The coconut palm

site: The coconut palm

Relative: ODE TO THE COCONUT PALM

For millennia, the coconut has been central to the lives of Polynesian and Asian peoples.

millennium /mɪˈlen.i.əm/ noun. 一千年

• plural millenniums/millennia

Today, images of palm-fringed tropical beaches are clichés in the west to sell holidays, chocolate bars, fizzy drinks and even romance.

cliché /kliːˈʃeɪ/ noun. 陈词滥调

Typically, we envisage coconuts as brown cannonballs that, when opened, provide sweet white flesh.

envisage /ɪnˈvɪz.ɪdʒ/ verb. 展望

cannonball /ˈkæn.ən.bɔːl/ noun. 炮弹

But we see only part of the fruit and none of the plant from which they come.

The coconut palm has a smooth, slender, grey trunk, up to 30 metres tall.

slender /ˈslen.dɚ/ adjective. 苗条的

The trunk is surmounted by a rosette of leaves, each of which may be up to six metres long.

surmounted /sɚˈmaʊnt/ verb. 居于…之上; 超越

rosette /roʊˈzet/ noun. 莲座型叶丛

The leaves have hard veins in their centres which, in many parts of the world, are used as brushes after the green part of the leaf has been stripped away.

vein /veɪn/ noun. 静脉; 叶脉; 纹路

Immature coconut flowers are tightly clustered together among the leaves at the top of the trunk.

cluster /ˈklʌs.tɚ/ noun. 群; 聚集; 丛生

The flower stems may be tapped for their sap to produce a drink, and the sap can also be reduced by boiling to produce a type of sugar used for cooking.

stem /stem/ noun. 茎

sap /sæp/ verb. 汁液

The wall of the fruit has three layers: a waterproof outer layer, a fibrous middle layer and a hard, inner layer. The thick fibrous middle layer produces coconut fibre, ‘coir’,which has numerous uses and is particularly important in manufacturing ropes.

waterproof /ˈwɑː.t̬ɚ.pruːf/ adjective. 防水的; 雨衣

The woody innermost layer, the shell, with its three prominent ‘eyes’,surrounds the seed.

prominent /ˈprɑː.mə.nənt/ adjective. 重要的

• reminiscent of the eye

An important product obtained from the shell is charcoal, which is widely used in various industries as well as in the home as a cooking fuel.

charcoal /ˈtʃɑːr.koʊl/ noun. 木炭

Dried coconut flesh, ‘copra,is made into coconut oil and coconut milk, which are widely used in cooking in different parts of the world, as well as in cosmetics.

cosmetics /kɑzˈmet̬·ɪks/ phrase. 化妆品

A derivative of coconut fat, glycerine, acquired strategic importance in a quite different sphere, as Alfred Nobel introduced the world to his nitroglycerine-based invention: dynamite.

derivative /dɪˈrɪv.ə.t̬ɪv/ adjective. 派生物; 衍生品

glycerine /ˈɡlɪs.ɚ.riːn/ noun. 甘油

sphere /sfɪr/ noun. 圆形实心体

nitroglycerine /ˌnaɪ.troʊˈɡlɪs.ɚ.iːn/ noun. 硝化甘油

dynamite /ˈdaɪ.nə.maɪt/ noun. 黄色炸药

The large, energy-rich fruits are able to float in water and tolerate salt, but cannot remain viable indefinitely; studies suggest after about 110 days at sea they are no longer able to germinate.

viable /ˈvaɪ.ə.bəl/ adjective. 有望成功的

germinate /ˈdʒɝː.mə.neɪt/ verb. 发芽

Literally cast onto desert island shores, with little more than sand to grow in and exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun, coconut seeds are able to germinate and root.

glare /ɡler/ noun. 刺眼的强光; 显眼

In America, there are close coconut relatives, but no evidence that coconuts are indigenous.

