loadingUnit 4 Save the trees Trees in our daily lives
Rebecca wants to know more about trees and how they help us. She is
interviewing Dr Jones about trees.
Rebecca: How do trees help us, Dr Jones?
Dr. Jones: They help us in many ways. They keep the air cool and clean.
They take in harmful gases from the air and produce oxygen for us to
breathe. They’re major fighters against air pollution.
Rebecca: I know trees also make our lives more convenient. Many of the
things in our daily lives come from trees. For example, paper and pencils.
Dr Jones: You’re right, Rebecca. In fact, we got a lot more from trees. We
get fruit and oil from them. Tea also comes from the leaves of trees. Look
around this room. A lot of the furniture is made of wood. Trees are really
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important in our daily lives.
Rebecca: I can’t imagine a world without trees.
Dr Jones: But we cut down millions of trees every year. We should stop
doing this if we don’t want a world without trees.
The Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest in South America is the largest rainforest in the
world. It covers five and a half million square kilometres of the Amazon
Basin and spreads across nine countries.
The Amazon rainforest is very important because it is home to thousands
of animals, birds and insects. However, people are destroying the area by
cutting down many of the trees. This is called “deforestation”. Many living
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things lose their homes because of deforestation. As a result, the number of kinds of animals, birds, insects and trees in the world is decreasing.
We must do our best to protect the Amazon rainforest.
Chinese tea
Tea is the most popular drink in the world besides water. All tea comes
from the tea plant. People pick leaves from it to make tea.
The habit of drinking tea has a long history in China. According to an old
story, Chinese emperor Shennong discovered tea. Lu Yu, a writer during
the Tang dynasty, wrote the first book about tea.
There are several types of Chinese tea, such as white tea, green tea and
black tea.
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Unit 5 Water Water talks
Dora was in the bathroom. The tap was on.
“Turn that tap off,” said an angry voice. “You’re wasting water.”
Dora looked around, but there was no one there.
“Who are you ?”
“I’m a drop of water. Do you know where I come from?”
“From the tap?” asked Dora.
“A few days ago, I was in a cloud, ”said the drop of water. “Then I dropped
in a river and ran into a reservoir. Then it was time for people to clean me.”
“Clean you?”Dora asked.
“Yes. I was dirty. They cleaned me and added some chemicals to me. Then
I travelled through the pipes under the streets and now I’m here.”
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Dora asked, ”So is this your end of journey?”
“No. People will make me clean again. I’ll go into a river and then into the
sea again.” “Again?”
“Yes. My journey starts there. Remember not to waste or pollute me. I’m
valuable.”
Dora turned tap off and came out of the bathroom.
Facts about water
Here are some interesting facts about water:
About 70% of human body is water.
Oceans cover about 75% of the Earth, but ocean water is salty. Therefore
most of the water in the world is not drinkable.
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