Today we talk about an important part of every plant – the roots . The roots of most plants grow below the ground . There , they have some very important jobs . The roots anchor the plant . They secure it in the ground . Roots also take in water and minerals to feed the plant . And in many plants , the roots store food and nutrients . So , roots are the foundation of the plant : the supporting structures . And that gives us our first expression : “to put roots down .” When you put roots down , you make a place your home by creating connections . You get a job and maybe buy a house . You also make friends and join activities . You might start a family . As your children start school , your ties to the school and other parents are also roots . All these things connect you to a place . Each connection makes it harder for you to leave . Just like the roots of a plant , they ground you . If you want to move a plant , you must be careful not to disturb the roots too much . And that brings us to another way we use the word root . The root can also be the start or cause of something . For example , I could say that my love of mystery stories is rooted in my childhood full of Agatha Christie books ! Now , problems have roots too . So , people could say that a small town's problems are rooted in a lack of good jobs . That suggests our next expression : Get to the root of the problem . When we get to the root of the problem , we get to the cause of it . You can also strike at the root of a problem if you are looking for a way to solve it . Sometimes we use the verb “dig ” to go with some root expressions . As we said , roots are underground . You must dig to reach them . So , we could say , “A lack of jobs is just one issue . To get to the root of the city's larger problem , we must dig deeper .” Here's an example : I just heard that the city council is going to add more money to this year's school budget . That's good news ! But I'm not sure more money is going to fix high truancy rates and poor classroom behavior . Well , it can't hurt . But to really help students , we need to get to the root of the education problem . Now for our final expression . There is a common saying in English that involves roots . You may hear people say that money is the root of all evil . That expression comes from the Bible : “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil .” While it may not be root of all evil , I'm sure that greed has caused quite a few problems .