26

Imagine putting a seed in a freezer, waiting 30,000 years, and then taking the seed out and planting it. Do you think a flower would grow?

Amazingly, scientists have just managed to do something very similar. They found the fruit of an ancient plant that had been frozen underground in Siberia — a region covering central and eastern Russia—for about 31,800 years. Using pieces of the fruit, the scientists grew plants in a lab. The new blooms have delicate white petals. They are also the oldest flowering plants that researchers have ever revived from a deep freeze.

“This is like regenerating a dinosaur from tissues of an ancient egg,” said University of California, Los Angeles biologist Jane Shen-Miller.

The plant has a long history. Back when mammoths (猛犸) and woolly rhinoceroses walked the land, an Arctic ground squirrel buried seeds and fruits in an underground chamber near the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia. The ground became permafrost (永久凍土), a layer of soil that stays frozen for a long time.

Recently, Russian scientists dug out the old squirrel hole and found the plant remains 38 meters below the surface. Back at the lab, the team fed nutrients to tissue from three of the fruits to grow shoots. Then the scientists transferred the shoots to pots filled with soil. The plants produced seeds that could be used to grow even more of them.

Its important for scientists to know that plant tissues can still be revived after being frozen for a long time. Thats because many researchers are trying to preserve the seeds of modern plants by freezing them and then storing them in giant lockers at various spots around the globe. One such endeavor, an underground facility in Norway, is called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It stores hundreds of thousands of frozen seeds. If a plant ever goes extinct, scientists could bring it back by taking its seeds from the Svalbard or other storage lockers.

“No one knows how long they are able to live for, but freezing is basically the format for many plant conservation (保護(hù)) attempts nowadays.” Shen-Miller said. Its a good thing that at least some plants are tough enough to survive the experience.

1. How did the fruit originally get underground?

A. It was placed there by an animal. B. It was trapped there during the ice-age.

C. It was planted there by ancient farmers. D. It was buried there after the earthquake.

2. Why are scientists interested in this discovery?

A. It can help guide future efforts to protect endangered plant-life.

B. It can provide directions for where to look for other ancient plants.

C. It helps them learn how plant life has changed in the past 30,000 years.

D. It proves that all plant life can survive for thousands of years when frozen.

3. The underlined word “they” in the last paragraph refers to the ＿＿＿ .

A. plants B. seeds C. animals D. storage lockers

4. The purpose of the passage is to ＿＿＿ .

A. introduce some ancient plants B. discuss a plant conservation effort

C. describe a scientific research project D. outline some causes of global warming