larger pollinators. |
| D．It provides a more variety of plant types. |
| A．People studying organic farming. |
| B．People protecting plants on sand hills. |
| C．People wanting to change biodiversity. |
| D．People keeping more animals on the farm. |
9 . Many studies have suggested that playing music for plants may have a certain influence on their growth. So, can plants really hear sounds? Do they actually like music? Are these true or just another popular story?
Since 1962, an Indian scientist has done several experiments on music and plant growth. He found that certain plants grew an extra 20 percent in height and weight when “listening” to music regularly. Later, he played music through loudspeakers placed around the field, and he found similar results for agricultural crops, such as peanuts, rice, and com, which produced more products at harvest time.
A Colorado greenhouse owner experimented with several types of plants and various types of music. She discovered that plants “listening” to rock music became dry gradually as if they had been a lack of water and then went to their end within a couple of weeks, while plants grew well when “listening” to classical music.
When it comes to understanding the effects of music on plant growth, it appears that it isn’t so much about the “sounds” of the music, but more to do with the vibrations (震动) created by the sound waves. In simple terms, the vibrations produce movements in the plant cells which help plants produce more nutrients. When plants don’t respond well to rock music, it isn’t because they “like” classical music better, but the vibrations produced by loud rock music create greater pressure that isn’t beneficial to plant growth.
Researchers at the University of California weren’t so quick to jump to conclusions about the effects of music on plant growth. They said that so far there had been very limited scientific evidence that playing music for plants helps them grow, and that more scientific tests were needed with strict control over factors such as light, water, soil, and so on.
1. What did the Indian scientist discover about crops listening to music?| A．They were lack of water. |
| B．They became dry gradually. |
| C．They grew more productive. |
| D．They tasted better than before. |
| A．They may prefer quiet and soft music. |
| B．Vibrations from music can affect their growth. |
| C．Musical sounds help produce new plant cells. |
| D．They respond positively to different kinds of music. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Music. |
| C．Social Activity. | D．Scientific Research. |
| A．Can plants really hear music? |
| B．Can music improve plant growth? |
| C．Some ways to help plants grow fast. |
| D．Some types of music good for plants. |
10 . What is the smelliest fruit on earth? Durians (榴莲), of course. But what makes this large spiky fruit from Southeast Asia so smelly? A team of researchers discovered the answer to this question recently. Their study explained which genes (基因) are responsible for the fruit's unique smell.
Thanks to the work of the scientists, we finally know why durians smell so unique. It's because of a gene called MGL，which can be found in other crops like cacao and cotton. Unlike other fruits that have just one copy of the gene, the durian has four, which are activated when the fruit is ripe.
According to the study, the MGL genes are involved in sulfur (硫磺) production. Indeed, they are the secret code to unlocking the smell of durians. In the wilderness, the smell serves an important purpose - survival. The fruit's special smell attracts animals, which eat and spread its seeds.
But of course, humans don't do this. So why do so many of us enjoy eating this unusual fruit? “It has a very rich and creamy taste. To us, it has a heavenly smell, and it melts in your mouth,” said professor Bin Tean Teh, the leading author of the study.
In some Southeast Asian countries where durians grow, the smelly fruit is not allowed on public transport and in many hotels. By identifying this MGL gene, scientists believe they could produce durians that don't smell as strong. This could increase its popularity. Those who hate it may love it, and those who love it may love it more.
However, not everyone is happy about the possibility of changing the smell of their favorite fruit. “A durian without its smell is nothing but an empty shell without its properties,” wrote Singaporean Richie Liang.
1. What did the study find?| A．Why people don't like durians | B．What kind of fruit smells good |
| C．How we make durians smell better | D．Which genes make durians smelly |
| A．The benefits of eating durians | B．The code to unlocking the MGL genes |
| C．The function of durians' smell | D．The disadvantage of the MGL genes |
| A．Smelly | B．Odd | C．Inviting | D．Familiar |
| A．To help them survive better | B．To make them more attractive |
| C．To increase their profits | D．To protect them from harmful insects |
| A．Opposed | B．Doubtful | C．Unconcerned | D．Supportive. |
