Ginkgo Stinko

Beautiful tree, unusual leaves, terrible smell

Among trees, the Ginkgo biloba tree stands out. It’s not really related to any other living plant. Its unique leaves make the tree beautiful to look at. It’s hardy, too. Disease and pollution don’t bother it. The tree is so hardy that some survived the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima in 1945! Many cities in Asia and America planted this unique tree along their city streets. But they soon found out that beauty comes with a price. Ginkgo seeds smell really bad, like vomit.

Why did cities plant the bad-smelling trees? Because female trees, which bear the seeds, are impossible to tell from male ones. It takes a female tree at least 25 years to produce its first seeds. So most cities didn't want to cut down the big trees. Neither did some Asians. Inside the smelly flesh lies a white nut. They are prized by Chinese, Japanese and Koreans for cooking. They harvest them from trees in the fall. One man's stink is another man's treat!

Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: So 
You would not believe the recent controversy one little word has been causing among native English speakers.

It’s the two letter word, “so”.  And the problem it's causing, like so many other things language purists like to complain about, is its unorthodox usages are becoming accepted by the public.

Horrors, "so" is being used to start sentences as in, "So, let me tell you why I think sentences should begin only with a subject."

Right. Not surprisingly, this usage is being propagated mostly by, who else, young people. Critics, that is, the older people, think that using “so” in this way, makes teenager sound unsure of themselves and noncommittal.

Well, young people are using “so” in the middle of sentences too, as in, “I’m so not eating that.”

Hey, is that correct English? Okay, finally “so” is also been used at the ends of sentences, for example, I couldn’t sleep last night, because I drank too much coffee so…

We call this the dangling "so". It suggests the speaker’s thought will continue after the sentence ends.

Some university English departments believe “so” has become so misused that they placed it on their list of banished words, so….

Language Lab
related adj.
things that are related are connected in some way:
- These two robberies are related. They were probably done by the same people.
connected by a family relationship:
- Laura claims that she's related to the royal family.

hardy adj.
strong and healthy and able to bear difficult living conditions:
- The plant is very hardy, so it can survive in harsh winters.
- The children were brought up to be hardy. They're not afraid of challenges.

flesh n. 果食或動物可吃的部份
he soft part of the body of a person or animal that is between the skin and the bones;
the soft part of a fruit or vegetable that can be eaten:
- The flesh of the fruit is sweet and juicy.
- The flesh of the fish was ground up to make fish balls.
- The lion finished eating the antelope's flesh in a matter of hours.
antelope n.
an animal with long horns that can run very fast and is very graceful

stink v.
past tense stank, past participle stunk [intransitive]
to have a strong and very unpleasant smell:
- The rotten fish really stank.
stinky adj.
smelling unpleasant [= smelly]:
- The smell of stinky tofu is repulsive to many people.

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