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 complex social interactions.
“Plants have this kind of hidden but complicated social life，” Dudley said.
The study found plants from the same species of beach-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less competitive 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 common in animals in which closely related individuals take a group approach to succeeding in their environment, the researchers said.
Kin selection also applies to competition, because if family members compete 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 competitive, and there is not really a cost to not being competitive as long as your neighbor is also not being competitive.”
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 communicate 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, communicate 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 well
B．compete with other kinds of plants
C．strengthen the relationship among siblings
D．find which one is the best小题4:From the passage，we learn that ________.
A．sea rocket is a South American species
B．sea rocket grows aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors
C．sea rocket grows aggressively alongside its siblings
D．sea rocket is a kind of bush without flowers小题5:How can the plants communicate with each other according to experts’ suppose?
A．Plants communicate by using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.
B．Plants communicate with each other through their roots.
C．Plants communicate with each other by their leaves.
D．Plants communicate with each other with their flowers.
小题1:A
小题2:D
小题3:B
小题4:B
小题5:B
题目分析：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 competitive 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 competitive when they shared soil with their families.故选B。
小题5:根据Some researchers speculate(猜测) that plants communicate through their roots, identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.故选B。
点评：本题型考查了对文章段落或某一板块的理解概括能力。先阅读问题，然后带着问题，再读全文，找出答题所需要的依据，完成阅读。在词义与句义理解的基础上，结合上下文总结归纳某一段或几段的大意，对于把握文章主旨，分析全文结构都是至关重要的。纵观历年高考试题，阅读理解试题一般有以下几种题型：一是直接回答who, whom, which, what, where, when, why, how等疑问词引起的细节问题；二是猜测词义题；三是推理判断题；四是综合概括题。在做阅读理解题时，一定要仔细看完，看清楚试题要求再作答，特别要注意NOT，TRUE，EXCEPT等词。有时，要先看题，后阅读文章，带着问题去读短文，可缩短阅读时间，效果也许会更好。