Botanic gardens may be regarded as having a threefold function: to please and educate the public; to carry out investigations regarding the economic value of native and foreign plant products and acclimatisation of plants; and to act as centres of information and scientific investigation in various fields of botany, such as anatomy, morphology and physiology, for which museums, libraries and laboratories are also needed. The search for drugs and spices particularly has tempted men from early times to explore all parts of the world and this has promoted a close link between exploration and botanic gardens. One well-known botanic garden is the Royal Botanic Garden at Edinburgh which was founded in 1670 by Robert Sibbald for the cultivation of medical plants. Since that date it has been removed to several different sites. It is now one of the major botanic gardens in Britain with an area of over 60 acres.
We learn from the passage that one of the main functions of a botanic garden is to ____.
send out explorers in search of new spices
provide scientists with the means for carrying out investigations into botanical subjects
make more and more land suitable for cultivation
encourage the production of natural medicines to replace chemical ones which sometimes have serious side-effects
be economically self supporting and encourage young people to take an interest in gardens
The author points out that there is a close link between exploration and botanical gardens ____.
as few native British plants are of use medicinally and many people now prefer natural medicines to chemical ones
as many people are curious about the medicinal properties of various plants
because the desire to find new drugs and spices has long been a reason behind many exploratory expeditions
since plants from foreign parts will only grow in the special conditions they are used to
though this is still a very new development
In this passage about botanical gardens, ____.
they are presented as a very pleasant luxury
the historical aspect is completely ignored
the problems of financing them are carefully considered
it is the functional aspect that is emphasized
the focus is on the rarer plants of foreign origin