话题提分练15 必修4 Module 4 Great Scientists-【赢在微点】2024高考英语大一轮复习顶层设计核心微练word（老高考）外研版

话题提分练15　必修4　Module 4 科学、人物 限时40分钟 阅读理解　(2023·晋中质检)　体裁:记叙文　话题:科学精神　难度:★★★☆☆ 　　For his 86th birthday, Cheng Xiangwen enjoyed a corn⁃shaped cake his colleagues had prepared for him. “My birthday wish is to develop better corn varieties,” he says. After the celebration, he began another journey to Sanya, in South China􀆳s Hainan Province, where he has worked most of his life. Cheng is a scientist in agriculture and spends most of his life studying and cultivating (栽培) corn. He visits Sanya in November every year and stays there for six months to cultivate corn. Once, when he was conducting a field survey, a female farmer said to him in tears, “You graduated from college. Could you please find a way to increase the corn output here? If the yields (产量) are higher, our children will no longer suffer from hunger.” Since then, Cheng has made developing high⁃yield corn varieties his life􀆳s mission. In 1964, he came to Hainan, where it was warmer, and started his work there. He greatly shortened the cultivation period and created hybrid corn varieties for the first time. With these new varieties, farmers in Xunxian County saw their average corn output was more than 3,750 kg per hectare per year. Despite the beautiful coastline, the environment where Cheng works used to be troubled by poverty and poor traffic. Locals once described the area as having a large number of rats, mosquitoes, and poisonous snakes. At that time, he lived in a local villager􀆳s house and he frequently went to the mountains to chop firewood to cook. His hard work, however, has paid off. Now, authorities have approved 14 new, high⁃yield corn varieties Cheng helped develop. Cheng is dedicated to developing high⁃yield corn varieties with stronger resistance and they are easier to harvest with machines. He still goes to the fields each day and observes and records the corn plants. “Cultivating seeds is like raising kids. Only by careful parenting can you become familiar with their strengths and weaknesse