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Glossary

• unboxing – an act or instance of removing a newly purchased product from its packaging and examining its features, typically when filmed and shared on a social media site
  
• gangbusters – outstandingly excellent or successful
  
• genus – a principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family, and is denoted by a capitalized Latin name, e.g. Leo
  
• pest – a destructive insect or other animal that attacks crops, food, livestock, etc.
  
• tranquil – free from disturbance; calm
  
• perfunctory – (of an action) carried out without real interest, feeling, or effort
  

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Answer the questions below.

• How many plants are there in the house featured? (01:10)
  
• Why have millennials embraced the idea of gardening? (01:30)
• What is another possible reason millennials have adopted plants? (03:00)
• What benefits do indoor plants bring? (04:45)
• How has social media helped the rise in popularity of houseplants? (06:00)

Practice Makes Perfect

PHRASAL VERBS: Use the phrasal verbs below in their correct form to fill in the sentences. Go to New Yorker to find out more.

Until very recently, I 1.__________ my days with a moderate case of “plant blindness”—a term coined, in 1998, by the botanists James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler, to describe the widespread non-noticing of plants in one’s environment and the ranking of plants as inferior to animals.

I’d 2.__________ in Texas attending hundreds of Friday-night games.

I started gazing with uncontrollable longing into apartment windows, storefronts, restaurants, yoga studios, dreaming about 3.__________ every beautiful plant within and hoarding them in my now barren-seeming home.

Within a few weeks, I had 4.__________ the periphery of a large and growing cohort of young plant obsessives, the most eminent of whom are respected plant professionals such as the thirty-four-year-old Summer Rayne Oakes, an activist and model

For my part, I haven’t yet 5.__________ Instagram plant world—my hobby is so new and my plant-longing so fierce that I don’t want to exacerbate or destabilize it (or further inflate my credit-card statements) with seductive visions of enormous monstera leaves stretching toward the light.

Answers:

1. WENT ABOUT 2. GROWN UP 3. SNATCHING UP 4. INCHED INTO 5. DELVED INTO

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