Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
An evergreen tree is a Christmas tradition in many
American homes. The tree is usually a pine or fir
dressed with lights and other colorful decorations.
Families might buy a cut tree or go to a tree farm
and cut one down themselves. Some people bring a
live tree in a pot into their home for the holidays
and then put it back outdoors. Some people rent a
Christmas tree. Companies might bring the same live
tree to the same family year after year. Or the tree
might get planted in a park or someplace else where
it could help the environment. There are some trees
that can be reused year after year because they are
made of plastic or metal. Another popular evergreen
this time of year is the mistletoe plant. It has
small white berries and leaves that feel like
leather. The traditional Christmas mistletoe is
native to Europe. Ancient Druids believed mistletoe
had magical powers. The plant can be found growing
on apple trees, lindens, maples and poplars.
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant. It connects itself
to a tree and steals nutrients and water. Today
mistletoe is best known as an excuse to steal a kiss
at a Christmas party. Kissing is a tradition if two
people stand under mistletoe hung in a doorway.
Another plant that many people connect with
Christmas is the poinsettia. Poinsettias are native
to Mexico. They can be white or pink, but most are
bright red. They are named after the first American
ambassador to Mexico. Joel Poinsett liked them
enough to send some back to the United States.
Babies or pets that chew on poinsettias might get
sick. But experts say the plant is not as poisonous
as some people think. Like millions of other houses,
the home of America's first president was decorated
for Christmas. George Washington's Mount Vernon
Estate is in Virginia.Visitors heard stories about
what Christmas was like at Mount Vernon in the
eighteenth century. The museum where visitors began
their tour was decorated with Christmas trees. Yet
Mount Vernon would not have had Christmas trees
during the late seventeen hundreds, when Washington
led the country. They did not become popular in the
United States until the eighteen hundreds. Visitors
learned that in Washington's time, there was
greenery inside the mansion, but that was probably
the extent of the decorations.For VOA Special
English, I'm Alex Villarreal.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
