Lesson 9

Grammar: Subjunctive Mood § 10 Text: Plants

1. Read and translate the following:

Stem, root, hold (held, held),crown, derive, nutrition, transpiration, digest, send ( sent, sent), bark, respiration, aid, deteriorate, heartwood, sapwood, coniferous, deciduous, injure, resistance, fungus, content, cut ( cut, cut), season (v), circle, split, weight

2. Match the words with their definitions below:

Stem, root, crown, derive, digest, bark, respiration, heartwood, sapwood, deciduous, injure, fungus, resist, season (v), split, deteriorate, weight

1). Harm; damage, wrongful treatment circle or wreath of flowers or leaves worn on;

2). the head, esp. As a sign of victory, or as a reward;

3). breathing;

4). Make or become of less value or worse ( in quality);

5). Plant without leaves, flowers, or green coloring matter, growing on other plant or on decaying matter, e.g. old wood;

6). Make or become suitable for use;

7). How heavy a thing is; this expressed in some scale( e.g. tons, kilograms) as measured on a scale, weighing – machine;

8). That part of a plant, tree, etc. Which is normally in the soil and which takes water and food from it;

9). Oppose; use force against in order to prevent the advance of;

10). Part of a plant coming up from the root ;

11). outer coverings or skin on the trunks, boughs and branches of trees;

12). ( of food) change, be changed in the stomach and bowels, so that it can be used in the body;

13). Break, cause to break, be broken into 2 or more parts, esp. From end to end along the length or the line of natural division ;

14). Get, have as a source or origin;

15). The outer structure of wood;

16). The earlier structure of wood;

17). Broadleaf.

3. From the list below – pick up words which have the same meaning and which are the opposites:

a). synonyms: stem, hold, thanks to, broadleaf, breathing, help, trunk, keep, respiration, aid, hence, therefore, owing to, deciduous

b). opposites: deciduous, circle, send, humid, coniferous, square, get, dry

4. Read and translate text a:

“ How A Plant Lives”

Trees are woody plants, growing with a single stem. They are the largest members of the plant world, ranging in height from 20 to 300 feet or more, according to species and conditions of growth. Trees may be said to consist of three parts:

• the roots which hold the tree in place and take up from the soil water and certain mineral substances needed for the trees growth;

• the trunk or stem which supports the crown and supplies it with water and food from the roots; and

• the crown. In this part the most important processes are taking place.

The materials upon which a tree feeds are derived from the soil and the air. The roots of a tree absorb water from the soil and with it the necessary nutrition and elements of the soil. The amount of water taken up by the roots is usually much larger than is required in the chemical processes which go on in the leaves. The tree gives away this unused water by a process known as transpiration. Great quantities of water vapor tend to keep the air in the forests humid and favorable to growth.

In the lives the food necessary for the trees’ growth is manufactured. The raw food materials which reach the tree through the roots and the leaves are digested in the leaves. They are then sent to all living parts of the roots, stem and crown where they are either used at once or stored away for later use.

Like all other plants and like animals trees breathe. The breathing is done through the leaves and the bark. Respiration is the factor supplying the energy with the aid of the green matter in the leaves. The energy is supplied by sunlight; the plant takes up carbon dioxide gas of which there is always a small amount in the atmosphere. The carbon is used to elaborate the organic compounds. The carbon assimilation is a most important biochemical process. The air would deteriorate rapidly if plants did not take up carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

The earlier structure of wood is known as heartwood the outer, later sections as sapwood. The difference is in the moisture content and aging. Heartwood is found in all species of coniferous trees such as pine, fir, spruce, larch and in certain deciduous trees, for example, in oak, ash, elm, poplar, as well as in tropical trees.

Dead or heartwood trees no longer perform a function in the living tree. Hence, if the tree is injured by fire, the heartwood trees are in greater danger; the sapwood trees have greater resistance to fungus attack owing to their nature and content. On the other hand, when a tree has been cut and the timber seasoned the heartwood trees are more resistant to fungi and insect pests. The pores through which a leaf breathes are surrounded with tiny cells which serve to open and close the pores as the weather changes and as moisture and life vary. Trees grow from the top and in diameter; the side growth is also called secondary growth. Wood has layers of growth which appear as circles around the center. They are actually elongated cells and cluster of tubes. This makes it possible to split the wood vertically and prevent splitting across the grain. Wood varies in weight and in specific gravity. Some wood is heavier than water as, for example, the black iron in Florida, which will sink in water. With a few exceptions dry wood is lighter than water, but the moisture content of wood greatly affects its weight.