Lesson 41 Television Day: The baobab tree
TV Commentary:
Today our programme is about the baobab tree, which grows in West Africa and Australia. As you can see, it is a very strange-looking tree. Its enormous trunk sometimes measures as much as ten metres in diameter. It is thicker at the bottom than at the top. The branches nearest the ground are very long; those near the top are very short. It may be a strange-looking tree, but it is extremely useful. Its leaves are good to eat. Its white flowers turn into cool, juicy fruit which tastes rather like cucumber. There are such strong fibres in the bark, that people can make rope and cloth from them. When a baobab gets old, its trunk becomes hollow. An old tree has such a huge, hollow trunk, that it can hold many people. The local people often build their houses inside these trunks. When it rains, water collects in the hollow. The tree has such a lot of leaves and branches, that the water remains cool and fresh. It is such a useful tree, some people could hardly live without it. |