1 . We all love gardens with beautiful flowers and leafy plants, choosing colourful species to plant in and around our homes. Plant scientists, however, may have fallen for the same trick in what they choose to research.
The research, published in Nature Plants, found there’s a clear bias (偏好) among scientists toward visually striking plants. This means they’re more likely chosen for scientific study and conservation efforts, regardless of their ecological or evolutionary significance. White, red and pink flowers were more likely to feature in research literature than those with dull, or green and brown flowers. Plants with tall stems also stood out. Plants with blue flowers — the rarest colour in nature — received most research attention. But interestingly, a plant’s rarity didn’t significantly influence research attention. The team had expected to find more endangered species among those most studied, it did not either.
This bias may direct conservation efforts away from less visually pleasing plants that are more important to the health of the overall ecosystem or in need of urgent conservation. A bias toward colorful plants could mean we may be missing species that could be in rapid decline toward extinction, and we don’t have even basic information on seed banking for conservation. This is not a tragedy, but something to consider when planning future work.
We often don’t know how important a species is until it’s thoroughly researched. In Australia, for example, milkweeds are an important food source for butterflies, while dull-flowered mat rushes are now known to be the home for rare native sun moths. From habitats to food, these plants provide foundational ecological services, yet many milkweed and mat rush species are rare, and largely neglected in conservation research.
The study shows the need to take biases into consideration in science and in the choice of species studied, for the best conservation and ecological outcomes. People should be more alert in all parts of the conservation process, from the science to listing species for protection.
1. Which of the following plants are highly researched?| A．Plants which are rare. | B．Plants with blue flowers. |
| C．Plants with brown flowers. | D．Plants which are endangered. |
| A．The efforts to save endangered species. | B．The ways to conserve dull plants. |
| C．The reasons for plants’ extinction. | D．The consequences of plant bias. |
| A．They deserve thorough research. |
| B．They are closely connected with each other. |
| C．They have received the least research attention. |
| D．They are more important than beautiful flowers. |
| A．Are beautiful plants the most useful? | B．How can we save less attractive plants? |
| C．Which plant species need our help? | D．Are attractive plants researched more? |
2 . Huge crowds are forming on Monday at the US Botanic Garden in Washington, DC. Usually, it’s a place to see flowers that look pretty, smell fantastic and bloom (开花) annually. But today, the so-called “corpse plants” on show are the opposite in all aspects.
Native to the rain forests of Sumatra, Indonesia, the corpse plants don’t bloom on a regular cycle -- the length of time between blooms ranges from a few years to a few decades and they are ugly and smelly.
“Last night it started out like a good French cheese, stinky but delightful. Then it moved on to a lazy boy’s socks. At last, it was junior high school gym followed by full-on rotten fish. Finally, it moved all the way to a rotting meat smell that was so thick and heavy that I experienced a sore throat, burning eyes and had a bitter taste in my mouth.” said John Clements, one of the garden employees,
“It smells bad to us, but it smells great to flies. It makes them think there’s rotten meat somewhere to lay their eggs, and that helps the corpse plant to get pollinated (授粉),” says Rob Raguso, a professor at Cornell University. “Since it takes a lot of energy for the plant to produce the smell, it puts it on reserve during the day, and will put it out in full strength from 9 pm to 3 am when the air is still and the smell can travel more easily.”
The smell comes from a number of chemicals that smell differently on their own, and that together draw flies to the plant’s cup-like flower. One of these, timethylamine, smells like rotting fish. Another, isovaleric acid, is responsible for the terrible smell of sweaty gym socks.
“It also heats up. The flower actually reaches human body temperature, making it all the more convincing to flesh-loving insects,”adds Rob Raguso.
