Tree Rings

Do you know something about tree rings? Do you know they can tell us what the weather was like, sometimes they can show us an exact record of the weather even hundreds of years ago.

A tree will grow well in a climate with lots of sunlight and rainfall. It is also expected that little sunlight or rainfall will limit the growth of a tree. The change from a favorable to an unfavorable climate can be seen by reading the tree rings in a tree trunk. To find out the weather of ten years ago, count the rings of a tree trunk from the outside to the inside. If the tenth ring is far from the other rings, then we’re sure that lots of sunny and rainy weather happened.

Tree rings are important not only for studying the history of weather but also for studying the history of man. In a place of New Mexico you can find only sand ― no trees and no people. But many centuries ago many of people lived there. Why?

A scientist studied the rings of dead tree. He found that the people had to leave because they had cut down all the trees to make fires and buildings. As all the trees had gone the people there had to move.

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・上期参考译文・

汉堡包

众所周知，汉堡包是一种十分风靡的美国食品。可是，美国人做汉堡包是从德国人那里学的，而德国人又是从俄罗斯人那里获得的灵感。

13世纪时，鞑靼人从中亚迁居到俄罗斯和欧洲的某些地区，并击败了俄罗斯人。鞑靼人吃的肉类似于现在的汉堡包中夹的肉，只不过那肉是生的。这些生肉包括牛肉、羊肉和马肉。不久，俄罗斯人也开始吃生肉了。来自德国汉堡市及其他一些北方城市的德国人，也学着俄罗斯人的样子吃这种肉，所不同的是，他们在肉里加入盐、胡椒、生鸡蛋，进行烹调之后才吃。

1904年，在美国圣路易斯市（位于密西西比河畔）举办的世界博览会上，有一个德克萨斯人将汉堡牛排夹在面包卷中出售。人们可以像吃三明治一样用手拿着吃。这就是第一个真正意义上的汉堡包，和我们今天吃的汉堡包差不多。

现在，仍有人喜欢吃生牛肉，他们称这种生牛肉为“鞑靼牛排”。