1.3 Find the answers to the following questions in the text 1:

1. How can we identify trees?

2. Why are trees valuable to our society?

3. How do coniferous trees and deciduous trees differ?

1.4 Match the terms with their definitions:

Evergreen	a large plant with a sturdy main trunk which lives for many years
Ecosystem	a cone-bearing tree
Shrub	a tree that sheds its leaves seasonally
Deciduous	a plant that retains green leaves all year
Tree	an interacting community of living organisms and their non-living environment
Conifer	a woody plant of lower height than a tree. It usually has many thick stems instead of one big trunk

1.5 Read the text 1 again and say if the statements are false or true. Correct the false ones.

1. Deciduous trees are evergreen trees. They do not lose their leaves in winter.

2. The leaves of coniferous trees look like needles.

3. Trees take up oxygen from the air.

4. The food necessary for the trees’ growth is manufactured in the roots.

5. Unlike animals trees don’t breathe.

6. Deciduous trees don’t form a definite crown.

7. Seeds of some deciduous trees are protected inside a hard nut or fleshy fruit.

1.6 Divide the text 1 into four parts and name them.

1.7 Skim the texts 2and 3. Write down an annotation of the texts. Text 2 How to Study Trees

A person can start the study of trees by making a collection of pressed leaves. One can also make interesting records of leaves, flowers, and seeds by means of simple prints. Collecting twigs and studying their buds and leaf scars is also revealing. They differ with every kind of tree.

Botanists divide trees into two main groups, called coniferous and broad-leaved. Those in the first group bear cones and usually have needle-shaped leaves. Among them are the pine, hemlock, spruce, redwood, ce­dar, and cypress. Most conifers keep their leaves all year, and those that do are called evergreens.

Trees of the second group have broad, flat leaves. Most of them shed their leaves in winter and are therefore called deciduous. The word comes from the Latin de and cadere, meaning “to fall from”. The oak, maple, elm, beech, ash, linden, sycamore, and willow are common deciduous trees.

Text 3 Shrubs and trees

Shrubs are smaller. A shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m (15-20 ft) tall. A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience.

A

Figure 1.4 Common Juniper

natural plant community dominated by shrubs is called a shrubland. An area of cultivated shrubs in a or garden is known as a shruberry When clipped as topiary, shrubs generally have dense foliageand many small leafy branches growing close together. Many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a ‘stool’ results in long new stems known as “canes”. Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure and character. Shrubs in common garden practice are generally broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as Mountain Pine and Common Juniper (figure 1.4) are also shrubby in structure. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen.