“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 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 （植物学家）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 says that women have a greater range of pitch and tone（音高和音色）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(听力) 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 connected to it. Through the headphones the sound waves could hit the plants. It was discovered that plants that “listened” to female voices grew taller by an inch in parison to plants that heard male voices.
【小题1】What does the passage talk about?A．Plants enjoy men’s voices than women’s.B．A science experiment in a museum.C．Voice’s influence on plant growing.D．Strange findings at Royal Horticultural Society.【小题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.【小题3】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 famous works.D．The findings are of great importance to human beings.C
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(答案→)C
解析：
【小题1】主旨大意题。与植物交谈能够促进植物的生长。而且植物更喜欢女声。
【小题2】句意理解题。句意：就像雨或光一样，声波也是环境效应。而只有C选项的比较接近，波和雨，光一样都有好的影响。
【小题3】推理判断题。结合 Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent at RHS, said that the finding cannot yet be explained可知B错误。结合the voice of a woman gardener makes plants grow faster可知C错误。D文章没有提。