新东方英语背诵美文50篇 第三十一篇 Botany
Botany
Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest of insights.
It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of preindustrial societies that still exist a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient.
This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each.
To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all. Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10, 000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken.
新东方英语背诵美文50篇 | |
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第一篇 Youth 青春
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第二篇 Three Days to See(Excerpts) 假如给我三天光明
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第三篇 Companionship of Books 以书为伴
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第五篇 Ambition 抱负
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第四篇 If I Rest, I Rust 如果我休息,我就会生锈
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第六篇 What I have Lived for 我为何而生
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第七篇 When Love Beckons You 爱的召唤
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第八篇 The Road to Success 成功之道
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第九篇 On Meeting the Celebrated 论见名人
- 新东方英语背诵美文30篇 第十篇 The 50-Percent Theory of Life 生活理论半对半