1 . Bottle gardens are loved by many people. What’s a bottle garden? A bottle garden is exactly what it sounds like: a tiny garden planted in an object like a bottle._     1    According to professionals, the oldest bottle garden in the world was first created in 1960.

    2    There are several characteristics that make a bottle garden fun to own and great to create. Whether you’re short on outdoor gardening space or just want an eye-catching indoor garden, bottle gardens are a great way to grow many of your favorite plants. Moreover, they help recycle (回收利用) bottles and are easy to create.

By following some tips, you’ll have your bottle garden planted and thriving (茁壮成长) in no time. The first step in creating a bottle garden is selecting (挑选) the bottle. Clear bottles can allow the most sunlight to enter.     3    

Then you should keep in mind that bottles with openings big enough to fit your hand through can make planting easier.     4     Likewise, you could choose a bottle and simply cut an opening for your plants to fit in. If you choose to reuse a bottle, wash it completely before adding plants.

When the bottle is ready, put inside some rich soil and plants suitable for a bottle garden. Once you grow the plants in the way you like, remember to place your bottle in a bright space which won’t have direct sunlight. East-facing windows often work well for this purpose.     5    Then you’ll just need to water them and watch out for signs of disease or crowding inside the bottle.

A．How do the bottle gardens work?

B．Such gardens don’t have a very long history.

C．They make thoughtful and eco-friendly gifts.

D．Why would anyone want to grow a garden in a bottle?

E．If you choose a colored bottle, select plants that prefer low levels of light.

F．If not, you’ll have to use tools to work the soil and plants inside the bottle.

G．You can also use a grow light if your home doesn’t have any suitable windows.

2 . How to Care for Indoor Plants

If you’ve ever had an indoor plant that’s quickly withered (枯萎), you might believe that you don’t have a green thumb or you’re not cut out for growing plants.     1     The truth is that anyone can be a good plant owner, and it really isn't complicated, we promise. In this article, we'll walk you through everything you need to know to care for your indoor plants, from watering to sunlight requirements to fertilizer.

    2     If your soil is either too dry or overwatered, it can damage the plant’s roots and prevent the plant from growing. In some cases under or over watering your plant can also kill it. Plants with thick leaves require more water than plants with leathery leaves. There is no specific frequency that works for all indoor plants. Instead, what you must do is determine what kind of plant you have, and follow guidelines on how often to water it by doing research on its specific type.

Stick your finger in the soil to determine how wet it is below the surface. If you put your finger into the soil up to your joint, you can feel if your plant needs more water. If the soil feels damp, then you don’t need to water it.     3     If it feels dry then it’s likely you need to water it.

Use water that is at room temperature. 68F or 20C is the best temperature to keep the water that you’re using to water your plants.     4     After that, you are supposed to take some actions to make the plants grow comfortably.

Use a hand-held moisture (水分) meter to ensure water levels in your soil.     5     The mechanism explores the underlying soil to give you a reading on how hydrated (含水的) your soil is.

A．Keep potting soil moist, but not wet.

B．Indoor plants are not necessarily good for us.

C．Well, we’re here to tell you that’s not the case.

D．Test whether your finger is long enough to put into the soil.

E．You can use a thermometer to determine the temperature of the water.

F．Over-watering can lead to rotting of the root which you need to fix.

G．Moisture meters are the most accurate way to determine how hydrated your plants are.

3 . When micro-plastics end up in farm fields, the pollution can damage plant growth. But two young researchers now report that combining fungi (真菌) with certain farm wastes can partly overcome that problem.

May Shin, 20, and Jiwon Choi, 18, met in a research design class at the Fryeburg Academy, a high school in Maine. May had desired to explore how micro-plastics might affect the ecosystem. Jiwon was crazy about plants and fungi. The young scientists cooperated to test how long-lived plastics might affect farm crops.

