Talking to plants makes them grow，especially if you're a woman，according to an experiment by the Royal Horticultural Society （RHS皇家園藝學(xué)會(huì)）．
Women gardeners' voices speed up growth of tomato plants much more than men's，it found．
In an experiment run over a month，they found that tomato plants grew up to two inches taller if they were serenaded （唱小夜曲） by the sweet tones of a female rather than a male．
Appropriately the most effective talk came from Sarah Darwin，whose great-great grandfather was legendary botanist （植物學(xué)家）Charles Darwin，one of the founding fathers of the RHS' Scientific Committee．She read a passage from On the Origin of Species and beat nine other"voices"．
Her plant grew nearly two inches taller than the best performing male and half an inch higher than her nearest competitor．
The experiment began in April，2009 at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey．A variety of recorded voices was picked to play to 10 tomato plants over a month．Every plant was played a voice through headphones （耳機(jī)）connected to the plant pot，and the conditions for all the plants remained the same throughout the experiment．To ensure the experiment was fair，two control plants were also left to grow in silence．
The results showed that women on average saw their plants rise by an inch on their male competitors．Some men were so bad that their plants actually grew less than a plant that was left completely alone．
Colin Crosbie，the leader at RHS，said："We're not sure why the female voice is more effective．It could be that they have a greater range of pitch （音高）and tone that affects the sound waves that hit the plant．Sound waves are an environmental effect just like rain or light．"

（1）According to the passage，ten

B

B

were used in the experiment．
A．tomato plants
B．headphones
C．tape recorders
D．plant pots
（2）What can we know about the findings of the experiment from the passage？

C

C

A．The women's voices made the plants grow faster by an inch than the men's．
B．Miss Darwin's voices made the plant grow 2 inches taller than the other plants．
C．The plants which grew in silence did not necessarily grow the slowest．
D．The plants grew up to two inches taller if looked after by women gardeners．
（3）What did the researchers do in order to make sure of the success of the experiment？

B

B

A．They made the experiment last month．
B．They maintained the same conditions for all the plants．
C．They chose to use ten sweet voices of different gardeners．
D．They made two plants grow in a situation without any sound．
（4）In the last paragraph Colin Crosbie is trying to explain

D

D

．
A．the significance of the experiment
B．the detailed findings of the experiment
C．the effects of female voices on plants
D．the possible reasons for the experiment's result．