Although it has been indicated in recent years that plants are capable of seeing, hearing
英语试题 05-03
Although it has been indicated in recent years that plants are capable of seeing, hearing and smelling, they are still usually thought of as silent. But now, for the first time, Itzhak Khait and his colleagues at Tel Aviv University in Israel found that tomato and tobacco plants made ultrasonic(超声的)sounds at frequencies humans can't hear when stressed by a lack of water or when their stem is cut.
Microphones placed 10 centimeters from the plants picked up sounds in the ultrasonic range of 20 to 100 kilohertz. Human hearing usually ranges from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. " These findings can alter the way we think about the plant kingdom , " they wrote in their study, which has not yet been published.
On average, drought - stressed tomato plants made 35 sounds an hour, while tobacco plants made 11. When plant stems were cut, tomato plants made an average of 25 sounds in the following hour, and tobacco plants 15. Unstressed plants produced fewer than one sound per hour. It is even possible to distinguish between the sounds to know what the stress is. The researchers trained a machine — learning model to separate the plants，sounds from those of the wind, rain and other noises of the greenhouse, correctly identifying in most cases whether the stress was caused by dryness or a cut, based on the sound's intensity and frequency. Water — hungry tobacco appeared to make louder sounds than cut tobacco, for example. Although Khait and his colleagues only looked at tomato and tobacco plants, they believe other plants may make sounds when stressed.
Enabling farmers to listen for water — stressed plants could " open a new direction in the field of precision(精准) agriculture", the researchers suggest. They add that such an ability will be increasingly important as climate change exposes more areas to drought.
Khait's study also suggests that insects and some mammals can hear and respond to from as far as 5 metres away. A moth may decide against laying eggs on a plant that sounds water - stressed. Edward Farmer at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland thinks the idea that moths might be listening to plants is “a little too speculative”. After all, there are already plenty of explanations for why insects avoid some plants and not others.
12. What were tomato and tobacco plants' reactions to different stresses?
A. They reacted to different types of stress with the same sound.
B. Cut tomato plants produced more sounds per hour than water — hungry ones .
C. Cut tobacco plants seemed to make lower sounds than drought - stressed ones.
D. Tobacco plants might make louder sounds than tomato plants when short of water.
13. What's the main idea of Paragraph 4?
A. The potential applications of the research.
B. Challenges facing farmers in the future.
C. Farmers' contributions to the research.
D. The future development of agriculture.
14. What does the underlined word "speculative" in the last paragraph probably mean?
A. Practical. B. Surprising.
C. Unsupported. D. Complicated.
15. What may be the best tide for the text?
A. Silent scream B. Mysteries of nature
C. Inner voices D. A yet - to-be - published study
答案
Microphones placed 10 centimeters from the plants picked up sounds in the ultrasonic range of 20 to 100 kilohertz. Human hearing usually ranges from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. " These findings can alter the way we think about the plant kingdom , " they wrote in their study, which has not yet been published.
On average, drought - stressed tomato plants made 35 sounds an hour, while tobacco plants made 11. When plant stems were cut, tomato plants made an average of 25 sounds in the following hour, and tobacco plants 15. Unstressed plants produced fewer than one sound per hour. It is even possible to distinguish between the sounds to know what the stress is. The researchers trained a machine — learning model to separate the plants，sounds from those of the wind, rain and other noises of the greenhouse, correctly identifying in most cases whether the stress was caused by dryness or a cut, based on the sound's intensity and frequency. Water — hungry tobacco appeared to make louder sounds than cut tobacco, for example. Although Khait and his colleagues only looked at tomato and tobacco plants, they believe other plants may make sounds when stressed.
Enabling farmers to listen for water — stressed plants could " open a new direction in the field of precision(精准) agriculture", the researchers suggest. They add that such an ability will be increasingly important as climate change exposes more areas to drought.
Khait's study also suggests that insects and some mammals can hear and respond to from as far as 5 metres away. A moth may decide against laying eggs on a plant that sounds water - stressed. Edward Farmer at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland thinks the idea that moths might be listening to plants is “a little too speculative”. After all, there are already plenty of explanations for why insects avoid some plants and not others.
12. What were tomato and tobacco plants' reactions to different stresses?
A. They reacted to different types of stress with the same sound.
B. Cut tomato plants produced more sounds per hour than water — hungry ones .
C. Cut tobacco plants seemed to make lower sounds than drought - stressed ones.
D. Tobacco plants might make louder sounds than tomato plants when short of water.
13. What's the main idea of Paragraph 4?
A. The potential applications of the research.
B. Challenges facing farmers in the future.
C. Farmers' contributions to the research.
D. The future development of agriculture.
14. What does the underlined word "speculative" in the last paragraph probably mean?
A. Practical. B. Surprising.
C. Unsupported. D. Complicated.
15. What may be the best tide for the text?
A. Silent scream B. Mysteries of nature
C. Inner voices D. A yet - to-be - published study
答案
苏19057182-3号