Learning English

Tejali
Hello! ऐकलंत का? Listen Here! मध्ये तुमचं स्वागत. मी तेजाली आणि माझ्यासोबत आहे रॉब आणि जेम्स.

Rob
I'm Rob.

James
And I'm James.

Tejali
तुला काय वाटत जेम्स, संभाषण फक्त माणसंच करतात का?

Rob
No – of course not! Animals communicate in different ways too – cats and dogs use their scent to send a message for example.

James
That's true – and I suppose the different noises animals make can have meaning. But really, I suppose it's only humans who communicate through speech.

Tejali
Well, what if I told you that plants could communicate?

Rob & James
Plants?!

James
There's no way that could be true!

Tejali
अरे हो! झाडंही गप्पा मारतात, संभाषण करतात. शास्त्रज्ञांनी याचा शोध कसा लावला, ते आज आपण जाणून घेणार आहोत. झाडं एकमेकांना काय संदेश देत असतील? काय सांगतायत हे शास्त्रज्ञ?   

Insert
They took plants, they reduced their roots to two each and they potted them up in a way that meant that each plant had one root in one pot and the other root in a next pot and this was shared by the first root of the next plant and so on, creating an unbroken chain of plants connected by their roots up to five plants long.
Then, what scientists did was that they exposed the first root of the first plant to drought. So the question was: do plants pass the message on about drought?

Tejali
शास्त्रज्ञांनी वेगवेगळ्या कुंड्यांमध्ये रोपं लावली आणि त्यांची मूळं एकमेकांना जोडली. नंतर त्यांनी पहिल्या कुंडीतली माती पूर्ण कोरडी केली. त्यांची अशी अपेक्षा होती की इतर रोपांनांही, पहिल्या कुंडीत पाणी नाही याची जाणीव होईल.  

Rob
The speaker said 'roots' – this is the part of a plant that is underground.

James
He also said 'drought' – which means there is no water.

Rob
Did you notice the word 'pot'? It was used in two different ways. Let's listen again – what are the different forms of the words?

Insert
They took plants, they reduced their roots to two each and they potted them up in a way that meant that each plant had one root in one pot and the other root in a next pot.

James
The speaker said 'potted', a verb, and 'pot', a noun.

Tejali
'Pot' हे नाम असेल तर त्याचा अर्थ होतो कुंडी. 'To pot'  म्हणजे क्रियापद ज्याचा अर्थ होतो म्हणजे कुंडीत रोप लावणे.

Rob
This is an example of a word that can be both a verb or a noun without any changes. However, many words do change to become a different word form.

Tejali
हे परत एकदा ऐका. 'Break' म्हणजे तुटणे हे क्रियापद कसं वापरलंय?

Insert
…creating an unbroken chain of plants.

James
The speaker used the opposite of the adjective broken, 'unbroken'. To make it negative, the speaker added un- at the beginning. Un- is the most common negative prefix in English, but not the only one.

Tejali
शब्दाचा विरुद्धार्थी शब्द बनवायला शब्दाच्या आधी un, in, dis किंवा  mis हे prefix  वापरतात. शास्त्रज्ञ त्यांच्या प्रयोगाबद्दल अजून काय काय सांगतायत बर? रोपांनी संदेशवहन केलं हे त्यांना असं लक्षात आलं? .

Insert
We have shown, for the first time, that this information is not only passed to the immediate neighbour, but it can be relayed like in a domino effect.
And the scientists could measure that this message was communicated as the recipient plants closed the pores in their leaves to reduce water loss.

Teja
पाणी कमी प्रमाणात बाहेर पडावं यासाठी रोपांनी त्यांची रंध्र मिटून घेतली. यातून, त्यांना दुष्काळाचा संदेश मिळाला हे स्पष्ट होतं. रंध्र म्हणजे pores.

James
That is incredible – plants can communicate by their roots! I like one of the speaker's phrases – listen again.

Insert
It can be relayed like in a domino effect.

Rob
'A domino effect' is when one event causes another event, and then another and then another. There were some more examples of word building in this insert too. Listen again – what form of the verb 'receive' does the speaker use?

Insert
And the scientists could measure that this message was communicated as the recipient plants closed the pores in their leaves to reduce water loss.

James
He said 'recipient'. This is the noun form of the verb 'receive', it means the person or thing that receives.

Rob
Did you hear his pronunciation of 'that' in the insert? Let's listen one more time.

Insert
…and the scientists could measure that this message was communicated.

James
He said 'that' a short form of 'that' – in fast, connected speech we shorten the word. Could you demonstrate that for us please, Rob?

Rob
Sure – listen and repeat after me.
measure that
measure that this message
Scientists could measure that this message was communicated.

Tejali
Thanks Rob! आज इथेच थांबू. पुन्हा भेटू Listen Here! च्या पुढच्या भागात. Bye Bye.