Question

“If you talk to the plants, they will grow faster and the effect is even better if you’re a woman.” Researchers at Royal Horticultural Society carried out an experiment to find that the voice of a woman gardener makes plants grow faster.

   The experiment lasted a month and by the end of the study scientists managed to discover that tomato plants grew up two inches taller when women gardeners talked to them instead of male.

   Sarah Darwin was the one making the plants registered the best growth. Her voice was the most “inspiring” for plants than those of nine other gardeners when reading a passage from The Origin of Species. The great-great-granddaughter of the famous botanist(植物學(xué)家) Charles Darwin found that her plant grew about two inches taller than the plant of the best male gardener.

   Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent at RHS, said that the finding cannot yet be explained. He assumes that women have a greater range of pitch（音高） and tone（音調(diào)） which might have a certain effect on the sound waves that reach the plant. “Sound waves are an environmental effect just like rain or light ,”said Mr Grosbie.

The study began in April at RHS Garden Wisley in Survey. Scientists started with open auditions(聽(tīng)力) for the people who were asked to record passages from John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer's Night Dream and Darwin's The Origin of Species.

Afterwards researchers selected a number of different voices and played them to 10 tomato plants during a period of a month. Each plant had headphones（耳機(jī)） connected to it. Through the headphones the sound waves could hit the plants. It was discovered that plants that “l(fā)istened” to female voices on average grew taller by an inch in comparison to plants that heard male voices.

Miss Darwin said, “I think it is an honor to have a voice that can make tomatoes grow, and especially fitting because for a number of years I have been studying wild tomatoes from the Galapagos Island at the Natural History Museum in London.”

1.What does the passage talk about?

A. Plants enjoy men’s voices than women’s.

B. A botanical experiment in a museum.

C. Voice’s influence on plant growing.

D. Strange phenomenon（現(xiàn)象） at Royal Horticultural Society.

2.What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 mean?

A. Plants need sound as well as rain and light.

B. Sound is basic for the plant to grow.

C. Sound has a good effect as rain or light does.

D. Plants can’t live without sound, rain or light.

3.Sarah Darwin is most likely a (an)_____.

A. botanist              B. gardener   C. astronomer         D. environmentalist

4.What can we learn from the passage?

A. The experiment ended in May.

B. Scientist can explain the findings clearly.

C. Plants enjoy listening to the passages from masterpieces.

D. The findings are of great importance to human beings.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.C

2.C

3.A

4.A

【解析】

試題分析：本文是一個(gè)調(diào)查報(bào)告敘述了植物在聽(tīng)了婦女的聲音比男士的聲音后，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)聽(tīng)了女士的聲音的植物比聽(tīng)男士的聲音的植物要長(zhǎng)得比較高，正如聲音和光一樣?jì)D女的聲音對(duì)植物也有影響。

1.細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)縱觀全文及短文的開(kāi)頭可知這篇文章主要敘述了婦女的聲音對(duì)植物的生長(zhǎng)是有利的，故選C。

2.句意理解題。根據(jù)He assumes that women have a greater range of pitch（音高） and tone（音調(diào)） which might have a certain effect on the sound waves that reach the plant.可推出正如聲音和光一樣?jì)D女的聲音對(duì)植物 也有的影響，故選C。

3.細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)Sarah Darwin was the one making the plants registered the best growth 可以推出他可能是一個(gè)植物學(xué)家，故選A。

4.細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)The study began in April at RHS Garden Wisley in Survey.及Afterwards researchers selected a number of different voices and played them to 10 tomato plants during a period of a month. 可知實(shí)驗(yàn)四月開(kāi)始的經(jīng)過(guò)一個(gè)月的時(shí)間所以應(yīng)該到五月就結(jié)束了，故選A。

考點(diǎn)：考查調(diào)查報(bào)告類(lèi)。