Plants and Mankind

Botany, the study of pants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. We don't know what our stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of preindustrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapon, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon recognize hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them botany has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all.

Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct out knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose an apple or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.

1. It is logical that a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

2. People cannot survive without plants.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

3. Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon teach botany to their children at school.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

4. Our direct contact with plants grows with the process of industrialization.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

5. Today people usually acquire a large amount of botanical knowledge from textbooks.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

6. People living in the Middle East first learned to grow plants for food about 10,000 years ago.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

7. Once mankind began farming, they no longer had to get food from many varieties that grew wild.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

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