indigenous /ɪnˈdɪdʒ.ə.nəs/ adjective. 当地的

How baby talk gives infant brains a boost

site: How baby talk gives infant brains a boost

A The typical way of talking to a baby - high-pitched, exaggerated and repetitious - is a source of fascination for linguists who hope to understand how ‘baby talk’ impacts on learning.

pitched /pɪtʃt/ adjective. 高音; 投球

exaggerated /ɪɡˈzædʒ.ə.reɪ.t̬ɪd/ adjective. 夸大的

So how does the sweet if sometimes absurd sound of infant- directed speech influence a baby’s development?

absurd /əbˈsɝːd/ adjective. 荒唐的

‘The idea is that a kid gets to practice a certain kind of speech with mom and another kind of speech with dad, so the kid then has a wider repertoire of kinds of speech to practice,’ says VanDam.

repertoire /ˈrep.ɚ.twɑːr/ noun. 全部技能

The study found that the more baby talk parents used, the more their youngsters began to babble.

babble /ˈbæb.əl/ verb. 含糊不清地说

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a total of 57 babies from two slightly different age groups - seven months and eleven and a half months - were played a number of syllables from both their native language (English) and a non-native tongue (Spanish).

syllable /ˈsɪl.ə.bəl/ noun. 音节

Whatever happened to the Harappan Civilisation?

site: Whatever happened to the Harappan Civilisation?

The Harappan Civilisation was a sophisticated Bronze Age society who built ‘megacities’ and traded internationally in luxury craft products, and yet seemed to have left almost no depictions of themselves.

sophisticated /səˈfɪs.tə.keɪ.t̬ɪd/ adjective. 老于世故的

depiction /dɪˈpɪk.ʃən/ noun. 描绘

Houses were arranged in blocks, with wide main streets and narrow alleyways, and many had their own wells and drainage systems.

drainage /ˈdreɪ.nɪdʒ/ noun. 排水

Streets went uncleaned, buildings started to be abandoned, and ritual structures fell out of use.

ritual /ˈrɪtʃ.u.əl/ noun. 仪式; 惯例

Some have claimed that major glacier-fed rivers changed their course, dramatically affecting the water supply and agriculture; or that the cities could not cope with an increasing population, they exhausted their resource base, the trading economy broke down or they succumbed to invasion and conflict; and yet others that climate change caused an environmental change that affected food and water provision.

invasion /ɪnˈveɪ.ʒən/ noun. 入侵

provision /prəˈvɪʒ.ən/ noun. 供给

They realized that any attempts to use the existing data were likely to be fundamentally flawed.

flawed /flɑːd/ adjective. 有缺陷的

Over the course of several seasons of fieldwork they carried out new surveys, finding an astonishing 198 settlement sites that were previously unknown.

astonishing /əˈstɑː.nɪ.ʃɪŋ/ adjective. 令人大为惊奇的

The researchers gathered shells of Melanoides tuberculata snails from the sediments of an ancient lake and used geochemical analysis as a means of tracing the climate history of the region.

sediment /ˈsed.ə.mənt/ noun. 沉淀物

‘As today, the major source of water into the lake is likely to have been the summer monsoon,’ says Dixit. ‘But we have observed that there was an abrupt change about 4,100 years ago, when the amount of evaporation from the lake exceeded the rainfall一 indicative of a drought.’

monsoon /mɑːnˈsuːn/ noun. 季风; 雨季

abrupt /əˈbrʌpt/ adjective. 突然的

evaporation /ɪˌvæp.əˈreɪ.ʃən/ noun. 蒸发

exceeded /ɪkˈsiːd/ verb. 超过

‘By investigating responses to environmental pressures and threats, we can learn from the past to engage with the public, and the relevant governmental and administrative bodies, to be more proactive in issues such as the management and administration of water supply, the balance of urban and rural development, and the importance of preserving cultural heritage in the future.’

proactive /ˌproʊˈæk.tɪv/ adjective. 积极主动的