1. What does John Clements mainly talk about?| A．Lazy boys’ socks. | B．Delightful French cheese. |
| C．The smell of a flower. | D．The taste of corpse plants. |
| A．At noon | B．At dusk. | C．In the afternoon. | D．After midnight. |
| A．To reserve energy. | B．To attract pollinators. |
| C．To heat the environment | D．To send the smell further. |
| A．What Makes Corpse Plants Smell So Bad? |
| B．How Do Corpse Plants Appeal to Insects? |
| C．When Do Corpse Plants Bloom in Full Strength? |
| D．Why Can Flies Find Corpse Plants in the Darkness? |
1. Why is it suggested not to buy from wholesalers?
| A．They only sell seeds. |
| B．They don’t have good soil. |
| C．They don’t take good care of plants. |
| A．Wet soil. | B．Hard soil. | C．Smelly soil. |
| A．2. | B．3. | C．4. |
4 . Plants have been essential to humans since the beginning of time. Their beauty inspires joy and many have healing functions. Now, a recent study has identified a super plant that cleans polluted air.
Noting that car pollution is a global concern, researchers set out to study how effective plants are at catching roadside particulates (颗粒), which cause many health problems. The scientists at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the UK chose the city of Reading to study how effective plants are at catching them. Since previous research has shown that trees help remove air pollution, researchers decided to explore the effectiveness of hedges (树篱). This study looked at three species: hawthorn, western red cedar, and franchet’s cotoneaster (栒子).
Researchers discovered that cotoneaster was the most effective after comparing particulates on leaves of these three plants. This is due to the plant’s hairy, complex leaf structure. Researchers also found that thick hedges over six feet high were best in reducing the concentration of particles. In the most heavily trafficked areas, cotoneaster took in 20 percent more pollution than the other shrubs, according to The Guardian.
Dr Tijana Blanusa, co-author of the study, told The Guardian, “We know that in just seven days a l-metre length of well-managed dense hedge will clean up the same amount of pollution that a car emits over a 500-mile drive.” Blanusa highly recommends planting cotoneasters along busy roads.
This is great news for urban planners, as well as gardeners. Although many people are affected by roadside pollution, an RHS survey shows that only six percent of gardeners choose specific plants that may improve air quality.
Originally from China, cotoneaster is a hardy evergreen that can tolerate cold. In addition to growing healthy in the UK, it can grow strong in areas from California up to the Pacific Northwest, into British Columbia and around the Great Lakes.
Thanks to this recent study, cotoneaster has proved to be extremely beneficial, enabling gardeners and landscapers to make a positive difference to the environment. The hope is that once these super plants are grown in urban gardens and on streets, they will clean the air plus provide intense beauty along the way.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．What plants bring people. |
| B．Why researchers did the study. |
| C．How serious air pollution is. |
| D．What progress scientists have made. |
| A．Its leaves are made of many different parts. |
| B．It can keep green in bad weather conditions. |
| C．It has a suitable height for reducing pollution. |
| D．Its leaves are thick in places with heavy traffic. |
| A．Positive. | B．Surprised. | C．Concerned. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．It requires a lot of care in urban areas. |
| B．It will affect the growth of other species. |
| C．It will help improve air quality once planted. |
| D．It can make people feel energetic all day long. |
5 . With no special equipment, no fences and no watering, two abandoned agricultural fields in the UK have been rewilded (重新野化), in large part due to the efforts of jays, which actually “engineered” these new woodlands. Researchers now hope that rewilding projects can take a more natural and hands-off approach and that jays can shed some of their bad reputations.
The two fields, which researchers have called the New Wilderness and the Old Wilderness, had been abandoned in 1996 and 1961 respectively. The former was a bare field, while the latter was grassland—both lay next to ancient woodlands. Researchers had suspected that the fields would gradually return to wilderness, but it was impressive to see just how quickly this happened, and how much of it was owed to birds.
Using aerial data, the researchers monitored the two sites. After just 24 years, the New Wilderness had grown into a young, healthy wood with 132 live trees per hectare, over half of which (57%) were oaks. Meanwhile, the Old Wilderness resembled a mature woodland after 39 years, with 390 trees per hectare.
“This native woodland restoration was approaching the structure (but not the species composition) of long-established woodlands within six decades,” the researchers explained in the study.
