the willow

Dear students,

I planned to give you a quiz this week, but since you had a lot of tasks to do, and as you suggested as well, I postponed it. You also wish that this week you had an on line class instead of classroom meeting. I, then, decided to give you this material, which emphasizes on reading comprehension and passive voice. I hope that you do what you have to do well. Good luck and Happy New Year!

Reading and Vocabulary Section

A. Read the following text without a dictionary, and try to get the message. Don’t worry if you don’t know some of the words.

The willows all have abundant watery sap, bark which is heavily charged with salicylic acid, soft, usually pliant, tough wood, slender branches and large, fibrous, often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity of life, and roots readily grow from aerial parts of the plant.

The leaves are typically elongated but may also be round to oval, frequently with a serrated margin. All the buds are lateral; no absolutely terminal bud is ever formed. The buds are covered by a single scale, enclosing at its base two minute opposite buds, alternately arranged, with two, small, scale-like, fugacious, opposite leaves. The leaves are alternate, except the first pair which falls when about an inch long. They are simple, feather-veined, and typically linear-lanceolate. Usually they are serrate, rounded at base, acute or acuminate. The leaf petioles are short, the stipules often very conspicuous, looking like tiny round leaves and sometimes remaining for half the summer. On some species, however, they are small, inconspicuous, and fugacious (soon falling). In color the leaves show a great variety of greens, ranging from yellowish to bluish.

Willows are dioecious with male and female flowers appearing as catkins on different plants; the catkins are produced early in the spring, often before the leaves, or as the new leaves open. The staminate (male) flowers are without either calyx or corolla; they consist simply of stamens, varying in number from two to ten, accompanied by a nectariferous gland and inserted on the base of a scale which is itself borne on the rachis of a drooping raceme called a catkin, or ament. This scale is oval and entire and very hairy. The anthers are rose colored in the bud but orange or purple after the flower opens, they are two-celled and the cells open longitudinally. The filaments are threadlike, usually pale yellow, and often hairy.

The pistillate (female) flowers are also without calyx or corolla; and consist of a single ovary accompanied by a small flat nectar gland and inserted on the base of a scale which is likewise borne on the rachis of a catkin. The ovary is one-celled, the style two-lobed, and the ovules numerous.

The fruit is a small, one-celled, two-valved, cylindrical beaked capsule containing numerous tiny (0.1 mm) seeds. The seeds are furnished with long, silky, white hairs, which allow the fruit to be widely dispersed by the wind.

Almost all willows take root very readily from cuttings or where broken branches lie on the ground. There are a few exceptions, including the goat willow and peach leaf willow. One famous example of such growth from cuttings involves the poet Alexander Pope, who begged a twig from a parcel tied with twigs sent from Spain to Lady Suffolk. This twig was planted and thrived, and legend has it that all of England's weeping willows are descended from this first one.

Willows are often planted on the borders of streams so that their interlacing roots may protect the bank against the action of the water. Frequently the roots are much larger than the stem which grows from them.

B. Find the words from the text that have similar meaning to the words below.

1. plenty

2. smooth

3. slim

4. big

5. often

6. one

7. small

8. pink

9. also

10. supplied

C. Answer the following questions relating to the text.

1. How many colors are mentioned in the text? What are they?
2. What is the difference between red and reddish?
3. Mention five adjectives you find in the text.
4. What part of speech is ‘toughness’? Can you mention three more words ending with –ness?
5. What part of speech is ‘readily’? Can you mention three more words ending with –ly?

Grammar Section

Change the following passive forms into active ones

1. No absolutely terminal bud is ever formed.
2. The buds are covered by a single scale.
3. The catkins are produced early in the spring.
4. The seeds are furnished with long, silky, white hairs.
5. Willows are often planted on the borders of streams.