Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BIOL 1120
12/01/2015
I. Comprehension questions:
1. The Truffula trees were scarce because first of all, they could
provide people with valuable economic use: they were used to
make fiber. Secondly, because they were overexploited for
their economic value, there were no trees left. As the result,
they became more scarce and valuable.
2. The Once-ler chopped down the first Truffula tree to take the
leaves for his experiment of inventing a new, innovative type
of fiber.
3. The Thneed brought about many benefits for its consumers. It
can be used as a fashionable head, a rack for catching
butterfly, a belt, a fabric that absorb water, a string for athlete
performance, etc.
4. No he was not. At first no one seemed to care about the
Thneed. But when the Once-ler almost gave up and threw it
away, it came into a fashion trend.
5. The Once-ler, after realizing the economic value of Truffula
trees, invented a whole factory for mass production and
machines for efficient harvesting.
6. The inhabitants of the Truffula forest were harmed the most.
The bears, the birds and the fishes lost their home, their
habitat and had to relocate somewhere else.
7. No it wasnt a wise idea to chop down all the trees, as it is a
short term thinking to make profits but not a sustainable one.
Once all the trees were chopped down, there was no resource
left for the business.
8. Because people and the Government realize the intrinsic
values of trees and the harmful effects we would have to
II.
Reflection questions:
1. The Once-ler succeeded and the Lorax failed for several
reasons. First of all, the Once-ler, as an ambitious
entrepreneur, was so eager to make money and become rich
that he didnt care about the result of his action. His thinking
was very short-term as he saw that there were plenty of trees
in the forest so if he chopped down one tree, it would not be
a big problem. In addition to that, the Once-ler was strongly
influenced by his family, especially his greedy mom. His family
induced him to chop down all the trees in an unsustainable
way to make money quicker. The Lorax, on the other hand,
was so kind to his new friend and wouldnt expect this to
happen. He trusted the Once-ler when he made a promise to
not chopping all the trees and became quite helpless in the
presence of the Once-lers family.
2. The argument about desert tortoises is correct, but not valid
for conservation effort. People cant just look at the aesthetic
aspect of an animal to evaluate its value. Aesthetic is just an
extrinsic value, not the intrinsic, the true, the more important
value of a thing. The desert tortoises have many intrinsic
values in biological, ecological, educational, and communal
term.