But can a plant be intelligent? Some plant scientists insist they are since they can sense, learn, remember and even react in ways that would be familiar to humans.

Michael Pollan, author of “The Botany of Desire,” says for the longest time, people who have long talked to their plants or played music for them were being considered “mad.”

The new research, he says, is in a field called plant neurobiology(神经生物学), which is not a proper name, because even scientists in the field don’t argue that plants have neurons(神经) or brains.

“They have analogous structures as humans,” Pollan explains. “Plants have all the same senses as humans. They have ways of taking all the sensory data they gather in their everyday lives, integrate it and then behave in an appropriate way in response.” In addition to hearing, taste, for example, they can sense gravity, the presence of water, or even feel that an obstacle(障碍物) is in the way of its roots, before coming into contact with it. Plant roots will change direction, he says, to avoid obstacles.

So what about pain? Do plants feel? Pollan says they do respond to anesthetics (麻醉剂). “You can put a plant out with a human anesthetic. And not only that, plants produce their own compounds that are anesthetic to us.” But scientists are unwilling to go as far as to say they are responding to pain.

How plants sense and react is still somewhat unknown. They don’t have nerve cells like humans, but they do have a system for sending electrical signals and even produce neurotransmitters (神经递质) and other chemicals the human brain uses to send signals.

【1】Why does the author mention the article The Intelligent Plant in the first paragraph?

A.To support his opinion.B.To introduce the topic.

C.To give an example.D.To make comparison.

【2】People who usually talked to their plants would be thought .

A.Intelligent.B.Crazy.C.Patient.D.Comforting.

【3】What does the underlined word “analogous” in paragraph 5 mean?

A.Simple.B.False.C.Flexible.D.Similar.

【4】What can we learn about plants according to the last two paragraphs?

A.Plants can feel and react to pain.B.Plants send two kinds of signals.

C.Plants are able to sense and react.D.Plants have their own brains.

【答案】

【1】B

【2】B

【3】D

【4】C

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了一项研究结果：植物有感知和作出反应的能力。

【1】

推理判断题。文章第一句提到“杂志《The New Yorker》最近的一篇文章名为‘智能植物’”，接下来提到本文主题：植物有着令人惊奇的对世界感知和反应能力，所以文章提到“智能植物”的文章是为了介绍本文的话题。故选B项。

【2】

细节理解题。根据第三段中people who have long talked to their plants or played music for them were being considered “mad.”可知，与植物长时间说话或者为植物播放音乐的人被认为是“疯狂的”，故选B项。

【3】

词义猜测题。划线词所在句的主语They指代“植物”，根据第五段第二句“Plants have all the same senses as humans.(植物有和人类一样的感觉)”可知，划线句“They have analogous structures as humans”意为“植物有和人类相似的结构”，所以划线词“analogous”意为“相似的”，故选D项。

【4】

推理判断题。根据倒数第二段中“Pollan says they do respond to anesthetics (麻醉剂). (Pollan 说它们的确对麻醉剂有反应)”及最后一段中“but they do have a system for sending electrical signals and even produce neurotransmitters (神经递质) and other chemicals the human brain uses to send signals.(但是它们确实有发送电信号的一个系统，甚至产生神经递质和其他人类大脑用来发送信号的物质)”可知，植物能够感知并作出反应。故选C项。