[ Journals ] 10

　　Can trees talk? Yes—but not in words. Scientists have reason to believe that trees do communicate with each other. Not long ago, researchers learned some surprising things. First a willow tree attacked in the woods by caterpillars changed the chemistry of its leaves and made them taste so awful that the caterpillars got disgusted and stopped eating them. Then, even more astonishing, the tree sent out special vapors—an alarm signal stimulating its neighbors to change the chemistry of their own leaves and make them less tasty.
　　Communication, of course, doesn’t need to be in words. We can talk to each other by a smile, a frown, a shrug of our shoulders, a gesture with our hands. We know that birds use a whole vocabulary of songs, sounds, and movements. Bees dance their signals, flying in certain patterns that tell other bees where to find nectar for honey. So, why shouldn’t trees have ways of sending messages.


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I. Summarize

　　Trees can talk—in their ways. For example, scientists learned that a willow tree protected itself by changing the chemistry of its leaves and made them taste awful that caterpillars would stop eating them. And there’s another thing more amazing that the tree sent out special vapors as an alarm signal stimulating its neighbors to change the chemistry of their own leaves and made them less tasty.
　　And there are much more ways to communication between human beings and animals. We can talk to each other by gestures and facial impressions. Animals, like birds, use a whole vocabulary of singing and dancing. So, it doesn’t matter that trees use what kind of way to “talk.”


II. Vocabulary words and phrases

i. new words/phrases
astonishing adj. 令人驚訝的
vapor noun 水蒸氣
stimulating 有刺激性的
nectar noun 花蜜

ii. useful words / phrases
attack verb 侵害
frown noun 皺眉; 蹙眉
pattern noun 模範; 式樣


III. The reason I chose this article

　　I found this article was interesting so I pick it up. We can see trees and animals talk in the movies and animations, but how can they talk like human beings? The answer is that they actually talks, but not in words, in their own ways!