1 . 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 |
2 . 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. |
3 . 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. |
4 . In south Africa’s Limpopo province, a baobab tree (猴面包树) once grew so large and stood so strong that its human neighbors decided to build a pub inside the living tree’s thousand-year-old hollow trunk(树干). For 20 years, “The Big Baobab Pub” attracted tourists all over the world. But in August 2016, one of “the walls” broke. Eight months later, another huge piece broke, too. Now, five of the giant stems have collapsed and died, leaving only half of the tree standing.
Though it could sound like a result of human visitation, it's part of an alarming trend: many of the oldest, largest baobab trees in Africa have died within the last 12 years.
Stephan Woodbourne, an African scientist, said: “Of the oldest trees that we’ve looked at in Southern Africa, the three trees that are older than 2,000 years have all died in the past 10 years. Of the 11 trees that are 1,000 to 2,000 years old, six of them have died.”
A report published in the journal Nature Plants claims scores of the ancient baobab trees, some of which are up to 3,000 years old, are now dying because of rising global temperatures.
Researchers believe it is impossible that such a high number of old baobab trees die in such a short time due to natural causes. They think it may be associated with huge change of climate conditions that affect southern Africa in particular.
1. What has happened to The Big Baobab Pub?| A．The pub has largely been destroyed. |
| B．More tourists from the world visit it. |
| C．The pub has a long history of 2,000 years. |
| D．The Baobab Tree grows larger and stronger. |
| A．all the oldest baobab trees have been dead |
| B．the oldest baobab trees will die out soon |
| C．ancient baobab trees are in the face of danger |
| D．Human’s visits lead to ancient baobab trees’ deaths |
| A．Many pubs’ foundation. | B．Global climate changes. |
| C．Human visitation. | D．Natural causes. |
| A．Research on Baobab Tree. | B．Facts about Baobab Tree. |
| C．Baobab Tree in Africa. | D．Tree of Life is Dying. |
As the world
Though Xinjiang has little rainfall, it has a large number of snow-capped mountains, from which meltwater gives cotton abundant water resource. Meanwhile,
Xinjiang is lightly populated and has a vast planting area. It has
The combination of advantaged
6 . Ever since humanity began to farm our own food, we've faced the unpredictable rain that is both friend and enemy. It comes and goes without much warning, and a field of leafy greens one year can dry up and blow away the next. Food security and fortunes depend on sufficient rain, and nowhere more so than in Africa, where 96% of farmland depends on rain instead of the irrigation common in more-developed places. It has consequences: South Africa's ongoing drought — the worst in three decades — will cost it at least a quarter of its corn harvest this year.
Biologist Jill Farrant of the University of Cap Town in South Africa says that nature has plenty of answers for people who want to grow crops in places with unpredictable rainfall. She is hard at work finding a way to take qualities from rare wild plants that are adapted to extreme dry weather and use them in food crops." The type of farming I am aiming for is literally so that people can survive as it's going to get drier and drier," Farrant says.
Extreme conditions produce extremely tough plants and a few fierce plants are highly adaptable to the everchanging conditions. Farrant calls one of them resurrection plants (复苏植物). During months without water under a harsh sun, they fade and contract until they look like a pile of dead green leaves but rainfall can revive them in the matter of hours. That is to say, when they detect and extend dry period, they produce sugars and certain stress-associated proteins and other materials in their tissues to enter a glass-like state that is “the most stable state that a plant can maintain”.
Last year, after Chinese team published a draft genome (基因组)of rock violet, one of the best studied resurrection plants, Farrant and colleagues published a detailed study of another candidate. One or both of these models will help researchers test their ideas-so far mostly done in the lab-on test plots.
1. Which can be responsible for the reduction in corn crop in South Africa?| A．Facing unpredictable rain. |
| B．Lacking advanced irrigation. |
| C．The food security. |
| D．The ongoing drought. |
| A．To maintain the most stable state of tough plants. |
| B．To grow crops in places with unpredictable rainfall. |
| C．To apply the special quality of wild plants to human farming. |
| D．To survive extreme dry weather and ever-changing conditions. |
| A．shrink | B．die | C．withdraw | D．rest |
| A．The research is still on trial. |
| B．Chinese team worked harder. |
| C．One of the candidates has been put into use. |
| D．The results contribute to resurrection plants. |
