83歲的印度“杧果人”

江西 丁黎明

主題語境：杧果種植 篇幅：355詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1Every day,Kaleem Ullah Khan wakes at dawn,and then walks about a mile to his 121-year-old mango tree,which he has coaxed(耐心地擺弄)into producing more than 300 varieties of the beloved fruit over the years.His footsteps quicken as he draws nearer and his eyes light up as he looks closely at the branches,touching the leaves and sniffing the fruits to see if they are ripe.

2“This is my prize of hard-working in the very hot sun for decades,”the 83-year-old said in his orchard (果 園) in the small town of Malihabad.“In your eyes,it's just a tree.But if you see through your mind,it's a tree,an orchard,and the biggest mango college in the world.”

3Khan was just a teenager when he conducted his first experiment in grafting (嫁接法),or joining plant parts to create new mango varieties.He nurtured a tree to produce seven new kinds of fruit,but it blew down in a storm.But since 1987,his pride and joy has been the 121-year-old specimen,source of more than 300 different types of mango,each with their own taste,texture,color and size,he said.“People will come and go,but the mangoes will remain forever,and years after,whenever this mango is eaten,people will remember it,”said the father of eight.

4Standing 9 meters tall,his treasured tree has a strong trunk with wide-spreading,thick branches that yield pleasant shade against the Indian summer sun.The leaves are a patchwork of different textures and smells.In some places,they are yellow and glossy,and in others,a dark,dull green.“No two fingerprints are the same,and no two mango varieties are similar.Nature has gifted mangoes with characteristics like humans,”Khan said.

5His method for grafting is complex,and involves diligently cutting a branch from one variety,leaving an open wound into which a branch from another variety is spliced (粘接)and sealed with tape.Khan's skills have won him numerous awards,among them one of India's highest civilian honors in 2008,as well as invitations to Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Reading Check

Inference

1.What's the function of paragraph 1?

A.To present a story.

B.To lead in the main topic.

C.To explain Khan's job.

D.To show great diligence of Khan.

Detail

2.Why does Khan consider his mango tree as his prize?

A.It is over 121 years old.

B.It produces a variety of mangoes.

C.It has won him numerous awards.

D.It yields shade against the hot sun.

Inference

3.Which of the following best describes Khan's job?

A.Boring.B.Well-paid.C.Demanding.D.Dangerous.

Language Study

Fill in the blanks with the words and phrase in the box in proper forms.

1.The report highlights the ________between the two groups.

2.The house was large and full of art ________.

3.It ________true that sport is about competing well,not winning.

4.From the plane,the landscape was just ________fields.

5.To complicate matters further,everybody's vitamin requirements ________.