[Television Day:The baobab tree
[电视日:猴面包树
[Today our programme is about the baobab tree,
[今天我们的节目是关于猴面包树,
[which grows in West Africa and Australia.
[这种树生长在西非和澳大利亚.
[As you can see,it is a very strange-looking tree.
[你们都看到了它的外形奇特.
[Its enormous trunk sometimes as much as ten metres in diameter.
[巨大的树干其直径有时可达10米.
[It is thicker at the bottom than at the top.
[底部比顶部粗.
[The branches nearest the ground are very long;
[最靠近地面的树枝很长.
[those near the top are very short.
[而靠近顶部的树枝很短.
[It may be a strange-looking tree,
[虽然它外形看上去奇特,
[but it is extremely useful.
[但它的用途极其广泛.
[Its leaves are good to eat.
[树叶味道很好,
[Its white flowers turn into cool,juicy fruit which tastes rather like cucumber.
[树开出的白色的花能出一种清凉多汁的水果其味似黄瓜.
[There are such strong fibres in the bark,
[树皮中的纤维牢度大
[that people can make rope and cloth from them.
[可用来做绳子和布.
[When a baobab gets old its trunk becomes hollow.
[到猴面包树老了,树干就空了,
[An old tree has such a huge,hollow trunk,that it can hold many people.
[巨大的树洞可以容纳好多人.
[The local people often build their houses inside these trunks.
[当地人常在树干里造房子.
[When it rains,water collects in the hollow
[下雨时,水就积在树洞内.
[The tree has such a lot of leaves and branches,
[这种树的树叶和树枝茂盛
[that the water remains cool and fresh.
[因此积下的水可保持清凉、新鲜.
[It is such a useful tree,
[猴面包树实用价值高,
[some people could hardly live without it.
[有些人离了它就不行.