83歲的印度“杧果人”

丁黎明

每天清晨，卡里姆都會(huì)步行約1.6千米到那棵有121年樹齡的杧果樹前，仔細(xì)地觀察樹枝、樹葉，聞一聞果實(shí)，以此來(lái)判斷它們是否成熟。

主題語(yǔ)境：杧果種植 篇幅：355詞建議用時(shí)：7分鐘

Every day， Kaleem Ullah Khan wakes at dawn， and then walks about a mile to his121?year?old mango tree， which he has coaxed （耐心地?cái)[弄） into producing more than 300varieties of the beloved fruit over the years. His footsteps quicken as he draws nearer andhis eyes light up as he looks closely at the branches， touching the leaves and sniffing thefruits to see if they are ripe.

“ This is my prize of hard?working in the very hot sun for decades，” the 83?year?oldsaid in his orchard （果園） in the small town of Malihabad.“ In your eyes， its just a tree.But if you see through your mind， its a tree， an orchard， and the biggest mango college inthe world.”

Khan was just a teenager when he conducted his first experiment in grafting （嫁接法）， or joining plant parts to create new mango varieties. He nurtured a tree to produceseven new kinds of fruit， but it blew down in a storm. But since 1987， his pride and joy hasbeen the 121?year?old specimen， source of more than 300 different types of mango， eachwith their own taste， texture， color and size， he said.“ People will come and go， but themangoes will remain forever， and years after， whenever this mango is eaten， people willremember it，” said the father of eight.

Standing 9 meters tall， his treasured tree has a strong trunk with wide?spreading，thick branches that yield pleasant shade against the Indian summer sun. The leaves are apatchwork of different textures and smells. In some places， they are yellow and glossy， andin others， a dark， dull green.“ No two fingerprints are the same， and no two mango varietiesare similar. Nature has gifted mangoes with characteristics like humans，” Khan said.

His method for grafting is complex， and involves diligently cutting a branch from onevariety， leaving an open wound into which a branch from another variety is spliced （粘接）and sealed with tape. Khans skills have won him numerous awards， among them one ofIndias highest civilian honors in 2008， as well as invitations to Iran and the United ArabEmirates.

LanguageStudy

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