Travelling Plants
Read Travelling Plants and check the IELTS Reading answers. In an English woodland, the blackberry puts out exploratory stems, which curve upwards , waving slowly as though searching. If they touch another plant, they begin to advance directly and purposefully. To us, their motion is invisible, but…
Passage preview
In an English woodland, the blackberry puts out exploratory stems, which curve upwards , waving slowly as though searching. If they touch another plant, they begin to advance directly and purposefully. To us, their motion is invisible, but for a plant it’s an extraordinary rate – around five centimetres a day. When a stem makes contact with the ground, it puts down small rootlets, and starts to extract nutriment.
Vocabulary from this passage
10 words worth learning before you sit the test, each with the sentence it appears in.
- annex verb
To forcefully or systematically take control of an additional area, resource, or territory and incorporate it into one's own domain.
Invasive plant species frequently annex nutrients and physical space from less aggressive native vegetation in fragile ecosystems.
- courier noun
An agent, messenger, or carrier responsible for transporting and delivering goods, messages, or biological elements from one location to another.
Migratory birds frequently act as an effective courier for plant species by dispersing seeds across distant geographical boundaries.
- digestive tract noun
The series of interconnected hollow organs through which food passes, undergoes nutrient absorption, and is eliminated as waste.
The hard outer coating of certain seeds protects them from being destroyed while passing through an animal's digestive tract.
- environmental dominance noun
The ecological state in which a specific species or factor exerts a controlling or overwhelming influence over its surrounding habitat.
The rapid spread of the canopy trees established their environmental dominance, blocking sunlight from lower forest vegetation layers.
- exploratory adjective
Undertaken or performed to investigate, examine, or discover unknown information, geographical territory, or biological characteristics.
The researchers conducted an exploratory study to investigate the medicinal properties of newly discovered rainforest plants.
- germinate verb
The biological process whereby a seed or spore emerges from its dormant state and begins to develop shoots and roots.
Certain forest seeds require the intense heat of a wildfire to crack their hard outer shells and successfully germinate.
- nutriment noun
Any substance or chemical compound that provides nourishment essential for maintaining life, health, and organic growth in living organisms.
Healthy topsoil provides essential organic nutriment that allows agricultural crops to develop high nutritional value.
- regurgitate verb
To bring swallowed food or partially digested material back up from the stomach into the mouth for consumption or feeding.
Many seabird species routinely regurgitate food to nourish their newly hatched chicks inside remote nesting cliffs.
- robust adjective
Sturdy, resilient, and healthy in constitution, or capable of enduring harsh environmental conditions or heavy usage without deteriorating.
Ecologists observed that robust coastal vegetation survived the severe hurricane with minimal physical damage compared to inland species.
- vigorous adjective
Characterized by great physical strength, energy, vitality, or rapid and healthy growth in a living organism or natural system.
The vineyard experienced vigorous vine growth following a period of optimal rainfall and balanced soil mineralization.
Answers with explanations
- 27. I
The text describes the blackberry's stems curving **upwards** (into the air) and advancing at an **extraordinary rate** (very quickly). This matches option I: 'produces branches that spread out very quickly into the air.'
- 28. E
The text states that silverweed stems advance **horizontally** and creep at a **low level**. This corresponds to option E: 'moves along close to the ground.'
- 29. A
The text explains that a single vigorous fescue grass plant can annex territory until it becomes the **largest plant in the entire meadow**. This matches option A: 'can dominate its surroundings with a single plant.'
- 30. D
When the bird-cage plant's environment fails (the sand blows away), it detaches and the wind blows it to a **new spot** where its seeds can germinate. This matches option D: 'colonises a new spot when it can no longer survive in another.'
- 31. B
The text explains that the cucumber fills with juice, and the quantity of slime makes it **burst** (explode) off its stalk. This internal pressure causes the explosion, matching option B.
- 32. F
Monkey's dinner-bell produces an explosion and a **bang** (loud noise) when distributing its seeds, which frightens people in the forest. This directly matches option F.
- 33. C
Sycamore seeds are fitted with a **wing** (a feature) that turns them into spinning helicopters, allowing them to land **far from their parent** (increases the distance they travel). This perfectly aligns with option C.
- 34. ants
The sentence asks what creatures find the covering appealing. The text explicitly states that **ants** find the edible covering on the seeds of South African heathland plants particularly attractive.
- 35. nests
The question asks where the seeds are carried in the earth. The text explains the ants carry the seeds down to their underground **nests**.
- 36. fruit
The text notes that animals learn not to eat the **fruit** when it is unripe because the flesh is sour (the taste is unappealing).
- 37. stone
The text describes the quetzal regurgitating (ejecting through the mouth) the **stone** of the wild avocado after swallowing the fruit whole.
- 38. cones
The text explicitly states that while pine seeds are developing (before they are mature), they are protected inside their **cones**.
- 39. memory
The text notes that pine trees benefit because the nut-cracker bird buries the seeds but has a poor **memory**, meaning it never finds most of them again, allowing them to grow.
- 40. C
The passage details multiple different mechanisms plants use to move—such as creeping stems, blowing in the wind, bursting, and using animals. Each method demonstrates how plants are adapted to their surroundings to successfully reproduce. Option C accurately captures this broad theme.