(D) "Time cannot be
added to a person’s life, but it can be made more valuable by avoiding waste. "
This was the philosophy of a man who devoted most of his time to the creation of
new plants: Luther Burbank, the plant magician. Burbank has
been called the plant magician because he could do things with plants which were
as amazing as the tricks of a magician. He truly astonished the world with his
achievements in the development of many kinds of plants, such as giant fruits
with new flavors and trees which grew faster than their ancestors. These, and
many more achievements, were of great economic value and benefit to people all
over the world. In his lifetime of seventy-seven years Burbank
became an American legend. He began life in 1849 on a farm in the state of
Massachusetts. It was the same year that men across the continent in California
discovered gold, that precious metal so eagerly sought after in the earth.
Eventually Burbank would follow them. But he would spend his life drawing a
different treasure from the same California earth: a wealth of new plants and
fruits. The Massachusetts countryside may have provided young
Burbank with a feeling for the mysteries of nature, but his scientific training
came during the visits of an uncle who was a scientist. Through his uncle,
Luther met the famous naturalist, Louis Agassiz. Agassiz introduced him to the
complicated process by which plants grow, such as the steps in the making of
seeds from pollen (花粉) carried by insects, by birds, by the very winds of the
field. Attracted by the ways of nature, Burbank took his first steps into the
work that was to occupy his whole life. Which of the following statements is NOT true
A. Burbank’s work was of great economic value.
B. Burbank could play amazing tricks with plants.
C. Men discovered gold in California in 1849.
D. Burbank achieved great fame in America.