It is interesting to know

 Reading

1. You are going to read the text about Kew Gardens. Could you find gardens like this in your country? What would you expect to find there? In what ways are plants and flowers important to us?

Listening

2. First underline the correct item by guessing, then listen to the text and find out if your guesses were correct.

Kew Gardens is a botanical garden and plant research/sales centre. 500/5,000 people work at Kew. They start work at ten past/to eight. Matthew Ford is trying to save the Plymouth pear, the tallest/rarest tree in Britain. Growing orchids/fruit is vital to conserve species under threat. Some plant hunters go abroad, dig up rare species and post/smuggle them back home to sell. Gatekeeper and ticket/staff officer Jackie Howard says everyone at Kew sis friendly, whether they are labourers/cleaners or experts. Kew Gardens will always be special for lovers of animals/plants and gardens.

3. In a magazine article ‘Kew Gardens’ eight paragraphs have been removed. Choose from the paragraphs A-I the one which fits each gap (1-7). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens is the word’s finest botanical garden and plant research centre.

0

D

500 people are employed at Kew Gardens, from scientists doing the latest medical research, to weather-beaten maintenance men, digging the flowerbeds. For student Sarah Wilson, training for the Kew Diploma in Horticulture, it’s a long working day. “We start work at ten to eight in the morning with watering as the first job of the day. People think you can do it all by machine nowadays but every plant has different needs. Then it’s sweeping up the dead leaves, pruning and top-dressing until the public starts to arrive.”

1

“I knew I couldn’t get better training anywhere else. This is the leading botanical centre in the world and it has people in every country where plants are in danger.”

2

“All life ultimately depends on plants, and we don’t know what’s in them all or what we may be losing if a species is allowed to die out,” says Matthew.

3

His work has been instrumental in saving the British lady’s slipper orchid, and he is currently hoping to do the same with the Plymouth pear, the rarest tree in Britain.

The inside of the orchid is a world of delicate lushness. John Sitch cares for the exotic pink and purple blooms here and tender loving care.

4

Growing orchids is vital to conserve species which are under threat, both from farmers and developers who are destroying their tropical homes, and from plant hunters who travel abroad, dig up rare and valuable species, and smuggle them back home to sell.

5

“I’m quite hopeful,” says Elaine, “and I feel that if we find something, it will probably be a mixture rather than a single chemical.”

6

“Some plants have valuable chemicals we can’t make artificially. And it’s not just tropical rainforest specimens we need, as many people think. Right now I’m working on a chemical from a European species, so it’s vital to protect our own plants, too.”

7

As gatekeeper and ticket officer Jackie Howard says, “Everyone who works here is friendly, whether they are labourers or high-powered experts.” Perhaps that, as much as its long history and international prestige, explains why Kew will always be a special place for lovers of plants and gardens.

A	This is where scientific officer Matthew Ford fits into the picture. He is working as part of a team to identify, propagate and re-establish colonies of endangered plants in Britain and abroad.
B	Educating the public about the way in which all life depends on plants is certainly one of Kew’s most valuable functions. And the approachable attitude of the staff is what makes this possible.
C	“Many plants contain life-saving products. I view all living things as interrelated, and if we lose one species it has a huge effect on all the others.”
D	It grows more than 40,000 different kinds of plants, grows one in eight of all the flowering plants in creation, and researches and protects over six million other species.
E	She points out that there aren’t as many AIDS researchers using plants as people might think. Many pharmaceutical companies prefer to use synthetic materials but it is important to work with real plants as well.
F	However, Kew has come under serious financial strain lately. This has caused the loss of over 200 jobs.
G	With 900,000 people visiting Kew every year, Sarah and the staff are kept on their toes. But she is quick to point out that Kew is more than just a public pleasure park.
H	Kew Garden plays a medical role as well. Elaine Porter and her colleagues in the Jodrell Laboratory spend the working day researching plants which may combat the effects of the HIV virus and AIDS.
I	He has been working at Kew since leaving school at 17 but insists he still has a lot to learn about plants. Although there are 5000 different species of orchids being cultivated here, new discoveries are still being made.

