Unit 2 Working the Land Warming up

Min Nong 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 these grains (谷物)? sorghum wheat 高粱 rice

corn soybean 大豆 peanut cotton

Are you from a farmer’s family? What do you know about farming?

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?

farming steps plough the soil turn over the soil select the seeds sow the seeds remove the weeds fertilize

rice transplanting (插秧) sowing crops ploughing Farming weather &climate irrigating (灌溉) rice transplanting (插秧)

ploughing (犁田)

seeding fertilizing (施肥)

irrigating 灌溉 transplanting 插秧

harvesting winnowing (扬谷)

rice

Answer the following questions: What is the main food in all East Asian and Southeast Asian countries? Rice. It is said that there are 2.4 billion people to eat rice every day throughout the world.

What do you think would happen if tomorrow there was suddenly no rice to eat? suffer from starvation and starve to death feel scared / be panic (惊慌) fight for food, even kill each other and the whole country would get into trouble.

If you had the chance to do something to help end hunger in the world, what would you do?

preventing the pests from eating our crops developing the technology to… improving the quality of the soil How to solve hunger? making good use of the waste land inventing a new kind of food…

A Pioneer For All People What do you predict this passage is going to talk about?

Father of Hybrid Rice

Dr Yuan Longping (袁隆平博士) He is father of hybrid rice (杂交水稻), who was 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)

The text is about a(n) 1. ___________ _______ named Yuan Longping who made a great contribution to finding ways to 2. ______________. agricultural pioneer   grow more rice

Match the following headings with the right paragraphs. A PIONEER FOR ALL PEOPLE Para 1 A. Dr Yuan’s dreams. Para 2 B. Dr Yuan’s personality. Para 3 C. Dr Yuan’s biography. Para 4 D. Dr Yuan’s appearance and his achievement.

Careful reading Read the text carefully and fill in the blanks. Yuan Longping Appearance _________ face and arms, slim and strong body sunburnt

developed super hybrid rice became the first __________________ in the world to grow high output rice helps the UN reduce _______ in the world Achievements agricultural pioneer 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 graduated goal circulate

Personalities is satisfied with his life doesn’t care about being famous gives a large amount of money to help others to do their research in ___________ has many dreams and never gives up loves and ________ his people agriculture care for

________ Dreams to produce a kind of rice that could _____ more people to _______ his rice so that it can be grown around the globe feed export

True (T) or False (F) 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. F F T

Choose the best answers. 1. What does the word “battle” refer to in the second paragraph? A. The low rice output. B. Ridding the world of hunger. C. Fighting against farming. D. The freedom to do research.

2. From the passage, we can know ______. A. Yuan Longping is not a pioneer but a scientist in the research of the hybrid rice B. Yuan’s parents are both agricultural scientists C. more than 60% of the rice produced in the world is from the hybrid strain D. using the hybrid rice, farmers are producing harvests twice as large as before

3. It can be inferred from the text that ______. A. Yuan knew the importance of rice import B. Yuan is interested in playing the violin C. Yuan is proud of his achievements D. Yuan’s rice are grown in many countries

Even if Dr.Yuan’s dreams come true, can this really solve starvation?

Answer these questions based on your understanding of the passage. Why did Yuan Longping want to increase the rice output when he was young? Yuan Longping wanted to increase the rice output because he saw many people go hungry when he was young.

2. Is Yuan Longping more of a scientist or more of a farmer 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, although he works in the fields like a farmer. 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 3. How would you describe Yuan Longping’s personality? Use three or four adjectives. 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. 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. 1. Choose one of these questions and discuss in groups. 1) What advantages do you see in Yuan Longping’s life? 2) What disadvantages do you see in Yuan Longping’s life?

2. Discuss in groups. Would you like to have a life like his? Why or why not?

Writing a poster (海报) for the text. Finish the exercises 1 and 2 on page 11.