Australia Network - English Bites - Series 7

Contact Us

Mailing Lists

Episode 3: Hemp

Transcript

We'll look at prefixes that mean not and some forms of the word pollen.

Industrial hemp is a cannabis variety that is used for the manufacture of commodities that we use in everyday life. The big one, of course, is clothing, and the clothing is manufactured from the bark of the plant itself. In the whole family of cannabis plants globally, there are some hundreds of varieties. And the varieties that are chosen for industrial hemp have no mind-altering components in them at all. The illegal variety has tetrahydrocannabinol in it and these plants don't have that.

This sort of cannabis is legal. Listen for the word that means the opposite of legal.

The illegal variety has tetrahydrocannabinol in it and these plants don't have that.

Illegal. The prefix il- is used to mean 'not'. Illegal means that something is not legal. It's against the law. Other words that use the il- prefix to mean 'not' all start with the letter 'l':

logical/illogical
literate/ illiterate
legitimate/ illegitimate
legible/ illegible
licit/ illicit

But not all words that start with 'l' take the il- prefix to form an opposite meaning. Listen:

Well, the number of products that can be made from industrial hemp are virtually unlimited. If you read the book on hemp, they claim that there's 32,000 commodities that you can make.

Unlimited. It means without limit. Un- is the most common prefix used like this.

Now listen out for another prefix that means 'not'

This is the bast fibre - this is the bark - on an immature plant.

Immature. It means not mature or young. Some of the words with this im- prefix are:

immoral

and impatient

So what do the mature plants do?

They give off a lot of pollen, so when it's windy - on a windy day - you will see pollen just flowing like clouds through the crop and that is pollinating the females. Now, the female, it becomes pollinated and it begins to bush up. And as the female becomes pollinated, the male plant just wilts away and dies. The female then fills out and becomes very bushy. And as she becomes pollinated, the little seeds are formed, and you can see one there.

The mature male plants 'give off' or release pollen into the air. Listen:

They give off a lot of pollen

Let's look at the word pollen. Pollen is the yellow dust plants produce.

so when it's windy - on a windy day - you will see pollen just flowing like clouds through the crop

The verb is pollinate, here used in its -ing form, pollinating.

you will see pollen just flowing like clouds through the crop and that is pollinating the females.

In the next clip, pollinated is used as an adjective:

Now, the female, it becomes pollinated and it begins to bush up. And as the female becomes pollinated, the male plant just wilts away and dies.

So we've looked at three prefixes that create opposite meanings - legal / illegal, limited/ unlimited and mature/immature. Pollen is the noun and pollinate is the verb.

We'll finish with the farmer who says he's got it all sorted out or solved.

My main area has been in growing varieties and evaluating varieties and developing cultural management techniques. And this I've been doing since 1995 and we've pretty well got it all sorted out.

English Bites is an informative and entertaining way to improve your knowledge of the English language.

Home

Episodes