搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。
(单词翻译)
By Mario Ritter
Broadcast: November 18, 2003
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
If you like flowers in the early spring, then the middle of autumn is an important time of year. It is the time to plant 1)bulbs. Bulbs develop roots and leaves to become a full plant. Many spring flowers grow from bulbs. The most famous flower bulb is the 2)tulip.
The kinds of tulips that are popular in Europe and North America are native to central Asia. Experts say a Flemish diplomat1 brought tulips to the Netherlands from Turkey in fifteen-fifty-four. It is said that the name tulip comes from the Turkish word for a turban, a headdress shaped something like the flower.
The Dutch fell in love with the tulip. In the years to follow, some forms of tulips became highly valuable. The period between sixteen-sixty-four and sixteen-sixty-seven became known as the Tulipomania (tu-lip-o-MAY-nee-yeh). People traded the rights to buy different kinds of tulips in a kind of tulip stock market.
Ever since that time, the Netherlands has been the world's biggest producer of tulip bulbs. Tulip bulbs alone are a forty-one million dollar export business.
In the northern part of the world, most tulips by now have already been planted in the ground for spring flowering. But another way of planting tulips and some other bulb flowers is growing in popularity2. It is called forcing bulbs. This method is a way to grow flowers in the middle of winter.
This is how it is done. Use planting containers about ten centimeters across but not very deep. You can plant as many as three tulip bulbs, spaced about one centimeter apart. Fill the containers with loose, fertile soil. Chose large bulbs that are hard and do not show any signs of disease, like gray mold.
Plant the bulbs so their pointed3 end is just above the level of the soil. Water the bulbs well. Then store them in a cool, dark place. Bulbs need temperatures of about five to ten degrees Celsius4 to begin to grow. Do not let the soil get dry, but do not put in too much water either.
After six to ten weeks, the bulbs should have leaves about several centimeters long. The roots should be well developed. Move the containers out of the cold. Place them where they will receive moderate light.
Experts say the bulbs store enough food to produce flowers, so there is no need to 3)fertilize5 them. About four weeks later, in the middle of winter, the bulbs should produce flowers.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.
注释:
1) bulb [bQlb] n.(植)球根,鳞茎
2) tulip [5tju:lip] n.郁金香
3) fertilize [5fE :tilaiz] v.施肥
1 diplomat | |
n.外交官,外交家;能交际的人,圆滑的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 popularity | |
n.普及,流行,名望,受欢迎 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 Celsius | |
adj.摄氏温度计的,摄氏的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 fertilize | |
v.使受精,施肥于,使肥沃 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。