The Royal Horticultural Society(RHS) finds that women gardeners’ voices speed up the growth of tomato plants much more than men’s.

In an experiment, the researchers found that tomato plants grew up to two inches taller if they were sung to by a female rather than a male.

The most effective voice came from Sarah Darwin, whose great-great grandfather was the botanist(植物學(xué)家) Charles Darwin, one of the founding fathers of the RHS.

She read a passage from the On the Origin of Species and beat nine other ‘voices’. Her plant grew nearly two inches taller than the best performing male and half an inch higher than her nearest competitor.

Colin Crosbie, Garden Manager at the RHS, said, “We predicted that the male voice would be more effective but it turned out that the ladies’ voice was far better than the gentlemen’s. We just don’t know why. It could be because they have a greater range of pitch(高音) and tone(音色) that affects the sound waves that hit the plant.The sound wave is on environmental effect just like rain or light.”

In the experiment, every plant was played a different voice through earphones connected to the plant pot, and the environmental conditions for all the plants remained the same throughout the experiment. To ensure that the results of the experiment were convincing, two plants were also left to grow in silence.

The results showed that women on average saw their plants grow an inch taller than their male counterparts(對手) and much more than the plants left in complete silence.

Miss Darwin said, “I’m not sure if it’s my sweet tones or the text that I read from On the Origin of Species that made the plant sit up and listen, but either way, I think it is an honor to have such a voice, and it is especially fitting for me, because for years I have been studying wild tomatoes at the Natural History Museum(NHM) in London.”

　60. How many tomato plants were chosen for this experiment?

　　  A. 9.　　　　   B. 10.            C. 11.　　  D.12.

　61. What can we learn about Sarah Darwin?

　　  A.She is very proud of her sweet voice..       

B. She is one of the founding fathers of the RHS.

　　  C. She has discovered why her voice benefits plants.

　　  D. She will work at the NHM in London after the experiment.

　62. Why were two plants left to grow in silence in the experiment?

　　  A. To make the results of the experiment trustworthy.

　　  B. To convince people that sound waves are better than rain and light.

　　  C. To help find out how many inches plants can grow with the help of voices.

　    D. To prove that the environmental conditions for the plants remained the same.

　63. What can be inferred from the passage?

　　  A. The text from On the Origin of Species can help plants grow..　　　　

　　  B. Sarah’s nearest competitor was also a woman..

　　  C.Men’s voices have a greater range of pitch and tone than women’s..

　　  D.Colin Crosbie predicted that women’s voices were better for the plant than men’s.

【小題1】D

【小題2】A

【小題3】A

【小題4】B

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