Question

【題目】 Next time you find yourself tending to your flower garden, you may want to stay quiet. The flowers are listening.

Israeli scientists discovered that the plants hear bees approaching and attempt to lure them in with sweeter nectar (花蜜). In several experiments, they found that playing audio recordings of buzzing bees around certain flowers will cause the sugar concentration in the nectar to rise by about 20% in less than five minutes. Such a rapid reaction by plants to sound had never previously been reported. Just to compare, the researchers also tried a higher frequency noise-like that made by a mosquito or a bat-and the flowers did not respond.

The authors point out that the behavior is actually in line with the natural order of things, considering that a plant’s ability to sense its environment and respond to it is critical for its survival. So, it would seem that plants have some sort of consciousness.

This is not the first time that plants have reacted to the sound around them. In a 2009 study, the researchers found that women’s voices help make plants grow faster. In that experiment, tomato plants were found to grow up to two inches taller when they were tended to by a female gardener.

What if we told you that a potato chip bag left on the floor of a break room could listen in on office gossip? As people were talking around the potato chip bag, they were sending tiny sound vibrations (振動) into the air. Those vibrations then hit lifeless objects around the room. Now imagine if you had a camera that was zoomed in on one of those objects extremely closely. In theory, you could actually see the object move along with the vibrations. You could then feed that video into a computer program that could translate the vibrations and you can play back the audio of the conversation that just took place.

So the next time you're at the botanical garden or in a grocery aisle, careful what you say. Someone-or something-might be listening.

【1】Which of the following best explains "lure" in Paragraph 2?

A.ShutB.AttractC.TrapD.Lead

【2】What is vital for plants to survive?

A.The soil depending on to grow in.

B.The audio recordings played to them.

C.The identification to the sound frequency.

D.The power to sense and react to the environment.

【3】What can speed up the growth of plants?

A.The women's voice.B.The strength of the vibration.

C.The species of the young plant.D.The number of the music played.

【4】What is the main idea of the text?

A.Plants may have the ability to listen.

B.Sound vibrations can be processed into an audio.

C.Buzzing bees can increase the production of nectar.

D.The frequency of vibration determines plants’ growth.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】D

【3】A

【4】A

【解析】

這是一篇說明文。一項研究結果表明，植物能聽見蜜蜂靠近并努力吸引它們，這表明植物可能有聽力。

【1】

詞義猜測題。第二段第二句提到“在幾個實驗中，在某些花周圍播放蜜蜂嗡嗡叫的錄音，在不到5分鐘的時間里會導致花蜜中的糖濃度上升20%”可推知，劃線句中“the plants hear bees approaching and attempt to lure them in with sweeter nectar”意為“植物能聽見蜜蜂接近，并努力吸引它們帶來更甜的花蜜”，所以劃線詞“lure”意為“吸引”。故選B項。

【2】

細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第三段中“a plant’s ability to sense its environment and respond to it is critical for its survival(植物感知周圍環(huán)境并對它作出反應的能力對于它的生存很關鍵)”可知，植物對環(huán)境的感知和反應能力對生存很關鍵。故選D項。

【3】

細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第四段第二句“In a 2009 study, the researchers found that women’s voices help make plants grow faster.(在2009年的一個研究中，研究者發(fā)現(xiàn)女性的聲音能幫助植物長得更快)”可知，女性的聲音可以加速植物的生長。故選A項。

【4】

主旨大意題。文章第一段中“The flowers are listening.(花朵正在聽著呢)”及最后一段中“Someone-or something-might be listening.(某人或某物可能在聽著呢)”都表明了文章的主題，結合全文內(nèi)容可知，本文主要講述了一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，植物能聽見蜜蜂靠近并試圖吸引它們，所以A項“植物可能有聽力”適合作文章標題，故選A項。