Coastal redwood trees,one of the oldest living things

浙江 李 暢

海岸紅杉是地球上現存最高的樹木，也是地球上最古老的生物之一。它們曾一度遍布于加利福尼亞州的海岸，但現如今只剩下不到原始面積的十分之一。

主題語境：生態環境 篇幅：359詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1There is nothing like a coast redwood.It is the planet's tallest tree, up to heights of more than 320 feet into the sky.With trunks （樹干） that grow to more than 27 feet wide, they can live for over 2,000 years.Some of them living today were alive during the time of the Roman Empire.

2Coast redwoods have survived through thousands of years of natural floods, droughts,tsunamis and fires.They can thrive and recover from damage as long as they can count on rainwater and coastal fog banks that roll in every morning.And it is those critical water sources that are disappearing as temperatures continue to rise.The damp conditions the trees like are rarer than they used to be.Coast redwoods now occupy less than 10 percent of their original range.

3Their loss will have some consequences, particularly in the vast amount of carbon they store.Redwoods can store 2,600 metric tons of carbon per hectare, more than double the absorption rate of the Pacific Northwest's conifer trees（針葉樹）, according to a new research published inForest Ecology and Management.

4David Milarch, an arborist (樹木研究者) from Michigan, says he feels sorrowful about the disappearing redwoods.He spends his days tracking down the healthiest coast redwood specimens he can find, cloning them in his own lab, and then planting them in carefully chosen places where they can thrive.Milarch's goal is both to strengthen the coast redwood gene pool with clones of the strongest individuals, and to store loads of carbon.It's a complicated mission with a simple philosophy: save the big trees, and they'll save us.

5Milarch explains that we need a practical and measurable solution to fight against climate change.He believes the redwoods are the answer.However,scientist Mark Maslin cautions against viewing tree planting as a magic bullet,since even fast-growing trees take a long time to grow and be mature enough to reach their maximum carbon-trapping time which climate change cannot afford.As a global society, the most important thing we should do now is to reduce our overall carbon emissions if we want to have any impact on the planet's climate crisis.

Reading Check

Detail1.What causes the decrease of coast redwoods?

A.Forest fires.B.Soil pollution.

C.Warming climate.D.Humans' overcutting.

Inference2.Why does the author mention the research in paragraph 3?

A.To show the importance of redwoods to the environment.

B.To introduce the approach to reducing carbon pollutants.

C.To state the role of the Pacific Northwest's conifer trees.

D.To explain the difficulty of protecting coast redwoods.

Detail3.How does Milarch save the redwoods?

A.By seeking ideal specimens to clone.

B.By exploring ways to raise their adaptability.

C.By improving water sources in coastal places.

D.By creating a wet growing environment for them.

Detail4.What can we know from Mark Maslin's view in the last paragraph?

A.Scientists need to find ways to make redwoods grow faster.

B.Growing redwoods is an efficient solution to climate change.

C.Protecting redwoods can be much costlier than Milarch thought.

D.Reducing carbon emissions should be a priority in solving the climate crisis.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Text-centered chunks

count on 依賴

fog bank 霧堤；霧陣

roll in 大量涌入

track down 搜尋到；追查到

caution against 警告

magic bullet 靈丹妙藥

carbon emission 碳排放

Ⅱ.Difficult sentence in the text

However, scientist Mark Maslin cautions against viewing tree planting as a magic bullet, since even fast-growing trees take a long time to grow and be mature enough to reach their maximum carbon-trapping time which climate change cannot afford.然而，科學家馬克·馬斯林警告說，不要把植樹看作一粒靈丹妙藥，因為即使是快速生長的樹木也需要很長時間才能生長并且成熟到足以達到最大的碳捕集時間，這是氣候變化無法承受的。

【點石成金】本句中，since 引導原因狀語從句，which 引導定語從句，which 在從句中作賓語。