Read the passage carefully and answer the question given below: You might not think of plants as particularly chatty but in reality, they communicate surprisingly well with each other, especially when faced with danger. According to a recent study in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science injured plants send out emergency signals to alert neighbours to start building up their defences. The chain of events that led to this surprising discovery began about two years ago, after University of Delaware botanist Harsh Bais agreed to mentor 16-year-old Connor Sweeney on a research project. The ecstatic high school student got to work right away, spending all his free time, including weekends and summer breaks, in Bais's lab at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. His project entailed culturing Arabidopsis thaliana, also known as mustard weed, for use in experiments. The young researcher would place the seeds in Petri dishes and test tubes filled with agar to promote growth. The seeds would germinate about six days later and transform into delicate three-inch saplings with bright green leaves. One day, Sweeney sliced a mustard weed leaf in two spots mimicking an insect bite to see how it would begin the repair process. The following day, the young researcher was surprised to find that while the injured plant remained unchanged, the roots of the neighbouring young mustard weed sapling had grown considerably longer and even had lateral offshoots. “It was crazy — I didn’t believe it at first. I would have expected the injured plant to put more resources into growing roots. But we didn’t see that.” said Bais, who conducted a similar study in
2012, where he found that soil bacteria living near the roots of a plant helped boost its immunity by signalling the leaf pores, or stomata, to close in the presence of pathogens. To ensure that it was not the same system at work, Sweeney partitioned the plants to prevent any communication between their root bacteria and repeated the experiment multiple times. The results were the same!
Which of the following options does not mean the underlined word ‘ecstatic’ in Paragraph 2?
Doubtful
Ecstatic Word Meaning Analysis
The question asks which of the given options does not mean the same as the word 'ecstatic' as used in the passage. To answer this, we need to understand the meaning of 'ecstatic' in the context of the passage.
In paragraph 2, the passage states, "The ecstatic high school student got to work right away...". This describes Connor Sweeney's reaction to being mentored by a university botanist on a research project. The word 'ecstatic' suggests a strong positive emotion.
Understanding 'Ecstatic'
The word 'ecstatic' means feeling or expressing overwhelming happiness or joyful excitement. It implies a state of intense pleasure or delight.
Analyzing the Options
Let's look at the meaning of each provided option:
- Thrilled: This means feeling intense pleasure, excitement, or happiness. This is a synonym for 'ecstatic'.
- Overjoyed: This means extremely happy. This is also a synonym for 'ecstatic'.
- Doubtful: This means feeling uncertain about something, hesitant, or suspicious. This describes a state of uncertainty or lack of confidence, which is the opposite of feeling happy or excited.
- Excited: This means feeling or showing great enthusiasm and eagerness. This is a common synonym for 'ecstatic'.
Identifying the Non-Synonym
Comparing the meanings, 'Thrilled', 'Overjoyed', and 'Excited' are all synonyms or closely related in meaning to 'ecstatic'. They all describe a state of high positive emotion or excitement.
'Doubtful', on the other hand, means unsure or uncertain, which is completely different from being overwhelmingly happy or excited. Therefore, 'Doubtful' does not mean the underlined word 'ecstatic'.
Important Questions from Reading Comprehension
What is the meaning of ‘intrigued’?
What are ice shelves?
What are icebergs?
When the iceberg turns upside down, it appears ________.
The use of science in its simple form has helped man to ____________
