Plants and Mankind

　　Botany（植物学）, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar¹ position in the history of human knowledge. We don’t know what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of preindustrialial societies that still exist, a detailed² learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, Medicines, shelter, and many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon recognize hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them botany has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of “knowledge” at all.

　　Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants. And the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid³. When our Neolithic⁴ ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel⁵ of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy⁶ with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.

1．It is logical that a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient.

   A. Right     B. Wrong     C. Not mentioned

2．People cannot survive without plants.

   A. Right     B. Wrong     C. Not mentioned

3.Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon teach botany to their children at school.

   A. Right     B. Wrong     C. Not mentioned

4.Our direct contact with plants grows with the process of industrialization.

   A. Right     B. Wrong     C. Not mentioned

5.Today people usually acquire a large amount of botanical knowledge from textbooks.

   A. Right     B. Wrong     C. Not mentioned

6.People living in the Middle East first learned to grow plants for food about 10,000years ago.

   A. Right     B. Wrong     C. Not mentioned

7.Once mankind began farming, they no longer had to get food from many varieties that grew wild.

   A. Right     B. Wrong     C. Not mentioned

参考答案:

Plants and Mankind

1.  A. 问题句说“‘关于植物及其特征的详细知识一定由来已久’这种说法是合乎逻辑的。”利用“关于植物及其特征的详细知识”作为答案线索短语，于是在文章第一段第2句话中发现含有该短语的句子。而在接下来的一句中发现“合乎逻辑的”这个问题句中的关键词。对比问题句和答案相关句，我们发现问题句是一个句子，而原文采用了2个句子。比较他们语意上的差异：原文中代词“This”回指上一句话中的陈述，即指代“关于植物及其特征的详细知识一定由来已久”。可见原文的说法与问题句的说法一致。所以该题是考察代词this的指代关系。

2． A. 该题可用常识直接判断：人类没有植物就不能生存这种说法应该是正确的。而第1段虽然没有直接地讲到植物对于人类而言是极为重要的，但提到植物为人类提供了食物、衣服、工具、药物等等生活必需品，植物是食物金字塔的基础。所以该题是考察考生的语句的总结能力。

3． B. 利用“亚马逊丛林中的部落”作为答案线索词，于是在第一段结尾部分找到答案相关句。该句提到现今仍生活在亚马逊丛林中的部落能识别成百上千种植物及其特征，但在他们的词汇中还没有“植物学”这个词，甚至有可能不承认“植物学”是专门的知识。因此在学校中不可能设该课。

4． B. 利用“工业化”作为答案线索词，于是在第二段第一句话发现答案相关句，该句说工业化的程度越高，我们与植物的直接接触就越少。

5． B. 利用“botanical knowledge”作为答案线索词，于是我们在第二段的第2句找到答案相关句。但说人们无意识地获得了大量植物学知识，由此可以推出这些知识不是从教科书中获得的。

6． A. 利用“10，000”作为答案线索词（因为年代通常是用数字表示），于是在第二段发现有句子提到当生活在约一万年前中东地区的人们发现从某些禾本植物中可以收获粮食，并且播种后下一个收获季节还能产出更多的粮食时，就迈开了植物和人类联系的第1 大步。

7． B. 该题从常识判断应该是不正确。而在第二段末尾讲从约一万年前开始从事农耕起，人们逐渐地停止采食野果，这是因为萌芽时期的农耕技术还十分落后，人们还不能从中获得足够的食物