Cacti everywhere!

Part 5.- You are going to read an article about cacti. For questions 31-36, choose the answer (A, B, C, or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Cacti everywhere!

Paula Cocozza investigates the growing popularity of the cactus.

 

In many countries, cacti and images of cacti are becoming the next must-have thing inside people’s houses. Cacti inside houses are one thing, but some people seem intent on remarking all their everyday objects in the image of the cactus: cactus candles, lamps and glasses are particularly popular. The world of fashion has caught on too, and uncactus-like, with everything from cactus bracelets to cactus socks. Recently the UK got its first ‘cactus boutique’ when Gynelle Leon, 31, opened Prick in London.

 

Leon’s shop, with its white walls and minimalist shelving, feels more like a gallery. It’s an hour before opening time and four large cacti in the window – the ones that are most in demand – are waiting for the shutters to rise and grant them sunlight. They are very expensive but each weekend Leon sells at least one. Her theory, as far as Britain is concerned, is that lots of homeowners now in their 40s had a cactus as a child – in the 1970s there was a smaller cactus ‘boom’ when the prickly plant was seen as a classic beginners’ item. ‘They suit people of (my) generation,’ she says. ‘They want to do less and get more. I could put in minimal effort and a plant will thrive.’

 

 

Added to that, they photograph well. ‘We’re in the whole Pinterest era. You have to have nice plants as well as nice art.’ It was her passion for photography that had taken Leon to Yves Saint Laurent’s Jardin Majorella in Morocco where, ‘surrounded by these huge plants’, she first encountered large cacti. She took some shots and, when she got back home realised that there was a business opportunity was waiting to happen. Leon then set off on a world tour of cacti hotspots.

 

One of the stops on Leon’s tour was Hot Cactus, ‘a shoebox’ of a store, according to its co-owner, ‘jam-packed with plants’ in Los Angeles. ‘There’s definitely a cactus revival,’ says Carlos Morera on the phone from California. ‘But I can’t say how superficial it is. I can’t tell whether people are into the iconography of it and maybe just having these plants as a cool sculpture… (or) into all the background information about the plans.’ Morera would like the latter to be true. He says that wih cacti, ‘what you’re looking at in front of you is not just what you’re looking at.

 

Yes, these plants are cool, but all this other information really makes them… Most people are used to seeing the cliched two-armed emoji cactus. What we were really into was everything but that. And more so, just exposing the incredible vast variety of form and shape and atribute that existed beyond the cliché.’

 

 

Judging by the stories he tells, Moreira clearly has a knack for tracking down people who are selling cacti collections without realising how valuable they are – and he needs to be, because growers cannot easily keep a cactus trend going. Fashion is all about speed. A cactus cannot be rushed. Those cute plants in 5.5cm pots that you see in garden centres and florists are already three years old. By their nature, cacti are anti-fashion. This has put a good deal of pressure on commercial growers, who are struggling to keep up with demand. This problem is then passed on to the likes of Leon and Morera.

 

But cacti are also brilliant survivors, adapting to adversity or change. They look as if they have mastered life, and maybe humans feel that’s something they could learn from. ‘I think they are a reaction to how fast everything moves,’ Morera says. ‘You have this plant – like a copiapoa – that will not change from the moment you get it till the moment you die. .. They are a rebellion against modern times, efficiency, production, results. They act as testaments to the opposite.’

31.- In the first paragraph, what does the writer object to most?

A) keeping cacti as house plants

B) having cactus-shaped objects in the house

C) manufacturing clothes with images of cacti on them

D) shops to open up in response to the demand for cacti.

32.- Leon thinks that cacti are popular with middle-aged British homeowners because…

A) they wrongly imagine them to be easy to maintain.

B) they see them as a good financial investment.

C) they already have a connection with them.

D) they like the unusual appearance of them.

 

33.- When Leon visited Morocco, she was…

A) investigating the possibility of setting up her business.

B) on a tour of various places where cacti were popular.

C) doing a work project on behalf of a company.

D) on a trip not connected with cacti.

 

34.- Carlos Morera hopes that people who are buying cacti…

A) are able to see the artistic appeal fo them.

B) are not missed by what they hear in the media.

C) are genuinely interested in learning about them.

D) are not going to ignore the two-armed variety.

 

35.- What point is made about cactus shops in the fifth paragraph?

A) They take a very long time to sell certain cacti.

B) They have problems with the supply of their products.

C) They have some customers who are very hard to please.

D) They tend to sell larger cacti than those in garden centres.

 

36.- Morera suggests that cacti appeal to people nowadays because they are seen as being…

A) something permanent.

B) very different form other plants.

C) healthy for mind and body.

C) beautiful underneath.