本文選自《經濟學人》12月19日刊文章。在過去的1.2萬年，如果說地球擴張最成功的物種是人類，沒人會質疑，但如果說地球擴張最成功的物種是小麥，可能大部分人都會驚訝，但是事實是在過去的1.2萬年，小麥從中東地區一株不起眼的雜草，擴張到現在全世界的播種面積達到225萬平方公裡，成為毋庸置疑的植物界霸主。人類更是為它澆水，施肥，除草，除蟲，日出而作、日落而息，看似是人類馴化的小麥，但很少有人注意到，其實小麥也馴化了人類。對於這種人類朝夕相處的農作物，人類仍有很多未解之謎，最新研究發現，生長的沙漠周圍的小麥已經進化出用葉子從灰塵中吸收磷的能力，從而幫助它更好的生存。
由於篇幅較長，本文節選全文重點段落進行精講，譯文僅供參考。如需閱讀英文全文，請掃描文末二維碼，加我微信，查看朋友圈，或加入《365天精選外刊精讀》課程，每天和我們一起精讀外刊，課程介紹見文末。
選文精講
Agriculture and evolution 農業和進化Wheat absorbs phosphorus from desert dustAfter 12 millennia, a common crop still springs surprises在12,000年之後，一種常見的農作物仍然讓人們大吃一驚spring a surprise on sb: 讓某人大吃一驚、感到驚奇WHEAT WAS among the first plants to be domesticated and is now the most widespread crop in the world. It thus sounds unlikely there would be much left to learn about what makes it thrive. Yet, some 12,000 years after relations between people and wheat began, a wheat plant has been caught doing something unexpected. It helped itself to a dose of much-needed phosphorus when its leaves received a coating of desert dust.小麥是最早被馴化的植物之一，也是現在世界上最廣泛種植的作物，因此如果說人們關於這種植物的繁茂還有很多未知的地方，這聽起來不太可能。然而，在人類和小麥開始接觸大約12000年後，關於小麥還有一些意外發現。當它的葉子被一層沙漠灰塵覆蓋時，它的葉子可以幫助吸收生長所需的磷。The plant (or, rather, plants) in question were in the care of Avner Gross of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel. As Dr Gross told this year’s meeting of the American Geophysical Union, which took place online during the first half of December, his study was prompted by hikes he had taken near Neve Shalom, his home village in the Judean Hills. On these, he often noticed plant leaves completely covered in dust that had been carried there by sand storms from the Sahara desert.這種莊稼(或者更確切地說，這類莊稼)由以色列內蓋夫本古裡安大學的阿夫納·格羅斯照看。格羅斯博士在今年12月上半月在線舉行的美國地球物理聯盟會議上說，他的研究是受到在Neve Shalom附近徒步旅行的啟發，Neve Shalom是他在猶太山的家鄉。他經常看到莊稼的葉子完全被來自撒哈拉沙漠的沙塵暴帶到這裡的灰塵覆蓋。It occurred to him that this dust might not be the light-blocking nuisance it appeared at first sight. It could, on the contrary, be beneficial because of the growth-enhancing elements such as phosphorus which it contained. Until then, botanists had assumed that phosphorus in dust landing on a plant was of little value, because it is locked up in an insoluble mineral called apatite. This makes it unavailable for absorption. Dr Gross, however, reasoned that plants which had evolved near deserts, the source of almost all naturally occurring dust in the atmosphere, might well have evolved a way to exploit it.It occurred to sb: 某人突然想到……他突然想到，這些灰塵可能並不是乍看上去的那種會遮住陽光的討厭東西。相反，這些灰塵可能是有益的，因為它含有可以促進生長的元素，如磷。在此之前，植物學家一直認為落在植物上的灰塵中的磷沒有什麼價值，因為它被鎖在一種叫磷灰石的不溶礦物中，這讓它不能被吸收。然而，格羅斯博士認為，那些在沙漠附近（沙漠是大氣中幾乎所有自然產生的灰塵的來源）進化而來的莊稼很可能進化出了一種利用沙漠灰塵的方法。1. 每天一篇精選最新外刊文章的英文原文（主要選自《經濟學人》雜誌）
2. 課程筆記講義（PDF格式），包括
全文中文譯文
詞彙、短語解析
長難句解析
文章導讀
重點講解高頻詞彙、熟詞生義、優秀表達等
3. 全文逐句詳細講解視頻
4. 微信學習群，用於答疑解惑、學習交流
5. 不定期分享優質英文外刊文章，作為泛讀材料
課程費用：
3個月：149元；6個月269元；一年449元
報課方式：
掃描下方二維碼，加我微信(madandan2020),直接轉帳即可
愛我，請給我「在看」