Exercise 1

Look at the following words in the text and try to explain them:

botanical, maintenance men, digging, flowerbeds, ultimately, instrumental, rarest, expertise, plant hunters, artificially, rainforest, specimens, gatekeeper, labourers, prestige

Exercise 2

Fill in the correct word from the list below:

prune, species, interrelate, dying out, combat, smuggle, blooms, top-dressing, cultivates, conserve

1. When planting new flowers, …………………… is very important for keeping the soil moist and protecting the roots. (a protective layer of earth)

2. Watering plants regularly will help …………… dryness. (resist)

3. Ferns are one of the oldest ……………… of plant. (types)

4. Many valuable plants will be in danger of ……………… if they are not protected. (becoming extinct)

5. It is illegal to ………………… plants into a country. (secretly bring)

6. This bush has …………….. that resemble yellow bells. (flowers)

7. We visited a nursery that ………………… plants which can survive with little water. (grows)

8. He decided to ………………. the shrubs around the house because they were blocking the view. (trim)

9. Children should be taught that animals and plants………………… .(act together)

10. We must make an effort to ………………… certain plants which are in danger of disappearing.

Exercise 3

Find the odd word out.

1 twig, branch, seed, trunk

2 oak, pine, plane, tulip

3 rose, orchid, lily, redwood

4 soil, earth, spade, compost

5 branch, bud, petal, seedpod

Exercise 4

Fill in the correct word(s) from the list below. Use the word(s) only once.

threat, weather, long, plant research, endangered, high-powered, pleasure, care, to be kept, life-saving, delicate, financial

1 …………………. centre	7 ….……………….plants
2 tender loving …………	8 ……………on their toes
3 ………………….history	9 species under ………….
4 …………………...strain	10 ………………..experts
5 ………………..lushness	11 ………………products
6 ...……………….-beaten	12 …………………..park

Exercise 5

Fill in the correct word from the lists below:

a. skin, peel, rind, shell, peelings

1 peanut …………., 2 banana …………….., 3 bacon ……………, 4 potato ………….., 5 lemon …………..

b. to hoe, to prune, to mow, to plough, to dig, to rake

1 ………… a field, 2 ………... leaves, 3 …………. weeds, 4 ……………. a hole, 5 ……….. a rosebush, 6 ………….. the lawn

c. clippers, hose, spade, saw, trowel

1 to dig with a …………., 2 to prune with …….., 3 to cut off a branch with a ……….., 4 to plant with a …......, 5 to water with a ………….

Exercise 6

Fill in the correct word derived from the words in brackets.

Plants and flowers are not only 1) ………………… (beauty) they are also 2) ………… (use) both to humans and animals. Many 3) …………. (value) substances can be 4) ……………. (find) in even the most common plants. A chemical which fights 5) …………….. (cancer) growths is derived from the yew plant, and 6) ………………. (research) are doing 7) ……………. (experiment) tests on a 8) …………………. (vary) of plants which may combat the AIDS virus. Of course, plants do not only have 9) ………….. (medicine) uses. Apart from providing food, the 10) ………………… (produce) of oxygen is another important role that plants play. For this reason, it is vital that we protect 11) ………………. (danger) species of plants and ensure the 12) ……………. (survive) of our forests and woodlands.

Exercise 7

Fill in the correct plant-related idiom from the list below:

thorn in my side, beat around the bush, through the grapevine, lead you up the garden path, coming up roses, pushing up the daisies, gilding the lily, as fresh as a daisy, like a weed, a bed of roses

1. Even though she had been working most of the night, she looked ………………… . (not at all tired)

2. You can’t expect life to be ……………………… ; things are bound to go wrong at times. (easy and pleasant)

3. That man has become a real ……………………… - I wish he’d stop bothering me! (source of annoyance)

4. The last time I saw old Mr Smith was fifteen years ago; he must be …………………. by now. (dead)

5. John didn’t tell me he was getting married – I heard it ………………… . (from gossip)

6. He’s not to be trusted, so don’t let him ………………… . (deceive you)

7. With his business having become such a success, everything seems to be ………… . (going very well)

8. David is growing ………………… . He’ll be two metres tall before long. (extremely quickly)

9. There’s no need for you to wear make-up. You’re so pretty already that you would just be ………………. . (attempting to improve sth already attractive)

10. Please don’t …………………………………….. – just tell me what you want. (avoid the main issue)