Learn Spanish (Latin America): Los obreros recién talaron este pino altísimo. - The workers just cut down this very tall pine.

In Latin America, using recién followed immediately by a conjugated verb is a very common alternative to acabar de. Here, recién talaron means exactly the same thing as acaban de talar (they just cut down).

Why does this sentence use the preterite tense (talaron) instead of the present perfect (han talado) for an action that just happened?

While Spanish from Spain usually uses the present perfect for very recent events, Latin American Spanish strongly prefers the preterite (simple past) for completed actions, even if they happened seconds ago. Pairing recién with the preterite, as in recién talaron, is the standard way to express "just finished" in Latin America.

What is the difference between "altísimo" and just saying "muy alto"?

Adding the -ísimo suffix creates an absolute superlative, which is much stronger and more expressive than just using muy (very). Altísimo feels closer to "extremely tall" or "incredibly tall." Notice that to add the suffix, you drop the final vowel of alto and add an accent mark: altísimo.

Why use "obreros" for workers instead of the more common word "trabajadores"?