Đọc hiểu lớp 6 · Tổng hợp Đọc hiểu 17

And now Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English. Springtime is a time of renewal and growth. Many plants end their long winter sleep and form new buds and shoots. Beautiful flowers will soon be showing their bright colors. And the grass will grow thicker and greener again. Some flowers bloom in a very noticeable way but that is not the case with grass. Imagine you are sitting in a grassy field. And you have only one job – to watch the grass grow. That does not sound very interesting. In fact, it sounds really boring. That idea is what gives us the expression “like watching grass grow.” We use this expression to describe an experience that is uninteresting. Another good word to describe it is tedious. We use this expression in many situations. Let’s hear a few examples: After the politician won his campaign, he gave a two-hour long acceptance speech. Two hours! It was as much fun as watching grass grow. I really don’t like watching long sports games. It’s like watching grass grow. Now, grass grows on the ground all the time. And usually, we don’t give it much thought. If you stand in one place for a long time, the grass will continue to grow under your feet. For people who are always active, always moving, always on-the-go, we can say they don't let grass grow under their feet. We can also say beneath their feet. And sometimes we use this expression as a command. Let’s hear some examples: Don’t let the grass grow beneath your feet. Get back to work. She certainly doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet. She’s been traveling non-stop for over a year. And that’s all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories. Until next time, I’m Anna Matteo.

Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories. Today we talk about a color found all throughout nature – green! Green is also very common in American English. Let’s hear Warren Scheer read a story about these colorful expressions! Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants. Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today - a person who is new in a job. About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west. Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities back east. The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country. Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early 1900s. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died. The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs. Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion, jealousy. The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play "Othello."