Plants can“talk”to each other植物會“說話”

溫從秀

弗吉尼亞理工大學的科學家吉姆·韋斯特伍德通過觀察一種叫作菟絲子的寄生植物與兩種寄主植物之間的相互作用，發現植物之間也可通過語言相互交流。

主題語境：植物 篇幅：312詞 建議用時：6分鐘

To communicate with others， we， human beings， have different languages. But whatabout other animals and plants？ Well， according to a scientist， plants“talk”to each otherusing language.

Jim Westwood， a Virginia Tech scientist， made this discovery by looking at the interac?tions between a parasitic （寄生的） plant called dodder and two types of host plants， a smallflowering plant and a tomato plant. Dodder uses a root?like part to enter the host plants andfeed on their nutrients.

In previous studies， Westwood had discovered that during this interaction， RNA mole?cules （分子）， which play a crucial role in translating the information passed down fromDNA， were being passed between the two species.

And recently， Westwood looked into the possibility that a special type of RNA mole?cules， mRNA or Messenger RNA， was also being exchanged between the parasitic and hostplants. Messenger RNA molecules send messages within cells， instructing them on whichaction to take and when to take action. Through this exchange， the parasitic plant may beinstructing its host to lower its defenses so that the parasitic plant can more easily attack it.

Besides giving us a much deeper insight into the behaviour of plants， this informationcould help scientists come up with better solutions to fighting the parasitic weeds thatthreaten food crops. Parasitic plants are serious problems for crops that help feed some of?the poorest regions in Africa and elsewhere. In addition， it has exciting implications for thedesign of novel control strategies based on interrupting the mRNA information that the par?asite （寄生蟲） uses to reprogram the host.

“The beauty of this discovery is that this mRNA could be the Achilles heel for para?sites， for which we can wipe out them more easily，”Westwood said.“This is all really excit?ing because there are so many potential implications surrounding this new information.Now that we have found that they are sharing all this information， the next question is，‘What exactly are they telling each other？

Reading Check

1. Whats Westwoods new discovery？

A. RNA can translate DNA information.

B. Parasite plants can control their hosts.

C. Plants can use language to communicate.

D. Plants can talk to each other via the roots.

2. What can we learn about mRNA molecules？

A. They issue instructions to the plants.

B. They translate information from RNA.

C. They defend the plants against attacks.

D. They are exchanged between the plants.

3. In what aspect could Westwoods findings help？

A. Solving the issues of food shortage.

B. Building the host?parasite relationship.

C. Identifying the genes of the host plants.

D. Studying the connection between plants.

4. What does the underlined part in the last paragraph probably mean？

A. A big deal. B. A weak point.

C. An opportunity. D. An achievement.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

In previous studies， Westwood had discovered that during this interaction， RNA mole?cules， which play a crucial role in translating the information passed down from DNA， werebeing passed between the two species. 在之前的研究中，韋斯特伍德發現，在這種相互作用的過程中，核糖核酸分子在“翻譯”從脫氧核糖核酸傳遞下來的信息中起著關鍵作用，它在兩個物種之間傳遞。

【點石成金】本句中，that引導的是一個賓語從句；which引導的是一個定語從句。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

communicate with 與……交流

play a crucial role in 在……中起關鍵作用

look into 調查

come up with 提出

in addition 除此之外

wipe out 消滅