Unit 2

Warming up

Have you ever been to the countryside? what did you do there?

Farming Are you from a farmer’s family? what do you know about farming? soil ploughing crops weather &climate Irrigating ( 灌溉 ) ……

Agriculture in the past

Agriculture in the modern times

Growth of major farm products compared with percentages. Agriculture has been greatly developed nowadays.

Pre- reading

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? If that happened, people there would suffer from starvation. People would be panic( 惊慌 ) and the whole country would get into trouble.

袁隆平 father of hybrid rice

袁隆平被誉为中国的 “ 杂交水稻之父 ”. 中国农民说， 吃饭靠 “ 两平 ” ，一靠邓小平 ---- 制定了生产承包责任制 的政策，二靠袁隆平 ---- 发明了杂交稻。 袁隆平，男，１９３０年９月出生于北京，１９ ５３年毕业于西南农学院农学系。毕业后，一直从事 农业教育及杂交水稻研究。 在中国人民正闹饥荒的 20 世纪 60 年代，袁隆平提 出了杂交水稻的概念，这种新型水稻具有高产量的特 点。 10 年后，他研制成功了一种产量比一般水稻高出 20% 的新型水稻。 袁隆平一生献身于农业研究，先后受到联合国教 科文组织、粮农组织的称誉。袁隆平虽已年届７０岁， 仍然一如既往地从事农业研究。 袁隆平人物简历 hybrid rice; System of Production Responsibility; institute; suffer the famine; Yield; UNESCO, FAO.

Fast reading

1.What does Dr Yuan look like? 2.What’s his achievement? 3.What do you think of him? Read the text fast and answer the following questions:

1.What does Dr Yuan look like? He has a sunburnt face and arms and a slim, strong body. He is more like a farmer than a scientist.

2.What’s his achievement? He grows what is called super hybrid rice, which makes it possible to produce one-third more of the crop in the same fields. Using his hybrid rice farmers’ producing harvests twice as large as before.

3.What do you think of him? He doesn’t like money because he gives millions of yuan to equip others for their research in agriculture. He doesn’t like fame too though he has made great contributions to the world. He’s really respectable.

Second reading

1. Why did Dr Yuan want to increase the rice output when he was young? 2. How does he help rid the world of hunger? 3. What kind of life is Dr Yuan leading? 4. Use a few words to describe Dr Yuan’s personality.  Second Reading Read the text again and answer the following questions:

1. Why did Dr Yuan 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. 2. How does he help rid the world of hunger? He helps the world get rid of hunger by producing a hybrid strain of rice which increase the harvest.

3. What kind of life is Dr Yuan leading? Dr Yuan is leading a simple life, doing his research, listening to his music and riding his motor-bike. 4. Use a few words to describe Dr Yuan’s personality. Dr Yuan is a simple, academic man who is more interested in helping others than being famous.

think about which statement is true. 1.Dr. Yuan is more a farmer than a scientist. 2.Dr. Yuan’s kind of rice is the most suitable for China’s farmland. 3.Dr. Yuan would rather work than relax. 4.Dr. Yuan has dreams when he is asleep and also when he is awake. 5.Dr. Yuan enjoys a simpler life than most rich and famous people.

The following sentences are taken from the reading passage. Explain what the underlined words mean. 1.He wants everyone to call him a farmer, for that’s how he regards himself. Key: It means he thinks of himself as a farmer but other people may think of him as a famous scientist or a rich man.

2. In many ways, he is one of them, and he has struggled for the past five decades to help them. Key: It means he does not only look like a farmer but also he works in the fields with farmers. In fact, he does scientific research for them.

3. At that time, hunger was a serious problem in many parts of the countryside. 4. Using his hybrid rice farmers are producing harvests twice as large as before. Key: It means that many people were very hungry and they even became ill and died because there was not enough food. Key: It means that farmers growing his rice species are producing rice twice as much as they did in the past.

5. Wishing for thongs, however, cost nothing. Key: It means that dreams are free and everybody can have ideas about what they would like their future life to be.

Detail reading

Please write down the smaller heading giving a little more information according to the large headings as follows:

A pioneer for all people He wants everyone to call him a farmer. His biography. His personality. His dreams.

Large headings He wants everyone to call him a farmer. His biography. His personality. His dreams.

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.

Large headings He wants everyone to call him a farmer. His biography. His personality. His dreams.

His biography. In 1931, 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.

Large headings He wants everyone to call him a farmer. His biography. His personality. His dreams.

His personality He is satisfied with his life. Why is he satisfied with his life? Because he doesn’t like money and fame.

His dreams His biography. His personality. His dreams. He wants everyone to call him a farmer.

The first dream. The second dream.

Discussion

Do you want to end the famine( 饥荒 )in the world ?If you had the chance to do something to help end hunger in the world, what would you do ?

The measures taken to deal with hunger Invent a new kind of plant to produce more food. Find a sort of fertilizer( 肥料 )to give rice enough nutrition. Stop the pollution to the environment and protect the soil in the field.

Assignment Surf the Internet to find more information about farming and you are expected to present it to your classmates in the next class.