Plants“talk”—especially when they’re stressed植物会“说话”

李畅

以色列科學家们证实，植物似乎也会“说话”。科学家们将继续研究，以了解其他可能引发植物发声的原因。

主题语境：自然 篇幅：350词 建议用时：7分钟

1 Scientists have known for years that plants respond to sounds around them. Forexample， flowers make sweeter nectar to the sound of buzzing bees. But now scientists inIsrael have shown that plants also seem to be doing some“talking”.

2 As scientists studied the sounds， they began to notice patterns. Plants hardly clickedat all when they had enough water. But as theirsoil got drier， they clicked more and more. Whenscientists cut off stems from the plants， the plantsalso clicked more. But the clicking wasn’ t thesame as when the plants needed water.

3 It’s not clear how the plants make thesounds. One idea is that air bubbles form insidethe plants’ stems， and that these popping bubbles make a clicking sound. It’s also not clearwhether the plants are making the sounds on purpose.

4 In fact， researchers trained an Artificial Intelligence （AI） system to identify differentkinds of clicking sounds. The system is able to tell the difference between plants that needwater and plants with cuts about 70% of the time. The result suggests that researchers mayone day be able to use a plant’s sounds to figure out when it is having trouble， and whattrouble it is having. That could be very expedient to farmers.

5 The new discovery raises many more questions. One important question is： Do plantsmake sounds to communicate with each other？ Other research has shown that plants doseem to communicate in some ways. Plants being attacked by insects send chemicals intothe air. Soon， nearby plants that haven’t been attacked yet start to make other chemicalsthat don’t taste good to insects.

6 Scientists say wheat plants， like the ones above， also make clicks. In the future， plantsounds could help farmers figure out when their crops are having trouble. Another big questionis： Is anything listening to plants？ Take mice for example. They depend on plants， andcan hear ultrasonic frequencies. The clicks may tell these animals when a plant isn’thealthy， so they can avoid it. Scientists hope to learn what else might cause plants tomake sounds， and whether AI can help identify those conditions， too.

Reading Check

Detail

1. In what situation do plants rarely make sounds？

A. When they are cut off.

B. When they feel a bit drier.

C. When they have enough water.

D. When they are bitten by insects.

Vocabulary

2. What does the underlined word“expedient”in paragraph 4 mean？

A. Interesting. B. Beneficial.

C. Influential. D. Meaningful.

Inference

3. What does the author think of the fact of plants talking？

A. It’s worrying. B. It’s practical.

C. It’s objective. D. It’s meaningless.

Inference

4. Where is the text probably taken from？

A. A science magazine.

B. A biology textbook.

C. The encyclopedia.

D. The anecdote.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Text?centered chunks

respond to 对……做出反应

cut off 切断

figure out 理解；弄明白

raise questions 提出问题

take...for example 以……为例

Ⅱ. Difficult sentence in the text

Scientists hope to learn what else might cause plants to make sounds， and whether AI can help identify those conditions， too. 科学家们希望了解其他可能引发植物发出声音的原因，以及人工智能是否也能帮助识别这些情况。

【点石成金】本句中，and连接两个宾语从句。第一个宾语从句是what else might cause the plants to make sounds，what在句中作主语；第二个宾语从句是whether AI can help identify those conditions， too，whether意为“是否”。