We’ve been hearing for decades about the complex intelligence of plants; but a new study, conducted by researchers at the University of Missouri, managed to figure out one new important element: plants can tell when they’re being eaten, and they don’t like it.
The word “intelligence”, when applied to any non-human animal or plant, is imprecise and sort of meaningless: research done to determine “intelligence” mostly just aims to learn how similar the inner workings of another organism is to a human thought process. But these studies do give us insight into how other organisms think and behave, whatever “think” might mean.
The researchers were seeking to answer an unusual question: does a plant know when it’s being eaten? To do that, the researchers had to first make a precise version of the vibrations (振动) that a caterpillar (毛虫) makes as it cats leaves. The theory is that it’s these vibrations that the plant can somehow feel or hear. In addition, the researchers also came up with other vibrations the plant might experience, like wind noise.
This particular study was on the thale cress. It actually produces some mustard oils (芥子油), which are mildly poisonous when eaten, and sends them through the leaves to stop caterpillars. And the study showed that when the plants felt or heard the vibrations made by caterpillars, they sent out extra mustard oils into the leaves. When they felt or heard other vibrations? Nothing. It’s a far more dynamic defense than scientists had realized: the plant is more aware of its surroundings and able to respond than expected.
There’s more research to be done; nobody’s quite sure by what mechanism the plant can actually feel or hear these vibrations. But it’s really promising research; there’s even talk of using sound waves to encourage crops to, say, grow faster, or send out specific defenses against attacks. Imagine knowing that a frost is coming, and being able to encourage plants to fruit faster by simply blasting them with music. That’s the kind of crazy sci-fi future this indicates.
【小题1】What does the underlined part “other organisms” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Intelligence of plants. | B．Non-human living things. |
| C．Human thought processes. | D．The inner workings of plants. |
| A．Keeping the plant’s surroundings safe. | B．Acting as defenses to stop caterpillars. |
| C．Making the plant aware of the vibrations. | D．Sending warnings against caterpillars’ coming. |
| A．The plants failed to identify other vibrations. |
| B．The plants sent out more mustard oils into the leaves. |
| C．The plants could identify vibrations from caterpillars. |
| D．The plants prevented caterpillars from eating the leaves. |
| A．The plans for the study. | B．The problems with the study. |
| C．The significance of the study. | D．The achievements of the study. |
