5-speed listening (Level 6)

Plants can make intelligent decisions


Slowest

Slower

Medium (British English)

Medium (N. American English)

Faster

Fastest


Try  Level 4  |  Level 5



MY e-BOOK
See a sample

This useful resource has hundreds of ideas, activity templates, reproducible activities for …

  • warm-ups
  • pre-reading and listening
  • while-reading and listening
  • post-reading and listening
  • using headlines
  • working with words
  • moving from text to speech
  • role plays,
  • task-based activities
  • discussions and debates
and a whole lot more.


More Listening

20 Questions  |  Spelling  |  Dictation


READING:

Plants are a lot smarter than we thought. According to researchers, they are capable of making intelligent decisions regarding risk. Scientists have discovered that one plant, the humble pea, can make decisions regarding how to survive best, even though it does not have a brain. Researchers from the UK's Oxford University and Israel's Tel-Hai College grew several pea plants that had their roots separated between two pots. Each pot contained differing amounts of nutrients. One pot always had the same amount, while the other pot varied between a lot and a little. The plants turned out to be remarkably consistent at diverting their roots to the pot with the most nutrients.

The research paper will be published this week in the 'Current Biology' journal. Researcher Alex Kacelnik said the experiment, "raises a question, not about plants, but about animals and humans". He wondered whether the pea plant might be more efficient in using its limited decision-making resources than humans. He said: "We have a very fancy brain, but maybe most of the time we're not using it." Professor Kacelnik said he did not think that pea plants were intelligent in the human sense, but that they exhibited complex behaviours to efficiently take advantage of natural opportunities. It would be interesting to see how our lives would be different if we adopted similar strategies.

Easier Levels

Try easier levels. The listening is a little shorter, with less vocabulary.

Level 4  |  Level 5

All Levels

This page has all the levels, listening and reading for this lesson.

← Back to the plants  lesson.

Online Activities

Help Support This Web Site

  • Please consider helping Breaking News English.com

Sean Banville's Book

Thank You