题目内容

Plants have family values, too; it seems, with new research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work together.

An ability to tell family from strangers is well known in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may possess similar social skills, scientists believe.

Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, report they have demonstrated for the first time that plants can recognize their kin.

This suggests that plants, though lacking recognition and memory, are capable of complex social interactions.

“Plants have this kind of hidden but complicated social life,” Dudley said.

The study found plants from the same species of beach­-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less competitive when they shared soil with their families.

Sea rocket, a North American species, showed stronger and healthier root growth when planted in pots with strangers than when raised with relatives from the same maternal(母系的) family, the study found.

This is an example of kin selection, a behavior common in animals in which closely related individuals take a group approach to succeeding in their environment, the researchers said.

Kin selection also applies to competition, because if family members compete less with each other, the group will do better overall. “Everywhere you look, plants are growing right up next to other plants,” Dudley said,“ Usually it’s a case of each plant for itself. But sometimes those plants are related, and there are benefits to not wasting resources on being competitive, and there is not really a cost to not being competitive as long as your neighbor is also not being competitive.”

Learning and memory appear to be important for kin recognition in animals, but this isn’t an option for plants, she noted.

Some researchers speculate(猜测) that plants communicate through their roots, identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.

1.What’s the main idea of the message?

A.Studies find plants can recognize, communicate with relatives.

B.Kin selection is important for plants.

C.Animals can recognize and memorize their relatives.

D.Competition asks plants to recognize their relatives.

2.Which of the following is NOT right about animals’ social skill?

A.Animals can recognize and memorize their relatives.

B.Animals’ social skill is to cooperate and share resources.

C.Animals’ social skill can recognize close relatives in order to work together.

D.Animals’ social skill is no use at all.

3.Plants’ kin selection is to ________.

A.grow well                             B.compete with other kinds of plants

C.strengthen the relationship among siblings    D.find which one is the best

4.From the passage,we learn that ________.

A.sea rocket is a South American species

B.sea rocket grows aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors

C.sea rocket grows aggressively alongside its siblings

D.sea rocket is a kind of bush without flowers

5.How can the plants communicate with each other according to experts’ suppose?

A.Plants communicate by using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.

B.Plants communicate with each other through their roots.

C.Plants communicate with each other by their leaves.

D.Plants communicate with each other with their flowers.

 

【答案】

1.A

2.D

3.B

4.B

5.B

【解析】

试题分析:这篇文章主要讲了研究表明植物也可以识别并且与它们的亲属交流。

1.根据Plants have family values, too; it seems, with new research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work together. An ability to tell family from strangers is well known in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may possess similar social skills, scientists believe.故选A。

2.根据Learning and memory appear to be important for kin recognition in animals, but this isn’t an option for plants, she noted.故答案应为D。

3.根据The study found plants from the same species of beach­-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less competitive when they shared soil with their families.故选B。

4.根据The study found plants from the same species of beach­-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less competitive when they shared soil with their families.故选B。

5.根据Some researchers speculate(猜测) that plants communicate through their roots, identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.故选B。

考点:科普类短文阅读理解

点评:本题型考查了对文章段落或某一板块的理解概括能力。先阅读问题,然后带着问题,再读全文,找出答题所需要的依据,完成阅读。在词义与句义理解的基础上,结合上下文总结归纳某一段或几段的大意,对于把握文章主旨,分析全文结构都是至关重要的。纵观历年高考试题,阅读理解试题一般有以下几种题型:一是直接回答who, whom, which, what, where, when, why, how等疑问词引起的细节问题;二是猜测词义题;三是推理判断题;四是综合概括题。在做阅读理解题时,一定要仔细看完,看清楚试题要求再作答,特别要注意NOT,TRUE,EXCEPT等词。有时,要先看题,后阅读文章,带着问题去读短文,可缩短阅读时间,效果也许会更好。 

 

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       A. plants are important for life        B. plants cannot grow without air

C. there are many plants in the world   D. we can not live without water

Plants can make food from______.

       A. flower, water and air           B. water, sunlight and air

       C. air, water and soil             D. air, sun and light

What can we infer(推断) from the passage ?

       A. Of all living things animals are most important   B. Spores are seeds

       C. All fruits of flowering plants have seeds    D. Without plants, man will die out

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       A. damaged     B. polluted     C. prevented     D. guarded

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400-year-old plants from the Little Ice Age were brought back to life, which could help us understand how the Earth will deal with climate change.

Moss(藓类植物) found buried beneath the Teardrop glacier(冰川) on Ellesmere Island in Canada has been brought back to life. Findings suggest that these plants could help repopulate regions exposed by melting ice caps. Plants that were buried beneath thick ice in Canada more than 400 years ago and were thought to have frozen to death have been brought back to life by Canadian scientists.

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Dr La Farge noticed that the moss had small patches of green stems, suggesting it is either growing again or can be encouraged to repopulate. Dr La Farge told the BBC, “When we looked at the samples in detail and brought them to the lab, I could see some of the stems actually had new growth of green branches, suggesting that these plants are growing again, and that blew my mind. When we think of thick areas of ice covering the landscape, we’ve always thought that plants have to come from refugia(濒绝生物保护区), never considering that land plants come from underneath a glacier. It’s a whole world of what’s coming out from underneath the glacier that really needs to be studied. The ice is disappearing pretty fast. We really have not examined all the biological systems that exist in the world; we don’t know it all.”

Dr La Farge took samples of the moss and, using carbon-dating techniques, discovered that the plants date back to the Little Ice Age. Dr La Farge’s team took the samples, planted them in dishes full of nutrient-rich potting soil and fed them with water.

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However, Dr La Farge was surprised that the plants buried under ice have survived into the twenty-first century. Her findings appear in proceedings(论文集)of the National Academy of Sciences.

1.Dr La Farge’s research is of great importance to ________.

A. knowing what the plants during the Little Ice Age were like

B. understanding how ecosystems recover from glaciers.

C. regrowing many species that have been destroyed before.

D. figuring out the effects of melting ice caps on moss.

2.The underlined part “blew my mind” in Paragraph 6 can best be replaced by “________”.

A. surprised me                   B. greatly frightened me

C. put my doubt out of my mind    D. was exactly what I had in my mind

3.According to the passage, Aulacomnium turgidum ________.

A. lives better in small groups              

B. is very active in hot weather

C. is strong enough to survive coldness

D. is chosen from Canadian refugia

4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A. Bryophyte ecology is greatly affected by climate change.

B. 400-year-old moss’s survival is a mystery to solve.

C. Moss in ancient times was discovered in Canada.

D. 400-year-old plants were brought back to life.

 

Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.

Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe(成熟) or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns(角) had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.

Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early nineteen hundreds. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.

The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.

Green is also the color used to describe the powerful feeling, jealousy(嫉妒). The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play “Othello”. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay rise and she does not.

1.Greenhorn now refers to ____.

     A. a person who is new in a job        B. a new solider       C. a young horse      D. a thumb

2.A person who has a green thumb is a person ____.

     A. whose garden is greener than others’                        B. whose thumbs are in green color

     C. who is good at growing plants                         D. who is younger than his neighbors

3.The author is actually talking about ____.

     A. colors                              B. language                 C. politics                            D. agriculture 

4. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

     A. In about the 16th century, a greenhorn meant an experienced soldier

     B. The Green Revolution may have some connection with green thumbs

     C. The green-eyed monster was probably created by William Shakespeare

     D. The green-eyed monster can be used to describe a person who is jealous

 

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