Unit 2
Working the land
Enjoy a poem
By Li Shen
Farmers weeding at noon,
Sweat down the field soon.
Who knows food on a tray,
Due to their toiling day.
Do you know the
Chinese poem?
Warming Up
1 Have you ever been to the countryside?
What did you see or do there?
Do you know these grains (谷物)?
wheat
rice
sorghum
高粱
corn
cotton
peanut
soybean 大豆
2 Are you from a farmer’s family? What do you know about farming?
Farming
sowing
ploughing
irrigating (灌溉)
crops
weather &climate
rice transplanting (插秧)
When we speak of farming, what words
can we think of?
3 Have you ever grown any plants?
If so, what did you do to grow them?
If not, what kind of
plant would you like to grow?
How will you grow it?
plough the field
grow some young plants
insert the young plants into the field
fertilizing
(施肥)
irrigating (灌溉)
Spray the agricultural chemicals
harvest
rice
According to the World Health Organization(WHO):
●The world produces enough food for everyone.
● More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day.
1 Read the statistics below. Did you know these facts before? What problem do they show?
2 Rice is the main food in all East Asian and Southeast Asian countries.
It is said that there are 2.4 billion people to eat rice every day throughout the world.
If that happened,
● people might die of hunger/ suffer from starvation and starve to death
● feel scared / be panic (惊慌)
● fight for food, even kill each other
●the whole world would get into trouble.
What do you think would happen if tomorrow there was suddenly no rice to eat?
How to solve hunger?
making good use of the waste land
developing the technology to…
inventing a new kind of food…
improving the quality of the soil
preventing the pests from eating our crops
If you had the chance to do something to help end hunger in the world, what would you do?
The only way to solve the food shortage problem is to increase the yield of the grain crop per land area through the advancement of science and technology.
A Pioneer For All People
Father of Hybrid Rice
Yuan Longping
He is father of hybrid rice (杂交水稻), who was lately awarded “the Nobel Prize of Asia”. He received the honor for his great contributions (贡献) to hybrid rice research and work he did to improve rice production in developing countries. Now he is head of the National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Hunan Province, China (中国湖南省国家杂交水稻研究与发展中心). He is called a pioneer for all people.
Dr Yuan Longping (袁隆平博士)
Super Hybrid Rice
the rice that has a high output
Skimming
Find out the main idea of each paragraph.
The text is about _______________ who made a great contribution to producing better _____.
Yuan Longping
rice
Read the text carefully and fill in the blanks.
Yuan Longping
Appearance
_________ face and arms slim and strong body
sunburnt
Careful reading
_________________
developed super hybrid rice
became the first __________________
in the world to grow high output rice
helps the UN reduce _______ in the
world
agricultural pioneer
Achievements
hunger
Experiences
born in 1930 and _________ from
Southwest Agricultural College in 1953
finding ways to grow more rice has been
his life _____
to _________ his knowledge in less
developed countries such as India and
Vietnam
circulate
graduated
goal
Personalities
is satisfied with his life
doesn’t care about being famous
gives a large amount of money to help
others to do their ________ in
agriculture
has many dreams and never gives up
loves and ________ his people
research
care for
to produce a kind of rice that could _____ more people
to _______ his rice so that it can be
grown around the globe
________
feed
Dreams
export
He wants everyone to call him a farmer.
A scientist works the land.
Sunburnt face and arms, slim ,strong body.
Grow hybrid rice.
The first agricultural pioneer.
His biography.
In 1930, he was born.
In 1953, he graduated and devoted his life to finding ways to grow rice.
Last year,twenty billion tons of rice was produced. Now, Dr Yuan is circulating his kownledge.
His personality
He is satisfied with his life.
Why is he satisfied with his life?
Because he doesn’t like money
and fame.
