1. Unit 19 Modern agriculture
reading

2. 1、Look at the pictures and compare traditional and modern farming
1、Look at the pictures and compare traditional and modern farming? 2、What are the advantages and disadvantages of each way ?

3. Old way
Modern way
A farmer can only keep a few chickens.
In the second picture:
In the first picture:
In the third picture:
A chicken / A hen.
A farmer feeding chickens.
A modern chicken farm.
A factory can keep thou-sands of chickens.
It cost a lot to start a factory.
It cost only a little money.
What are the differences? Compare the old and the modern ways of raising chickens.
don’t have many problems
if ill, many die or are killed
The eggs and meat are tasty.
They don’t taste so delicious.
The chickens are free.
not free, can sit in small cages

4. Natural Fertilizer
Chemical Fertilizer
In the first picture:
A pile of animal shit (manure)
It is free or cost very little.
It is expensive to buy.
In the second picture:
A bag of chemical fertilizer.
It needs lots of work to be made.
It is easy to be put into the fields.
What are the differences? Compare the old and the modern ways of feeding the crops.
It usually has a bad smell.
It usually has no smell.
It needs a lot of place to store.
It takes little place to store.
It is difficult to carry and move.
It is easy to transport.

5. Using Animals Using Machines
In the first picture:
*terraced field.
*A farmer is ploughing the field with an animal.
cheap to own and to keep
expensive to buy and to use
In the second picture:
They do not pollute the air.
They result in pollution.
*Farmers use the tractor to work the land.
They can be used in dif-ferent places
In the third picture:
They can only be used on flat and dry land.
They need rest now and then.
They don’t need rest too often.
What are the differences? Compare the old and the modern ways of ploughing the fields.
They can be food when they are old.
They can be sold to steel factories when broken.

6. Natural Climate
Controlled Climate
In the first picture:
* Terraced fields.
In the second picture:
* Dry barren farmland.
in bad weather, crops lost
climate controlled, less damage
The landscape is more beautiful.
In the third picture:
* Irrigated farmland.
The landscape loses its natural beauty.
In the fourth picture:
* Greenhouses.
Only arable land can grow crops.
Greenhouses can be built almost everywhere.
What are the differences? Compare the old and the modern ways of irrigation.
If there is a power failure, you may lose crops.

7. 3、What other changes have happened on farms in the last 100 years?
Over the last 100 years there have been some changes on farms and in agriculture:
The use of machines,
the use of chemical fertilizers,
the use of insect killers,
the use of food supplements in animal feed,
the growth of the farms(bigger farms),
doing the work with workers who are not part of family,
growing different crops,etc.

8. 1. China has only about 670 ,000 sq. km of arable land No advanced technical information was brought in from abroad before Scientists have always tried to increase farming production without harming the environment since the early 1990s.
4Traditional methods of farming have no advantages so they won’t be used in future agriculture The average arable land for each Chinese is much less than that of the world Growing vegetables in green houses has so many advantages that it can reduce losses caused by bad weather and that it can partly settle the problem of the shortage of arable land GM is a new technique that can make a plant quite different from what it used to be, bigger and healthier and with no diseases, but it takes longer time to grow The GM technique can only be used on plants, but not on animals at the present time. T F T F T T F F

9. Read the whole text .Find out the topic sentence in each paragraph.
Para.1: For thousands of years traditional agriculture in China did not change very much.
Para.2: Over time, many farming techniques have been
modernised.
Para.3: Not only is food production important but also
taking care of the environment.
Para.4: Using the latest technologies, Chinese scientists
grow vegetables in greenhouses.
Para.5: Another technique tries to create plants that produce more and bigger fruit.
Para.6: Nearly 4,500 different plants are genetically modified.

10. **Divide the text into 4 parts and find the main idea of each part:
The 1st part — the first paragraph
The 2st part — the second paragraph
The 3st part — the third paragraph
The 4st part — the fourth, fifth and sixth paragraphs.

11. What are the ways? Paragraph 1: Traditional agriculture in China.
The development of agriculture before the 1980s.
Paragraph 2:
New techniques to protect environ-ment as well as increasing produs-tion from the 1990s.
Paragraph 3:
Ways to solve the problem of the shortage of arable land.
Part4:
1. Grow vegetables in greenhouses Use GM to create plants that produce more and bigger and better crops.
What are the ways?

12. 1.It is …………that…………
It is on this arable land that the farmers produce food …………
It was from the early 1990s that scientists started to develop……
2.as……as possible. 尽可能
We need to deliver the letter as soon as possible.
3.where possible
Fill in the words in the blankets where possible.
Come to see her when possible.
4.as well as 也，而且
He can speak English as well as French.
5.not only……but also……
nor/neither/so/there/here/only+地点状语/介词短语作状语放在句首

13. Not only …… but also……连接句子成分时不倒装。
Not only he but also I have kept the secret.
Not only+句子but also+句子时 前半句倒装
Not only is he busy,but also I have a lot of work to do.
6.stand for
USA stands for the United States of America.
7.a variety of 多种多样的（various）
She showed a variety of flowers.
She showed various flowers.

14. Discussion:How would you like to change fruit,vegetable
Or animals using GM?
Kind
How would you change it
Why do you want to change it in this way?
Fruit
Watermelon
Grow them like block instead of balls
Easier to store,take less space
Vegetable
Onion
Make sure they don’t hurt our eyes
Easier to peel and cut
Animal
Sheep
To have red wool
Look funny and we don’t need to dye it

15. Fertiliser fertilise fertile
Production produce productive
Protection protect protected
Modification modify modified
1.modified
2.protecting protection
3.fertile fertilisers
4.produce productive

16. Grammar: The Use of “It” for Emphasis
It is / was … that / who (whom) …
I saw John in the street this morning.
It was I who/that saw John in the street this morning. (强调主语)
It was John that/whom I saw in the street this morning. (强调宾语)
It was in the street that I saw John this morning. （强调地点状语）
It was this morning that I saw John in the street (强调时间状语)