TOEFL® intergral writing--excise in delta, about pruning

[Cibb]

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I am going to take the toefl exam this saturday. Thanks for your help.

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The lecturer talked about topping, which he thought was a kind of bad pruning and was possible to result in the just opposite of the purpose of pruning. He took the maple tree of one of his clients’ as an example to show the problem about topping.

Firstly, when the passage said that one purpose of pruning is to eliminate wild growth, topping might speed up the unnecessary growth of the tree. Topping off the main trunk of the tree will lead to faster growth of the tree which will return to the previous size in merely a few years. This certainly contract to the purpose of pruning.

Secondly, while pruning is supposed to improve the health of the tree as is said in the passage, topping may leave the tree stressed. The tree will be easier to catch diseases and insects, which, obviously, will harm the health of the tree. Moreover, topping will cause the tree to lose large amount of leaves and starve the tree, which further prevent the tree from grow healthily.

Additionally, another main purpose of pruning is to enhance the nature beauty of the trees. However, topping will spur the growth of unnecessary branches and took the natural shape of trees away while left the tree an ugly shape. At the same time, the unnecessary branches will be dangerous to the public when they go across the streets. This is also quite the opposite of the purpose of pruning.

In sum, the lecturer pointed out the possible damage that topping would cause to a tree and strongly conclude that topping is an inappropriate way of pruning.

TOEFL listening lectures: A lecture from a social sciences class (2)