The first dream
The second dream
rice plants as tall as
sorghum
to export his rice
so that his it can be
grown around the
globe
His dreams
1. Yuan Longping became the first agricultural pioneer in the world to grow super hybrid rice at the age of 40.
2. More than 60% of the rice in the world is from the hybrid strain.
3. According to the text, farmers in China are producing rice harvests nearly 4 times as large as that in 1950.
True (T) or False (F):
F
F
T
造福全人类的先驱者 
 
尽管是中国最著名的科学家之一，袁隆平仍然认为自己是个农民，因为他在田间耕作，进行科学研究。的确，他那被太阳晒得黝黑的脸盘和手臂，以及他那瘦削而又结实的身躯，就跟其他千百万中国农民一样。过去50年来，他一直在努力帮助他们。袁博士种植的是被称为“超级杂交水稻”的稻种。1973年，他成为世界上第一位种植高产水稻的农业先锋。这种特殊的稻种使得同样的田地多收获20%的产量。如今中国每年出产的稻米有60%以上出自这种杂交稻种。
袁博士出生在1930年，1953年毕业于西南农学院。从那时起，找到水稻高产的方法就成为他一生的目标。年轻时，他就看到了稻田增产的巨大需求。当时，饥荒是许多农村地区面临的严重问题。袁博士要在不增加土地面积的基础上寻求达到增收稻谷的途径。1950年，中国农民只能生产五千万吨稻谷，而近来却生产了将近两亿吨稻谷。这一粮食产量的增加意味着中国仅仅7%的耕地养活了世界22%的人口。袁博士现在在印度、越南和很多其他欠发达国家传播提高水稻产量的知识。由于他的研究，联合国在消除世界饥饿的战斗中有了更多的方法。用他的杂交水稻种子，农民们种出的粮食比以前多了一倍。
袁博士对生活非常满足。但是，他对成名并不在意，并且觉得出名后搞科研就不那么自由了。他宁愿把时间花在自己的业余爱好上。他喜欢听小提琴乐曲、搓麻将、游泳和读书。在自己身上花钱或者享受舒适的生活对袁博士来说意义也不大。事实上，他认为一个人有了太多钱，他的麻烦事只会更多，而不是更少。于是，他拿出好几百万元帮助其他人进行科学研究。
梦想是不花钱的。很久之前，袁博士曾在梦里看到水稻长得像高粱一样高，稻穗跟玉米穗一样大，而每粒稻谷像花生米一样大。袁博士从梦中醒来，希望能种植一种能养活更多人的水稻。如今袁博士还有另外一个梦想，那就是他的稻谷可以出口并长遍全球。一个梦想总是不够的，尤其对一个热爱和关心人民的人来说更是如此。
Comprehending
1 Use the information in the passage to complete the following
notes about Yuan Longping.
Name:
Nationality:
Age:
occupation:
Education:
Yuan Longping
Chinese
84 (born in 1930)
scientist/farmer
Graduated from Southwest Agriculture College in 1953
Dream:
Achievements:
Hobbies:
to export his hybrid rice so that it can be grown around the globe
in 1973, developed hybrid rice which produces 20% more than normal rice
listening to violin music, playing mah-jong, swimming and reading
2 Paraphrase these sentences from the
reading passage , ie write the same
meaning using different grammar
structure and your own words.
1 As a young man, he saw the great need
for increasing the rice output.
Even when he was a young man, he knew
how important it was to produce bigger
rice crops.
2 At that time, hunger was a disturbing
problem in many parts of the countryside.
During his early years, much of the
countryside was troubled by hunger.
3 Using his hybrid rice, farmers are
producing harvests twice as large as
before.
As they use his hybrid rice, farmers are
producing twice as much rice as before.
4 Spending money on himself or leading a
comfortable life also means very little to
him.
5 Just dreaming for things, however, costs
nothing.
It does not cost anything to dream for
something.
He is not interested in buying things for
himself or in having a comfortable life.
1. Why did Yuan Longping want to increase the rice output when he was young?
Dr Yuan wanted to increase the rice output because he saw many people go hungry when he was young.
3 Answer these questions based on your understanding of the passage.
2. Is Yuan Longping more of a scientist or more of a farmer? Do you think he is a businessman? Give your reasons.
I think he is more of a scientist. His main purpose is not to make a profit for himself but to study agriculture and use that knowledge to improve farming for farmers everywhere. I do not think he is a businessman, because his goal is not to make money.
3. How would you describe Yuan Longping’s personality?
Because of his work with developing hybrid rice, it seems that Yuan Longping must be a very patient and careful man. He didn’t give up but kept working on his project. He also seems to be a very kind man, who cares for others. He wants to use his invention to help hungry people around the world.
4. Yuan Longping was able to develop a successful agricultural product when thousands of other farmers could not. What do you think is the main reason for his success?
I think Yuan Longping was successful because he kept working and did not give up. He was also very motivated to succeed and help other farmers around China.
5. Yuan Longping thinks that a person with too much money has more rather than fewer troubles. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
I mostly agree. I think being rich can cause a lot of problems, but it really depends on the life and attitude of the person who is rich. People who are rich certainly have different problems from people who are not.
6. Dr Yuan Longping developed super hybrid rice to help Chinese farmers and hungry people around the world. Can you think of any other major development that would make a great difference to world hunger? Write out your idea and then compare it with your partner.
I think developing other hybrid grains would make a great difference in the problem of world hunger. Hybrid grains that can survive in very dry or very hot areas would be very useful in Africa and other areas. Hybrid grains that cannot easily be killed by insects and diseases would be useful around the world.
Discuss in groups of four. What advantages and disadvantages do you see in Yuan Longping’s life? Would you like to have a life like his? Why or why not?
Discussion
1. working the land 土地耕种
work vi./ vt. 经营,管理
work the land=grow crops on it 耕耘土地　
He works a big farm. 他经营着一个大的农场。
Language points
2. Have you ever grown any plants? If so, what did you do to grow them?
If so=If you have ever grown some plants.
so 表示“象那样的，如前所说的”，用于代替已陈述的事。如：
--can you pass the exam?
--I hope so.
3. Although he is one of China’s most famous scientists, Yuan Longping co