Topic for discussion

There is some information about maple syrup in the text 3, but birch syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of birch trees, and is used in Russia in much the same way as maple syrup in Canada. What do you know about the birch syrup?

It is interesting to know

Aspen tree trunk

Trunk detail of an aspen tree (figure 5.4), showing the diamond-shaped lenticels. The green colour of the bark indicates the presence of chlorophyll, and aspen is one of the few trees which is able to photosynthe­sis through its bark, as well as its leaves.

Give the Russian equivalents for the proverbs.

Put not your hand between the bark and the tree.

Just as the twig is bent, the tree is in­clined.

 

Part 2 TREE

Unit 1 Tree classification

1.1 Active vocabulary:

blunt tip	тупая (скругленная) верхушка
bunch	связка, пучок
copse	низкорослый порослевый лес
coniferous trees	хвойные деревья
deciduous trees	лиственные деревья
evergreen	вечнозеленые деревья
grove	роща
old growth forest	перестойный лес
parent tree	родительское дерево
rounded shape	округлая форма
scale	чешуйка
sapling	молодое деревце
seedling	сеянец
tree species	виды деревьев
triangular shape	треугольная форма

Read and translate the text 1 using the active vocabulary and a dictionary.

Text 1

Tree types

 

A tree (figure 1.1) is a plant form that occurs in many different orders and families of plants. Trees show a wide variety of growth forms, leaf type and shape, bark characteristics, and reproductive organs.

A small group of trees growing together is called a grove or copse, and a landscape covered by a dense growth of trees is called a forest. Several biotypes are defined largely by the trees that inhabit them; examples are rainforest and taiga. A landscape of trees scattered or spaced across grassland (usually grazed or burned over periodically) is called a savanna. A forest of great age is called old growth forest or ancient woodland (in the UK). A young tree is called a sapling.

There are two major types of trees: coniferous and deciduous. The two most common types are known as coniferous trees (or conifers), and deciduous trees.

Coniferous trees grow upward rather than outward and have a train­gular shape. The leaves on a coniferous tree are either long, pointed need­les, or are small, flat scales. Seeds of coniferous trees grow in cones. When a cone opens its scales, the seeds fall out. There are three major groups of conifers-firs, spruces and pines – and they can be identified by their need­les. The firs have short needles with blunt tips. The spruces have four-sided needles that are very sharp. The pines have needles that grow in bunches, wrapped together at the base. Deciduous trees spread out as they grow and have a rounded shape. These trees have broad, flat leaves that catch a lot of light but cannot survive without warmth and water. Seeds of most deciduous trees are protected inside a hard nut or fleshy fruit. The seeds are dispersed when the fruits or nuts are eaten by animals. Since the seeds inside the fruit are not digestible, the animal eventually passes them out through its droppings, and often far away from the parent tree. This al­lows the seedling to grow in an area that is not overshadowed by its parent. Two common examples of deciduous trees are the oaks and maples.

In Canada, when summer ends and winter approaches, the leaves of deciduous trees die and as you’ve seen every autumn, turn brilliant red, fiery orange, shimmering yellow, gold and brown before they fall to the ground. When the leaves are gone, trees can no longer produce food and so stop growing during the winter months. Once the temperatures rise in the springtime and there is enough rainfall, tree buds sprout leaves once more and the tree begins to grow again. But not all evergreen trees are conifers (cone bearing trees). Some trees that are evergreen don’t have cones. These include laurels, acacias, eucalyptus trees that come from places where there is plenty of warmth and water all year round (e.g. California, the Mediterranean, Australia). And these evergreens actually have leaves and not needles (figure 1.2, figure 1.3).

 

	Figure 1.2.Acacia
		Figure 1.3. Eucaliptus

 

 

1.3 Find the answers to the following questions in the text 1:

1. How can we identify trees?

2. Why are trees valuable to our society?

3. How do coniferous trees and deciduous trees differ?

1.4 Match the terms with their definitions:

Evergreen	a large plant with a sturdy main trunk which lives for many years
Ecosystem	a cone-bearing tree
Shrub	a tree that sheds its leaves seasonally
Deciduous	a plant that retains green leaves all year
Tree	an interacting community of living organisms and their non-living environment
Conifer	a woody plant of lower height than a tree. It usually has many thick stems instead of one big trunk