Scientists have shown certain fungi can aid root growth and a plant’s nutrient uptake. Those organisms are named arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Certain farm wastes, like straw, can provide nutrients to plants and help stabilize their roots. Such wastes are also known as mushroom substrate (基质) and people often grow mushrooms in them.

May and Jiwon planted over 2,000 scallion (大葱) seeds in pots of soil. Half the seeds got soil polluted with micro-plastics. The rest grew in plastic-free soil. The plants then were further divided into four groups. The young scientists added AMF to the soil in one group. Another group had a top layer of mushroom substrate. A third group got both treatments. The last group got none. For three weeks, the pair tracked how many scallions sprouted (发芽) in each group and measured the plants’ height once each week.

About twice as many scallions sprouted in clean soil compared to that containing plastic bits. But among plants surviving in the polluted soil, a combination of AMF and mushroom substrate helped them out. Those getting both treatments grew 5.4 centimeters per week. That was faster than either of the treatments alone or those getting none.

Jiwon and May then looked at the plant roots with a microscope. Where AMF had been added, it grew into those roots. That increased the scallion roots’ surface area, May said, which should promote their uptake of nutrients. So “I see this project as coming up with a sustainable solution for plant growth in polluted soils,” said May.

1. Why did May and Jiwon work together?

A．To see the effects of long-lived plastics on farm crops.

B．To find the relationship between plants and fungi.

C．To design a research on the growth of plants.

D．To explore the way that the ecosystem works.

2. What is the author’s purpose in writing paragraph 3?

A．To prove the existence of micro-plastics.	B．To compare fungi with farm wastes.
C．To tell the advantages of farm wastes.	D．To provide some related information.

3. What aspect of the study is the fourth paragraph mainly about?

A．Its purpose.

B．Its design.

C．Its findings.

D．Its reasons.

4. How can AMF and mushroom substrate make plants grow faster?

A．By keeping the plants more resistant to pollution.	B．By allowing the plants’ deep area more freedom.
C．By making nutrients more available to the plants.	D．By exposing the roots to a larger surface area.

4 . Indoor plants might look as if they just sit around not doing much, but in many ways they are the unsung heroes of the home.     1    , but studies have shown that they can promote people’s wellbeing by improving their mood (心情), reducing stress and helping their memory. What’s more, indoor plants are easy to look after and are not very expensive.

What are indoor plants?

Indoor plants, also known as houseplants or pot plants, are plants that like to grow indoors. Many of these species (物种) are not ideally suited to growing outside in the UK, especially in the winter.     2    .

Why are indoor plants good for you?

Will Spoelstra, who works at the Royal Botanic Gardens, says, “    3    . I find during the winter months, plants around the house can really lift your mood.” Several studies have backed this up and found that indoor plants can improve creativity, focus and memory. There is also research showing that pot plants can clean the air around them by removing harmful gases, such as carbon dioxide. They also remove some harmful chemicals from paints or cooking.     4    .

Which plants can you grow?

Aloe vera, peace lilies and spider plants are some of the species that are easy to grow indoors. You can buy plants from supermarkets, garden centres or online. Younger plants are often cheaper than fully grown ones, and you get to care for them as they mature — which is part of the joy of owning plants. “    5    ,” Spoelstra says. “It can bring a new interest and focus into people’s lives and help to make the link between home and nature.”

A．All plants are different

B．Not only do they look beautiful

C．There are many benefits to growing plants indoors

D．Instead, they grow better inside, where it is warmer

E．Plants like peace lilies and devil’s ivy are among the best

F．Changing the pot of your plant from time to time will also help

G．Learning about the requirements of each plant can be very rewarding

5 . Both humans and animals possess the ability to cry out for help when endangered or threatened. Plants, as it turns out, can too.

“We found that plants usually emit (发出) sounds when they are under stress and that each plant and each type of stress is associated with a specific identifiable sound,” researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel wrote in their findings, published in the scientific journal Cell. “While undetectable to the human ear, the sounds emitted by plants can probably be heard by various animals, such as bats, mice, and insects.”

