1 . 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Where to buy houseplants. |
| B．When to grow houseplants. |
| C．How to choose a proper houseplant. |
| D．Whether houseplants are easy to grow. |
2 . As we sip our coffee and read the daily headlines, climate changes can seem like a distant threat. But travel a few thousands miles to the source of your caffeine fix, and the threat is all too real.
The coffee farmers are now seeing violent downpours that drown their plants in Mexico, where the climate used to be stable and mild, but the temperature now see-saws between extreme cold and heat, which greatly affects their harvest. Unfortunately, farmers across South America, Asia and Africa are also watching coffee plants decrease as droughts and downpours attack their crops as a result of global warming. The consequences of all this could soon work their way through the pipeline to your local coffee shop.
The problem arises, in part, from refinement (改进) of our taste. Two main breeds of commercial coffee Arabica and Robusta gain special reputation. The former is by far the world’s favourite, accounting for about 70% of the coffee we drink. However, the Arabica plants have been bred from a very small stock taken from the mountains of Ethiopia-giving it very little genetic diversity and making it particularly difficult to adapt to climate change. Besides, the plant grows best between a very narrow range of relatively mild temperatures (18 to 22℃ ) and needs gentle, regular rainfall. The delicate Arabica plants just can’t cope with the new and unpredictable conditions that come with global warming.
All of these paint a depressing picture for the future. Researchers predict that the land suited to farming Arabica could drop by as much as 50% by 2050. Classic coffee-producing region, such as Vietnam, India and most of Central America, will be hit particularly hard. Some of the farmers feel that the subject has almost become taboo, “We talk very little about climate. We already know how it is—and that there is nothing we can do.”
1. What does the author imply at the beginning?| A．The origin of coffee is at risk. |
| B．Coffee consumers like reading newspaper. |
| C．The origin of coffee is visited by consumers. |
| D．Coffee consumers do care about the weather very much. |
| A．They become victims of extreme weather. |
| B．Those in Mexico suffer the greatest loss. |
| C．Some of them take measures to cut the losses. |
| D．They try to meet the market demand for coffee. |
| A．Its market share is low. |
| B．It can only be planted in Etiopia. |
| C．It has disease-causing genes. |
| D．It has high demands for environment. |
| A．easily understood. | B．rarely mentioned. |
| C．hardly avoided. | D．heatedly discussed. |
3 . 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. |
