植物-Plants

植物-Plants

 Plants
     Plants seem to know which way is up and which way is down; besides, they seem to know right from left. If a cutting from a tree is kept alive, new shoots will grow from the end
that grew in the highest part of the tree.
     There is no noticeable difference between the top and the bottom of the living stick, even under a microscope. Even so, the stick will not send out shoots from the end it regards as
bottom even if this end happens to be on top!
Scientists studying this subject further split their cuttings in the direction of length.  To their surprise, they made another new discovery. A good many more buds grew on the righthand side of the split surface than on the left. They split the sticks again and found that the buds again grew on the right side.
The results of the entire study showed a 60% choice for the right side, proving that growing plants are mostly "righthanded.”
[點評]
    此文描述的是植物的鮮為人知的特性：能區(qū)分上下左右。文章列舉了例證和數(shù)據(jù)，令人信服，同時也使讀者獲得了知識。
[參考譯文]
植物
植物似乎知道哪邊是上，哪邊是下；而且還好像知道左右。如果要使從樹上砍下的枝子活下去，那么新芽會從樹上最高處的那頭發(fā)出。
    這個活枝子的頭尾沒有明顯的差異。甚至在顯微鏡下也看不出來。即使如此，這個枝子也不會從當(dāng)作下頭處長出芽來。既使這個頭正好是上頭，也不會。
    研究這個課題的科學(xué)家們進(jìn)一步將這樹枝順著劈開。他們很驚訝，又有了新的發(fā)現(xiàn)。被劈開的表面上從右邊長出的幼芽比左邊多得多。他們再次劈開樹枝，幼芽又從右邊發(fā)出。
這項研究的結(jié)果表明，60％的植物是右邊先出芽，證明植物大部分是“右撇子”。