Plants have family values, too; it seems, with new research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work together.
An ability to tell family from strangers is well known in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may possess similar social skills, scientists believe.
Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, report they have demonstrated for the first time that plants can recognize their kin.
This suggests that plants, though lacking recognition and memory, are capable of plex social interactions.
“Plants have this kind of hidden but plicated social life，” Dudley said.
The study found plants from the same species of beach-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less petitive when they shared soil with their families.
Sea rocket, a North American species, showed stronger and healthier root growth when planted in pots with strangers than when raised with relatives from the same maternal(母系的) family, the study found.
This is an example of kin selection, a behavior mon in animals in which closely related individuals take a group approach to succeeding in their environment, the researchers said.
Kin selection also applies to petition, because if family members pete less with each other, the group will do better overall. “Everywhere you look, plants are growing right up next to other plants，” Dudley said，“ Usually it’s a case of each plant for itself. But sometimes those plants are related, and there are benefits to not wasting resources on being petitive, and there is not really a cost to not being petitive as long as your neighbor is also not being petitive.”
Learning and memory appear to be important for kin recognition in animals, but this isn’t an option for plants, she noted.
Some researchers speculate(猜测) that plants municate through their roots, identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.
【小题1】What’s the main idea of the message?A．Studies find plants can recognize, municate with relatives.B．Kin selection is important for plants.C．Animals can recognize and memorize their relatives.D．Competition asks plants to recognize their relatives.【小题2】Which of the following is NOT right about animals’ social skill?A．Animals can recognize and memorize their relatives.B．Animals’ social skill is to cooperate and share resources.C．Animals’ social skill can recognize close relatives in order to work together.D．Animals’ social skill is no use at all.【小题3】Plants’ kin selection is to .A．grow wellB．pete with other kinds of plants C．strengthen the relationship among siblingsD．find which one is the best【小题4】From the passage，we learn that .A．sea rocket is a South American speciesB．sea rocket grows aggressively alongside unrelated neighborsC．sea rocket grows aggressively alongside its siblingsD．sea rocket is a kind of bush without flowers【小题5】How can the plants municate with each other according to experts’ suppose?A．Plants municate by using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.B．Plants municate with each other through their roots.C．Plants municate with each other by their leaves.D．Plants municate with each other with their flowers.A
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(答案→)A
解析：这篇文章主要讲了研究表明植物也可以识别并且与它们的亲属交流。
【小题1】根据Plants have family values, too; it seems, with new research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work together. An ability to tell family from strangers is well known in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may possess similar social skills, scientists believe.故选A。
【小题2】根据Learning and memory appear to be important for kin recognition in animals, but this isn’t an option for plants, she noted.故答案应为D。
【小题3】根据The study found plants from the same species of beach-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less petitive when they shared soil with their families.故选B。
【小题4】根据The study found plants from the same species of beach-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less petitive when they shared soil with their families.故选B。
【小题5】根据Some researchers speculate(猜测) that plants municate through their roots, identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.故选B。