【英语时差8,16】自然人造花

There's nothing more artificial than artificial flowers, right?   Whereas real flowers have been around for millions and millions of years, artificial flowers are a purely¹ human invention. They've been on this Earth only thousands of years, right? At any rate, you'd never expect to see an artificial flower growing in a wooded glen, right alongside its natural flower neighbors.

Well look again. There's a type of mustard plant, called "Arabis holboellii," which naturally grows a dainty, light blue flower atop its narrow stem. Without a doubt, these are natural flowers. But wait. Sometimes you'll see an Arabis holboellii sporting a bright yellow cluster of leaves that looks suspiciously like a buttercup. What's going on?

Those yellow leaf clusters are natural artificial flowers. What happens is this: The mustard plant gets infected with a type of fungus² called "rust³ fungus." This fungus causes the plant to stop its natural flower production, and to produce a leaf cluster instead. The yellow fungus cells then gather along these leaves, providing the fake flower's artificial coloring. Just as natural flowers attract insects like bees and butterflies, these artificial flowers do too. In fact, the fungus produces a sugary liquid inside its fake flower that is ten to a hundred times sweeter than the nectar of real flowers.

Why does the rust fungus do this? Plants produce natural flowers to attract insects, which then cross pollinate the plants and help them reproduce. The fake flowers do the same thing for the fungus. Insects cross pollinate the fungus colonies, helping⁴ them reproduce . . . which leads to still more natural, artificial flowers!  

1 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

2 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

3 rust   

n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退

参考例句：

• She scraped the rust off the kitchen knife.她擦掉了菜刀上的锈。
• The rain will rust the iron roof.雨水会使铁皮屋顶生锈。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。