VOA慢速英语2016--尸臭魔芋花在华盛顿植物园盛开

AS IT IS 2016-08-02 Smelly 'Corpse¹' Flower To Bloom in Washington, DC 尸臭魔芋花在华盛顿植物园盛开

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A rare flower, called the titan arum, is about to blossom at the U.S. Botanic Garden. Unlike most flowers though, it is very smelly.

Some people say the smell is like rotting flesh or a dead body. That is why the flower is sometimes called a corpse flower. Corpse is a term for a dead body.

The flower comes from Indonesia where the tropical climate is warm most of the time. Washington, D.C., is warm in the summer, but it is too cold for the plant to survive outside during the winter.

So the plant lives indoors in a greenhouse, where the temperature can be controlled and it is warm and humid year-round.

The plant does not produce flowers each year. Once it blossoms, it may not bloom again for a number of years. The flower is actually a collection of a hundreds of small flowers working together.

The titan arum produces its strong smell to attract insects. The insects help pollinate the flower and make sure the titan arum can produce the next generation. The bad smell only lasts about two days. After that, the plant goes dormant² again.

The U.S. Botanic Garden has shown five other titan arums since 2003. This is the first time the six-year-old plant has blossomed, and people are excited.

The garden is open to visitors longer than usual each day so people can see the flower. It is supposed to be smelliest at night.

There is also a live webcam so people can check the status of the plant.

Last week, the same kind of plant bloomed at a garden in New York City. Many people posted videos and photos on Facebook and Twitter.

The one in New York opened on Friday. By Monday, it was not smelly anymore.

Words in This Story

blossom – v. to produce flowers

flesh – n. the soft parts of the body of an animal or person

greenhouse – n. a building or part of a building that has glass walls and a glass roof and that is used for growing plants

bloom –v. the opening of a flower from a bud

bloom –n. an opened flower

pollinate – v. to give (a plant) pollen³ from another plant of the same kind so that seeds will be produced

dormant – adj. not doing anything at this time : not active but able to become active

1 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

2 dormant   

adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的

参考例句：

• Many animals are in a dormant state during winter.在冬天许多动物都处于睡眠状态。
• This dormant volcano suddenly fired up.这座休眠火山突然爆发了。

3 pollen   

n.[植]花粉

参考例句：

• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。