新高级阅读前（双语）81（856）

PASSAGE EIGHTY-ONE

Plant cry

1.When a leafy plant is under attack, it doesn’t sit quietly. Back in 1983, two scientists, Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin, reported that young maple trees getting bitten by insects send out a particular smell that neighboring plants can get.  

2.These chemicals come from the injured parts of the plant and seem to be an alarm. What the plants pump through the air is a mixture of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, VOCs for short.

3.Scientists have found that all kinds of plants give out VOCs when being attacked. It’s a plant’s way of crying out. But is anyone listening? Apparently. 

4.Because we can watch the neighbors react. Some plants pump out smelly chemicals to keep insects away. But others do double duty.

5.They pump out perfumes designed to attract different insects who are natural enemies to the attackers. Once they arrive, the tables are turned.  

6.The attacker who was lunching now becomes lunch. In study after study, it appears that these chemical conversations help the neighbors.

7.The damage is usually more serious on the first plant, but the neighbors, relatively speaking, stay safer because they heard the alarm and knew what to do.

8.Does this mean that plants talk to each other? Scientists don’t know. Maybe the first plant just made a cry of pain or was sending a message to its own branches, and so, in effect, was talking to itself.  

9.Perhaps the neighbors just happened to “overhear” the cry. So information was exchanged, but it wasn’t a true, intentional back and forth.

10.Charles Darwin, over 150 years ago, imagined a world far busier, noisier and more intimate than the world we can see and hear. Our senses are weak. There’s a whole lot going on.

第八十一篇

植物的哭喊

1.当叶状植物受到攻击时，它不会静静地坐着。早在1983年，两位科学家杰克·舒尔茨和伊恩·鲍德温就报告说，小枫树被昆虫咬后会散发出一种特殊的气味，邻近的植物也能闻到。

2.这些化学物质来自植物受损的部分，似乎是一种警报。植物向空气中输送的是一种被称为挥发性有机化合物的混合物，简称VOCs。

3.科学家们发现，所有种类的植物在受到攻击时都会释放出挥发性有机化合物。这是植物的哭喊方式。但有人在听吗?显然。

4.因为我们可以看到邻居们的反应。有些植物会排出有气味的化学物质来驱赶昆虫。但其他人却有双重职责。

5.它们会散发出香水来吸引不同的昆虫，这些昆虫是攻击者的天敌。他们一到，局面就反转了。

6.原本是午餐的袭击者现在变成了午餐。一项又一项的研究表明，这些化学对话似乎对邻居有帮助。

7.第一个植物被破坏的通常很严重，但相对而言，邻居们更安全，因为他们听到了警报，知道该怎么做。

8.这是否意味着植物会彼此交谈呢?科学家们也不知道。也许第一株植物只是发出了一声痛苦的叫声，或者是在向自己的树枝传递信息，所以，实际上，它是在和自己说话。

9.也许邻居们只是碰巧“无意中”听到了哭声。所以信息是交换的，但这不是真正的，有意的来回。

10.查尔斯·达尔文在150多年前设想了一个比我们所能看到和听到的世界更繁忙、更嘈杂、更私密的世界。我们的感官很弱。发生了很多事情。