10.爬山虎的脚

Lesson Ten

The Feet of the Boston Ivy

1.The north wall of the school playground is covered with Boston ivy.

2.There is also Boston ivy gown in my house, which climbs up from the western wall of the courtyard and occupies a large area on the roof.

3.The newly grown leaves of Boston ivy are tender red, and when they grow up in a few days, they become tender green.

4.What attract people’s attention are not the tender leaves of Boston ivy, but the grown leaves.

5.Those leaves are so green that they make people feel comfortable.

6.The tip of the blades is straight down, and the leaves are spread evenly on the wall, without overlapping or leaving any gap.

7.When a gust of wind blows, the leaves on a wall ripple, which is very beautiful.

8.In the past, I only knew that this kind of plant was called Boston ivy, but I didn’t know how it could climb.

9.This year, I noticed that Boston ivy has feet.

10.The feet of Boston ivy are on the stem.

11.In the stem where there are petioles, there are six or seven branches of filaments sticking out from the opposite side, and each filament is like the tentacles of a snail.

12.Like new leaves, the filaments are tender red.Those are the feet of Boston ivy.

13.When the feet touch the wall, the heads of the filaments become small wafers, blocking the wall.

14.The straight filaments are now bent, which pull the tender stem of Boston ivy and make it cling to the wall.

15.This is how the Boston ivy climbs up.

16.If you look at those tiny feet carefully, you will think of the claws of the flood dragon in the picture.

17.If the feet don’t touch the wall, it would wither in a few days, and then there would be no trace at all.

18.When touching the wall, the filaments and small wafers gradually turn gray.

19.Don’t look down on those gray feet.They are quite firm on the wall.If you don’t exert your strength, you can’t pull down a root of Boston ivy.