新东方背诵文选 L32 Botany
时间：2018-12-15 作者：英语课 分类：新东方背诵文选
英语课
Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar 1 position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness 2 about which humans had anything more than the vaguest of insights. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but form what we can observe of pre- industrial societies that still exist a detailed 3 learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally 4 hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of " knowledge" at all.
Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid 5. When our Neolithic 6 ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel 7 of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild- and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy 8 with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.
1 peculiar
adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的
- He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
- He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。
2 awareness
n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智
- There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
- Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。
3 detailed
adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的
- He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
- A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。
4 literally
adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实
- He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
- Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。
5 orchid
n.兰花，淡紫色
- The orchid is a class of plant which I have never tried to grow.兰花这类植物我从来没种过。
- There are over 35 000 species of orchid distributed throughout the world.有35,000多种兰花分布在世界各地。
6 neolithic
adj.新石器时代的
- Cattle were first domesticated in Neolithic times.新石器时代有人开始驯养牛。
- The monument was Stone Age or Neolithic.该纪念碑是属于石器时代或新石器时代的。