Plants
Plants are very important living things. Life could not go on if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot do so. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals. Man gets his food by eating plants and animals, too. Therefore, animals and man need plants in order to live.
If you look carefully at the plants around you, you will find that there are many types of plants. Some plants are large while others are small. Most plants are green.
There are two main types of plants: flowering plants and nonflowering plants.
Flowering plants have roots, stems①, leaves, flowers and fruits. Almost all the trees around us are flowering plants. You can probably recognize some plants from their flowers or their fruits.
Nonflowering plants include coniferous trees, mosses, liver-worts, algae and fungi. You cannot see many nonflowering plants around you.
Most plants do not grow from seeds. They grow from spores. Spores are very, very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite similar to seeds. When these spores fall on wet and shady② places, they usually grow into new plants.
【词语解释】
①stem [stem] n. 茎;(树)干;(叶)梗
②shady[’sheidi] a.背阴的;阴凉的