Part of this reforestation was done by the wind, and researchers suspect that previous ground disturbance may have aided the woodland establishment—which is good news, as it would suggest that agricultural areas may be reforested faster than anticipated. However, animals—Eurasian jays, thrushes, wood mice, and squirrels—also played an important role in helping the forests take shape. This handful of species provided much of the natural regeneration needed for the forest to develop. Jays, in particular, seem to have done a lot of heavy lifting.
1. What does the underlined word “shed” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Be opposed to. |
| B．Be ashamed of. |
| C．Get used to. |
| D．Get rid of. |
| A．The scale of the woodlands. |
| B．The diversity of the fields. |
| C．The rate of the changes. |
| D．The frequency of the wilderness. |
| A．The woodland restoration was approaching the structure of long-established ones. |
| B．Much of the wilderness of the fields was owed to birds. |
| C．Previous ground disturbance aided the woodland establishment. |
| D．How quickly the fields returned to wilderness over time. |
| A．The essential role of humans in the reforestation. |
| B．The factors that contribute to the reforestation. |
| C．The importance of woodland establishment. |
| D．The threats faced by a handful of wild animals. |
6 . Lichens (地衣)
Lichens look like splashes of paint left behind by a careless painter. Unlike many plants, they do not require soil to grow. They grow on trunk of trees in steaming tropical rain forests, on farmers’ fenceposts, on the bricks of big-city buildings, and on old gravestones. Lichens can tolerate extremes of climate. They grow on rocks in hot springs, on wind-swept mountaintops, and on stones in the driest deserts. In the Arctic, lichens are the principal source of food for reindeer. Whole mountainsides in Antarctica appear green and orange because of the presence of lichens; they are one of the few plants that can survive there. They are among the oldest of known plants. Recently, scientists discovered lichen fossils on a rock in a mine in southwest China that date back 600 million years.
When conditions become harsh, lichens become dormant (休眠). If there is not enough moisture, they simply dry up, but a short rain or even a heavy dew gives them new life. When growing on rock surfaces, lichens produce acids that dissolve (溶解) the minerals, contributing to the process of weathering by which rocks are slowly turned to soil. This property enables lichens to be pioneers. They appear on barren rock rubbed clean by glaciers, fires, lava flows, or floods, beginning the process of soil formation that allows mosses (苔藓) and other plants to later take root. But, despite their hardiness, lichens are extremely sensitive to airborne particles(颗粒). That’s why they serve as an early warning system for air pollution.
It is the acids lichens produce that give them their distinctive colors. Lichens are often spoken of in the same breath as mosses, and some lichens are even called mosses, but true mosses are all distinctively green, whereas lichens appear in many vivid colors. At one time, acids from lichens were used to make dyes, such as the purple dye, the blue dye, and the red dye, and they are sometimes still used that way today. Some lichens, such as oakmoss, contain oils that produce fragrant odors used in scented soaps, cosmetics and perfumes. Some lichens are also known to have antibiotic properties to kill bacteria.
So definite are the form, color, and characteristics of these organisms that for hundreds of years lichens were constantly under scientists’ microscope.
1. What characteristic of lichens is mainly talked about in paragraph 1?| A．They grow only on rock surfaces. |
| B．They live primarily in cold places. |
| C．They have adapted to a wide variety of environments. |
| D．They live in remote locations far from human communities. |
| A．have their primitive structure |
| B．grow in areas before other plants do |
| C．are found in remote parts of the world |
| D．develop so early in the history of the planet |
| A．as a means of coloring clothing |
| B．as a type of medicine |
| C．as a source of food |
| D．as an ingredient in perfume |
| A．Lichens are important in Canada because of their abundance in the north. |
| B．Extracts of lichens were sold as herbal medicines to facilitate hair growth. |