Stressors like dehydration (脱水) and damage to leaves gave rise to the plants’ high-pitched (尖声的) cries, which ranged from 20 to 250 kHz. The bigger the danger, the more frequent a plant’s signals. “Unstressed plants emitted less than one sound per hour, on average,” researcher Lilach Hadany said, “while the stressed plants — both dehydrated and injured — emitted dozens of sounds every hour.”

To catch these sounds, Hadany’s team surrounded tomato and tobacco plants with super-sensitive microphones. They then fed the data into an artificial intelligence program that could tell the difference between the species of plant and the types of sounds produced.

“Our findings suggest that the world around us is full of plant sounds, and that these sounds contain information,” Hadany wrote. She added that to translate that information, we just need the “right tools such as sensors that tell growers when plants need watering.” Doing so, researchers noted, may allow farmers to judge exactly when and where to water crops. Saving water, increasing harvests, and lowering stress for both plant and humankind.

1. What did researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel find?

A．Creatures tend to cry out for help when in danger.

B．Plants can give off sounds when they are stressed.

C．Plant sounds can be heard by both animals and humans.

D．Plants make the same sound whatever type of stress they have.

2. What does the author want to show in paragraph 3?

A．The influence of stress on plants.

B．The urgency of relieving stress of plants.

C．The possibility of plants emitting sounds.

D．The importance of conducting the research.

3. Why was an artificial intelligence program used in the research?

A．To help get rid of plant stress.

B．To identify the types of stress.

C．To collect sounds emitted by plants.

D．To analyze the collected sounds of plants.

4. What can we learn from Hadany’s words in the last paragraph?

A．The research is of practical value.

B．It’s difficult to understand plant sounds.

C．Further research is needed in the future.

D．It’s as easy as pie for farmers to grow crops.

6 . A few weeks ago, I received a package containing a small batch (一批) of seeds from my friend. When I asked her what it would grow_________ , a flicker of a smile crossed her face. “Just plant them and be patient. You'll see for yourself_________”she said.

I sowed the seeds in a beautiful flowerpot. In the first few days, I was excited to search for the slightest_________ of germination (发芽). But nothing happened. With_________ homework, I began to feel frustrated and a little bit disappointed. How much I_________a splash of color in my fast-paced life!

I watered the plant carefully. I placed the plant in the sunlight and rotated (旋转) it for a_________ illumination (光照). On the fourth day, to my great surprise a few light green sprouts (芽) _________.

Bending down and carefully studying the seedlings, I could almost_________them growing. More days passed, the flowerpot soon became_________with coriander (香菜) plants.

Now they are taller than the edge of the pot,__________shaking their verdant (青翠的) leaves in the gentle__________of the wind, as if they are merrily singing a song of __________ and freedom.

I am certain that after a few more days, my coriander plants will be ready for__________. Thanks to my friend and my patience, these plants have played a crucial part in__________my everyday life. They may not be a main food on our table, but sprinkling some will surely add a__________of flavor to our dishes to spice up (为…调味) our busy days.

1.

A．into

B．for

C．up

D．out

2.

A．gradually

B．incredibly

C．ultimately

D．intently

3.

A．samples

B．signs

C．routes

D．proofs

4.

A．apparent

B．distinct

C．conventional

D．massive

5.

A．allowed for

B．longed for

C．provided for

D．went for

6.

A．intense

B．violent

C．balanced

D．exceptional

7.

A．emerged

B．hatched

C．reserved

D．sank

8.

A．pray

B．assess

C．forecast

D．hear

9.

A．conflicted

B．facilitated

C．crowded

D．surrounded

10.

A．subsequently

B．constantly

C．extensively

D．merely

11.

A．howl

B．scream

C．thunder

D．whisper

12.

A．initiative

B．leisure

C．harmony

D．luxury

13.

A．possession

B．consumption

C．exposure

D．harvest

14.

A．breaking into

B．relating to

C．brightening up

D．wearing down

15.

A．touch

B．bunch

C．host

D．lot