2017高考英语二轮复习限时训练30 科普知识型阅读理解（2）_高考复习指南

2017高考英语二轮复习限时训练30 科普知识型阅读理解（2）

　　(二)

　　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 beachdwelling 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.”