The hidden life of trees樹木的隱秘生活

鄧玉梅

主題語境：自然 篇幅：377詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1 Elon Musk has offered a prize of $100 million for thebest carbon capture proposal. I can save his committeea lot of time. The money should go to Peter Wohlleben，whose book The Hidden Life of Trees was the most en?couraging blockbuster （非常成功的書）. Wohlleben'sidea is this： do nothing about trees. Stop fiddling （不斷擺弄） with them， thinking that we can deal with climatechange better than nature. If we fiddle， our Romes willburn.

2 The Hidden Life of Trees argues that trees are social. It shows that they can be our sav?iours. But its terribly hard to let ourselves be saved. We think we can be the authors ofour salvation （拯救）. Of course， there are things we could and should do， but in termsof forestry practice， often whats billed as part of the solution is part of the problem.

3 Anyone who has planted a tree in his garden knows that it has a far?reaching effectwhich makes his garden cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Forests cool by trans?piring （蒸發）. If there's no water， there will be no cooling. Drought can kill trees fast，but trees have many ways of dealing with it， and Wohlleben sets them out. As a spe?cies， we have survived many climatic changes by changing our behaviour—and that's?how trees survive， too. Trees learn from their past harm and produce younger ones pro?grammed with those lessons. They regulate their growth by changing the rate at whichthey drip （滴下） —feed them with sugar solution through root networks.

4 Deciduous （落葉的） forests in particular remove greenhouse gases effectively as long asthey live. Cut them down and burn them and youre releasing carbon dioxide not justfrom the wood， but also from the forest floor. Deciduous trees are not“ harvest?ready”at 200 years： they are teenagers. We must interrogate comforting expressions such as“renewable energy”， and learn the real cost of our toilet paper.

5 If we don't learn to do nothing about trees， they will eventually be alone anyway—butwithout us. Wohlleben brilliantly and readably shows us how urgent and hard it is to donothing.

Reading

Check

1. What does Wohlleben suggest for carbon capture？

A. Fighting climate change.

B. Leaving trees as they are.

C. Saving the earth.

D. Changing forestry species.

2. How do trees survive drought？

A. They control their growth.

B. They lose all their leaves.

C. They stop absorbing water.

D. They get help from humans.

3. What does the underlined word“ interrogate” in paragraph 4 mean？

A. Understand.B. Question.

C. Translate. D. Accept.

4. What is the text？

A. A book review.B. A science report.

C. An introduction to a writer. D. A proposal for a reward.

Language

Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Anyone who has planted a tree in his garden knows that it has a far?reaching effectwhich makes his garden cooler in summer and warmer in winter. 任何在自己花園里種植過一棵樹的人都知道，它具有深遠的影響，這使他的花園在夏天更加涼爽，在冬天更加溫暖。

【點石成金】本句是一個復合句。主句是Anyone knows that it has a far?reaching ef?fect，謂語動詞是knows，主語是Anyone；who has planted a tree in his garden為who引導的定語從句，修飾先行詞anyone；which makes his garden cooler in summer and warmerin winter是一個由which引導的定語從句，先行詞為effect。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

save sb a lot of time 為某人節省很多時間

deal with 應對；處理

far?reaching effect 深遠的影響

in particular 特別；尤其

cut down 砍倒

renewable energy 可再生能源

do nothing about 對……不做任何事情

urgent and hard 迫切且困難的