| C．Glacier Park’s vast array of lichens indicate relatively good air quality. |
| D．A German botanist first found lichens are composed of two life forms. |
1. How many natural Christmas trees did Americans buy in 2016?
| A．Less than 35 million trees. | B．More than 10 million trees. |
| C．More than 24 million trees. | D．Less than 24 million trees. |
| A．They are grown once again. | B．They are delivered to a tree farm. |
| C．They are safely stored away. | D．They are thrown away. |
| A．They are moved to a landfill. | B．They are reused next year. |
| C．They are cut into pieces. | D．They are exchanged for real trees. |
8 . China’s policy of planting trees is likely playing a significant role in tempering its climate impacts. An international team has identified two areas in the country where the scale of carbon dioxide absorption by new forests has been underestimated. Taken together, these areas account for a little over 35% of China’s entire land carbon “sink”, the group says.
A carbon sink is any area that absorbs more carbon than it releases, such as forests, thereby lowering the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
China is one of the world’s major sources of human-produced carbon dioxide. But it has stated an intention to peak the emissions before 2030 and then to move to carbon neutrality by 2060.
“Achieving China’s net-zero target by 2060 will involve a massive change in energy production and also the growth of sustainable land carbon sinks,” said co-author Prof Yi Liu at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. “The afforestation (植树造林) activities described in our Nature paper will play a role in achieving that target,” he said.
China’s increasing leafiness has been evident for some time. Billions of trees have been planted in recent decades, to tackle desertification and soil loss.
The new study modifies estimates for how much CO2 all these extra trees could be taking up as they grow. The latest analysis examined a host of data sources. These consisted of forestry records, satellite remote-sensing measurements of vegetation greenness, soil water availability, and observations of CO2, again made from space but also from direct sampling of the air at ground level.
The two previously under-appreciated carbon sink areas are centred on China’s southwest, in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces; and its northeast, particularly Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.
Prof Shaun Quegan from Sheffield University, UK, studies Earth’s carbon balance but was not involved in this research. He said the extent of the northeast sink was not a surprise to him, but the southwest one was. But he cautioned that new forests’ ability to draw down carbon declines with time as the growth rate declines and the systems move towards a more steady state.
Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a non-profit think-tank working on climate change and energy issues, said, “However, although the forest sink is bigger than thought, no one should mistake this as providing a ‘free pass’ way to reach net zero. For one thing, carbon absorption will be needed to make up for ongoing emissions of all greenhouse gases, not just CO2; for another, the carbon balance of China’s forests may be compromised (折中) by climate change impacts, as we’re seeing now in places such as California, Australia and Russia.”
1. The word “tempering” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “_______”.| A．assessing | B．solidifying |
| C．lessening | D．authorizing |
| A．It finds that China has stopped its desertification by planting trees. |
| B．It is based on data from both the ground and the satellites. |
| C．It warns that China will peak its emissions before 2030. |
| D．It overlooks the roles that the land carbon sinks play. |
| A．forest sinks absorb less carbon dioxide when they are growing |
| B．new forests are very likely to guarantee the target of carbon neutrality |
| C．the southwest sink won’t draw down as much carbon as the northeast one |
| D．many other factors need to be taken into account when assessing the forest sink |
| A．Greenhouse Gas Emission Largely Reduced |
| B．Roles of Carbon Sinks Proved by New Study |
| C．China’s Forest Carbon Absorption Underestimated |
| D．Climate Impacts Balanced Due to China’s Afforestation |
| A．The plants barely grew without radiation. | B．The plants didn’t grow fast enough. |
| C．The plants looked much stronger. | D．Not all the seeds grew in lunar dirt. |
| A．Because the astronauts didn’t take care of the dirt. |
| B．Because the dirt was exposed to radiation and solar wind for too long. |
| C．Because the dirt stressed the plants the most. |
| D．Because the Apollo 11 mission was unsuccessful. |
| A．Because they felt it meaningless to keep the dirt for long. |
| B．Because they wanted more researchers to do experiments on it. |
| C．Because they are preparing to send astronauts to the moon again. |
| D．Because they want astronauts to know more about the moon dirt. |
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
Plants’ ability to predict sunrise and estimate the
The researchers discovered a set of genes
