How did you spend your free time during the weeks of lockdown, Georgina? Repainting the living room? Or doing exercise classes in the kitchen?
乔治娜，在封锁的几周里，你是如何度过空闲时间的？重新粉刷客厅？还是在厨房里上运动课？
Georgina(乔治娜)
Actually, Neil, I’ve been doing some online research into my family history. I’m investigating my family tree – you know, a drawing showing all the relationships between the different members of my family.
Well, Neil, this might surprise you but according to some people, trees also have families. There are mother trees who support and help feed child trees.
好吧，尼尔，这可能会让你感到惊讶，但根据一些人的说法，树木也有家庭。有些母树支持和帮助喂养子树。
Neil(尼尔)
That’s right. According to Suzanne Simard, one of the world’s leading tree researchers, trees should be seen as intelligent. They communicate with each other. They help each other. And as you mentioned, Georgina, they can even tell their family members.
So a tree can have its own family tree – amazing! Tell me more.
因此，一棵树可以有自己的家谱 —— 太棒了！告诉我更多。
Neil(尼尔)
OK, Georgina, but first let me ask you my quiz question. The largest trees in a wood or forest are called ‘mother trees’. As they’re the biggest, mother trees usually have the longest, most connected roots. So my question is this – what is the world’s largest currently living tree? Is it: a) a baobab tree?; b) a giant redwood tree? or, c) a sequoia tree?
Hmmm… I’ve seen photos of redwood trees in California and they’re huge, so I’ll say b) a giant redwood.
嗯......我在加利福尼亚看过红杉树的照片，它们很大，所以我会说 b） 一棵巨大的红杉。
Neil(尼尔)
OK Georgina, I’m sure you only chose that cause it’s the easiest one to pronounce but we’ll find out the answer at the end of the programme. Now let’s get back to that tree researcher, Suzanne Simard.
Her big idea was the ‘wood wide web’ – a way of describing the network of underground roots linking trees to other trees of the same family.
她的大想法是“木材宽网” —— 一种描述将树木与同一家族其他树木连接起来的地下根系网络的方式。
Neil(尼尔)
Here’s Suzanne explaining more about tree families to BBC World Service programme, The Big Idea:
以下是苏珊娜向 BBC 世界服务节目 The Big Idea 解释更多关于树家族的信息：
Suzanne Simard(苏珊娜·西玛德)
We found that the parent trees would favour those seedlings that were of their own kin versus the strangers.
我们发现，与陌生人相比，母树更倾向于那些属于自己亲戚的幼苗。
David Edmonds(大卫·埃德蒙兹)
That’s extraordinary – and when you say they favour their own family members, you mean they’ll send more nutrients to their offspring than they would to, as it were, a stranger tree?
Mother trees send food and nutrients to their own seedlings – young plants that have been grown from a seed.
母树将食物和营养物质输送到自己的幼苗中 —— 从种子中长出的幼苗。
Neil(尼尔)
In this way, parent trees help their offspring – another word for their children, or young. Mother trees can recognise and feed other trees of their own kin – an old fashioned word meaning family.
With the extra nutrients and carbon they receive, the offspring can extend their own root network and suck up even more nutrients…
凭借它们获得的额外营养和碳，后代可以扩展自己的根网络并吸收更多的营养物质......
Neil(尼尔)
…which in turn increases their own growth, turning some of them into the giants we see growing in California and other parts of the world.
…这反过来又促进了他们自己的增长，将他们中的一些人变成了我们在加利福尼亚和世界其他地区看到的巨人。
Georgina(乔治娜)
Amazing! With trees behaving in clever ways like this it’s no wonder Suzanne thinks they have intelligence.
了不起！树木的行为像这样聪明，难怪苏珊娜认为它们有智慧。
Neil(尼尔)
And that’s not all. Listen again as Suzanne discusses the question of whether trees are ‘alive’ with BBC World Service’s, The Big Idea. See if you can hear her opinion.
Alive in the sense of having agency in their destinies, instead of being you know… I think a lot of people think of trees as just sort of like these sticks that grow out of the ground, they’re kind of these inert things that don’t have agency in their destiny, that they don’t change behaviours and make decisions but what we’re finding is that they do all that. And you know what step back and think trees have evolved over a long long long time, way longer than human beings and they have evolved in communities and they have to grow and survive.
I think Suzanne believes trees are alive and intelligent, because she says they have agency – a concept meaning having the ability to act and effect your environment.
Dying trees even seem to know the future – before they die, they warn their offspring to start making new root connections.
垂死的树木甚至似乎知道未来 —— 在它们死亡之前，它们会警告它们的后代开始建立新的根连接。
Georgina(乔治娜)
Showing that trees have some understanding of their destiny – everything that happens in someone’s life and what will happen in the future.
表明树木对自己的命运有一定的理解 —— 某人生活中发生的一切以及未来会发生什么。
Neil(尼尔)
So it seems that trees are much more intelligent than we thought, Georgina.
所以看起来树木比我们想象的要聪明得多，乔治娜。
Georgina(乔治娜)
It’s certainly going to change how I feel about going for a walk in the woods, surrounded by all those intelligent trees chatting to each other. I wonder if they have family arguments.
这肯定会改变我在树林里散步的感觉，周围是所有那些互相聊天的聪明树。我想知道他们是否有家庭争吵。
Neil(尼尔)
Ha. Well, I wouldn’t argue with one of those really gigantic tree, such as… well, Georgina, you tell me.
哈哈。好吧，我不会与那些真正巨大的树之一争论，例如......好吧，乔治娜，你告诉我。
Georgina(乔治娜)
Ah, you mean your quiz question - about the largest living tree?
啊，你的意思是你的测验问题 - 关于最大的活树？
Neil(尼尔)
Exactly. What did you say?
完全。你说什么？
Georgina(乔治娜)
I said the largest currently living tree was, b) a giant redwood. Was I correct, Neil?
我说过，目前活着的最大的树是，b）一棵巨大的红杉。我是对的吗，尼尔？
Neil(尼尔)
Well, you got the ‘giant’ part right, Georgina, but in fact the answer was c) a giant sequoia named General Sherman. He lives in California’s Giant Forest, he’s a whopping 83 metres tall and measures a massive 33 metres around the trunk!
Ha-ha. Right then, Georgina, let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve used discussing intelligent trees, starting with family tree – a diagram showing the relationships between family members.
Trees are intelligent enough to communicate with their children, or offspring. These young plants which have grown from seeds are also known as seedlings.
树木足够聪明，可以与他们的孩子或后代交流。这些从种子长出的幼苗也被称为幼苗。
Neil(尼尔)
Another word we learned is kin – an old-fashioned way of saying family.
我们学到的另一个词是亲戚 —— 一种老式的表达家庭的方式。
Georgina(乔治娜)
According to tree expert Suzanne Simard, trees have agency – a term describing the ability to act and influence your surroundings.
根据树木专家苏珊娜·西玛德的说法，树木具有能动性 —— 一个描述行动和影响周围环境的能力的术语。
Neil(尼尔)
And the fact that trees make all kinds of decisions about their lives suggests they understand their destiny - everything that happens to someone during their life, including in the future.
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