Question

    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 (振动) 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.Shut B.Attract C.Trap D.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.B

2.D

3.A

4.A

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。一项研究结果表明，植物能听见蜜蜂靠近并努力吸引它们，这表明植物可能有听力。

1.

词义猜测题。第二段第二句提到“在几个实验中，在某些花周围播放蜜蜂嗡嗡叫的录音，在不到5分钟的时间里会导致花蜜中的糖浓度上升20%”可推知，划线句中“the plants hear bees approaching and attempt to lure them in with sweeter nectar”意为“植物能听见蜜蜂接近，并努力吸引它们带来更甜的花蜜”，所以划线词“lure”意为“吸引”。故选B项。

2.

细节理解题。根据第三段中“a plant’s ability to sense its environment and respond to it is critical for its survival(植物感知周围环境并对它作出反应的能力对于它的生存很关键)”可知，植物对环境的感知和反应能力对生存很关键。故选D项。

3.

细节理解题。根据第四段第二句“In a 2009 study, the researchers found that women’s voices help make plants grow faster.(在2009年的一个研究中，研究者发现女性的声音能帮助植物长得更快)”可知，女性的声音可以加速植物的生长。故选A项。

4.

主旨大意题。文章第一段中“The flowers are listening.(花朵正在听着呢)”及最后一段中“Someone-or something-might be listening.(某人或某物可能在听着呢)”都表明了文章的主题，结合全文内容可知，本文主要讲述了一项研究发现，植物能听见蜜蜂靠近并试图吸引它们，所以A项“植物可能有听力”适合作文章标题，故选A项。