人類文明是從植物學開始的，比如種地，植物學一開始就是面向生物的營養與健康的。植物學是生物學的分支學科。下面，小編為大家送上一篇公共英語三級閱讀文章，我們一起走進植物學的世界。
Botany
Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest of insights. It is impossible to know today just 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, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them, botany, as such, 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 our 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.
植物學
植物學，即對植物的研究，在人類知識的歷史中佔據了特殊的地位。這是人類幾千年來超越模糊的認知而真正有所瞭解的領域之一。我們今天不可能知道新石器時代的祖先們對植物到底瞭解多少，但我們在至今仍存在的前工業化社會觀察到：人類對植物及其特性的詳細瞭解應該是非常古老的。這是理所當然的。植物是其他生物甚至其他植物食物金字塔的基礎。它們對人們的生活至關重要，不僅在食物上，而且在衣物、武器、工具、染料、 藥物、住所和許許多多其他的用途上。至今仍生活在亞馬遜河叢林中的部落確實能夠辨識幾百種植物並知道每一種的許多特性。對他們來說，植物學沒有專門的名稱，甚至可能根本未被認為是一種專門知識。
不幸的是，工業化的程度越高，我們距直接與植物接觸就越遠，我們的植物學知識的增加也就越微不足道。然而每個人在不知不覺中擁有大量的植物學知識，很少有人認不出玫瑰、蘋果或蘭花。大約一萬年前居住在中東的新時代的祖先們 發現某些草能被收穫，它們的種子下一季耕種會收穫更多時，人類就邁出了人和植物之間的新關係第一大步。穀子被發現後，農業的奇蹟從此誕生：這就是可栽培的穀物。從那時起，人類越來越依賴少數可控制的作物生存，而不再是從眾多的野生種類中這裡獲取一點，那裡獲取一點。這樣在千萬年中對於野生植物的經驗和密切聯絡中積累起來的知識就開始消失了。
所謂釋義性的題目，就是要求對文章中闡述的事物進行準確的解釋。問題往往問該事物的特徵、優點、功能、作用等，如
The main characteristics of the system is _________.
One of the advantages of living in the countryside is _________.
這類問題在閱讀理解的題目中佔較大的比例。因為，閱讀理解的文章大多是說明文體裁。說明文就是對事物解釋，定義。文章用較大的篇幅來解釋，答案項要麼是對這些解釋的'另一說法，要麼是對這些解釋的歸納。
這類問題雖屬細節題，但不容易做。有兩點要注意。
1.注意解釋的準確性
干擾項往往在對文章事物的解釋中，夾帶"私貨：，加進一些詞，誇大了原文的意義，作了不合事實的引伸。
這就告訴我們，在辨別資訊時，對一些對原文解釋、歸納的選項，要注意其釋義的準確性。特別要當心在解釋時加進一些修飾詞，如mainly，chiefly，whenever，Only等，使原文的意思發生細微的變化。因此有這些詞的選項，多半是錯誤的。
2.注意歸納的準確性來源：
考試大多問的是事物的主要特點、特徵、功能，干擾項卻把次要的、細節性的東西，具體事實混進選項。
這告訴我們，在做釋義題，辨別選項時，要注意區分細節和結論，事實和觀點。問歸納性的結論，觀點時不要把具體的細節，事實套上去。
