阅读理解
If you travel to a new exhibit at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, you will have chances
to see some meateating plants. Take bladderworts (狸藻类植物), a kind of such plant, for example.
They appear so small and grow in a quiet pond. "But these are the fastestknown killers of the plant
kingdom, able to capture a small insect in 1/50 of a second using a trap door! "
Once the trap door closes on the victim, the enzymes (酶) similar to those in the human stomach
slowly digest the insect. When dinner is over, the plant opens the trap door and is ready to trap again.
Meateating plants grow mostly in wet areas with soil that doesn't offer much food value. In such
conditions, these amazing plants have developed insect traps to get their nutritional needs over thousands
of years. North America has more such plants than any other continents.
Generally speaking, the traps may have attractive appearance to fool the eye, like pitcher plants,
which get their name because they look like beautiful pitchers (a container like a bottle) full of nectar
(花蜜).
The Asian pitcher plant, for example, has bright colors and an attractive halfclosed lid. Curious insects
are tempted to come close and take a sip, and then slide down the slippery (光滑的) slope to their
deaths.
Hairlike growths along the pitcher walls ensure that nothing can escape, and the digestive enzymes
can get to work. A tiny insect can be digested in a few hours, but a fly takes a couple of days.
Some of these pitchers are large enough to hold two gallons. Meateating plants only eat people in science
fiction movies, but sometimes a bird or other small animals will discover that a pitcher plant isn't a good
place to get a drink.
1. From the first paragraph, we learn that bladderworts can________.
A. kill an insect in a second
B. capture an insect in 1/50 of a second
C. be found floating on a quiet lake
D. digest a fly in a few hours
2. If the trap door of a meateating plant is closed, the plant is________.
A. fooling insects into taking a sip
B. producing nectar
C. tempting insects to come close
D. enjoying a dinner
3. Meateating plants can grow in wet and poor soil because they________.
A. can get nutrition from animals
B. don't need much food value
C. can make the most of such conditions
D. have developed digestive enzymes
4. What can be captured by meateating plants for food?
A. A child.
B. A dog.
C. A little bird.
D. A little fish.
