Chào các thính giả yêu mến của chương trình Học Tiếng Anh qua các chủ đề của chương trình học tiếng anh cùng Radiome. Mình là Diệu Hoa.
Chủ đề nghe Tiếng Anh của chúng ta ngày hôm nay có tựa đề là: Growing Fruit in the Desert có nghĩa là trồng hoa quả trong sa mạc. 
Vì bài nghe khá dài nên mình sẽ tách làm hai phần để các bạn dễ dàng theo dõi hơn nhé!
Các bạn cùng chú ý lắng nghe với tiết tấu chậm rãi của chương trình Spotlight nhé. Note lại những từ bạn nghe chưa rõ và xem lại ở bản text để làm phong phú thêm vốn từ vựng của mình nhé!

Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I’m Adam Navis. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
In the last 15 years, farmers in Israel were experiencing a serious problem. They were finding it more and more difficult to grow their fruit crops. The earth was just too dry for their fruit trees. And it was difficult for them to find extra supplies of water. Yosef Mizrahi is a farming expert. He told the BBC,
Voice 3
“Farmers in the desert had lost all of their money. They were removing their fruit trees. What we did in the past is not working any more. We had an insane idea: why not take desert plants, and make them into crops?”
Voice 2
The farmers needed to find a new way to grow crops in dry areas. So they turned to a desert plant, the cactus, for help. Cacti need far less water than most normal plants. They have physical and structural qualities that set them apart from all other plants.
Voice 1
The farmers began using a special cactus that can produce fruit. It is called the nopal. It is also called the prickly pear. They added special fertilizers, or plant growth chemicals, to the nopal. The nopal began producing fruit for 11 months out of the year.

Voice 2
So how are cactus plants able to grow so well in dry areas? How do they stay alive without a dependable water supply? Today’s Spotlight is on the cactus.
Voice 1
Most people recognize the cactus plant by its sharp spines, or points. But there are other things that make the cactus plant different than other plants.
Voice 2
Scientists think that long ago the cactus looked much like any other plant. It had a stem which grew out of the ground. On the stem there were leaves. And, sometimes there were even flowers. But, over the years the seeds of cactus plants started to spread. They moved into more difficult places, including hot, dry deserts.
Voice 1
When cacti started to grow in dry areas they slowly began to change. Like all desert plants, cacti had to survive for long periods of time without water. Soon, the cacti’s stems started to grow thicker. The thick stem could store water.
Voice 2
The stem of a cactus is made up of many special cells. These cells store the water. The walls around each cell are very thin. So, the walls can stretch. When it rains these cells fill up with water. They stretch wide to make sure they are completely full. After a good rain, cacti are made of ninety percent water!
Voice 1
Over time there were other changes to the cactus plant. These changes helped the plant to survive even better in dry places. The stems became thicker and thicker. Soon, the chemical chlorophyll appeared in the stem.
Voice 2
Chlorophyll is very important to both plants and trees. People can usually find chlorophyll in a plant’s leaves. Chlorophyll gives leaves their green colour. But chlorophyll has another important purpose. It creates the plant’s food. The plant’s energy to stay alive comes from chlorophyll.
Voice 1
Once the chlorophyll moved to the cactus stem, the cactus no longer needed leaves. The leaves were actually a problem! The leaves were a barrier to the sun’s light. The chlorophyll in the stem could not receive enough sunlight through the leaves. Soon, cactus leaves became smaller and smaller. And today, there are usually no leaves growing from the cactus stem. The stem now produces food.
Phần 1 của bài nghe hôm nay tạm dừng ở đây. Các bạn chú ý và theo dõi phần 2 ở những bài học tiếp sau nhé! Cảm ơn các bạn.