Unit5 Working the Land 衡水体书写字帖-2025-2026学年高中英语人教版（2019）选择性必修第一册

A PIONEER FOR ALL PEOPLE Yuan tongping,known as the "father of hybrid rice",was one of China's most famous scientists.Yet,he considered himself a farmer because he continuatty worked the tand in his research.Indeed,his stim but strong body was just like that of millions of Chinese farmers,to whom he had devoted his tife Yuan tongping was born in 1930 in Beijing.His parents wanted him to pursue a career in science or medicine.However,what concerned him most was that farmers often had poor harvests and sometimes even had a serious shortage of food to eat.To tackle this crisis,he chose to study agricutture and received an education at Southwest Agricultural College in Chongqing. After graduating in 1953,he worked as a researcher.Yuan Longping reatised that larger fietds were not the solution.Instead,farmers needed to boost uields in the fields they had.How this could be done was a chaltenging question at the time.Yuan was convinced that the answer could be found in the creation of hybrid rice.A hybrid is a cross between two or more varieties of a species.One characteristic of hubrids is that they usually attain a higher yield than conventionat crops.However, whether it was possible to devetop a hubrid of self-poltinating plants such as rice was a matter of great debate.The common assumption then was that it coutd not be done.Through intense effort,Yuan overcame enormous technicat difficulties to develop the first hubrid rice that could 2 be used for farming in 1974.This hubrid enabted farmers to expand their output greatly Today,it is estimated that about 60 percent of domestic rice consumption in China is comprised of crops generated from Yuan's hybrid strains,and his strains have allowed China's farmers to produce around 200 miltion tons of rice per year.Yuan's innovation has helped feed not just China, but many other countries that depend on rice as well,such as India and Vietnam.Because of his invaluabte contributions,Yuan tongping received numerous awards both in China and abroad. Given that Yuan's hybrids made him quite wealthy,one might think he would have retired to a tife of teisure.However,this is far from the case. Deep down,Yuan was stilt very much a farmer at heart.As a man of the 3 soil,he cared littte for cetebrity or money.Instead,he made targe donations to support agricuttural research. What impressed people most about Yuan tongping was his ongoing abitity to fulfit his dreams.Long ago,he envisioned rice plants as tatl as sorghum,with each ear of rice as big as a broom,and each grain of rice as huge as a peanut.He succeeded in producing a kind of rice that coutd feed more peopte at home and abroad.His later vision for "seawater rice". also became a reality,and potentialty opened up nearty one mittion square kilometres of salty land in China for rice production:Even in his later years,Yuan Longping was still young at heart and full of vision,and everyone was always excited to see what he would dream up next. 4 CHEMICAL VERSUS ORGANIC FARMING Chemicat pesticides and artificiat fertilisers have been in widespread use in farming since the middte of the 20th century.When they were first introduced,many farmers welcomed them as a great way to fight crop disease and increase production.Over time,however,what some scientists have found is that their tong-term use can sometimes harm both the land and people's heatth. For example,pesticides can damage the tand by killing not only harmfut bacteria and insects,but also hetpfut ones.In addition,these chemicals can stay in the soil and underground water sources for a long time.This 5 affects the crops grown on the tand and,in turn,the animals and humans who digest them.Many people worry that these chemicals may make them ill and even cause cancer.In fact,some pesticides tike DDT have been prohibited in most countries because of the damage they cause to people and the environment.As for chemicat fertilisers,crops grown with them usually grow too fast to be rich in nutrition.They may took beautifut on the outside,but inside there is usually more water than essentiat minerats,and they often have less flavour as wetl As an alternative,some farmers have switched to organic farming,and many customers have turned to organic food when they shop at the local grocery.Organic farming is simpty farming without using any chemicals. 6 Organic farmers focus on keeping their soil rich and free of disease through naturat means.For exampte,many organic farmers use naturat waste from animals as fertiliser.This makes the soil in their fields richer in minerals.It atso keeps the air,soil,water,and crops free of chemicats. Organic farmers also use many other methods to produce rich soit.They often change the kind of crop grown in each field every year.For instance, they may grow corn or wheat in a field one year,and then grow beans there the next.Why different crops are grown is that they put important minerals back into the ground,making it ready for the next batch of crops.Organic farmers atso plant diverse crops that use different depths of soil to help keep it rich.For example,peanuts grow on the ground's surface,but many other vegetabtes put down deep roots.The goal of 7 using different organic farming methods is to grow good food while avoiding damage to the environment or to people's health. Some people would prefer to stop the use of man-made chemicats in agricutture entirely.What keeps them from doing so is the fact that chemicat farming serves the high demand for food around the wortd. Organic farming is nowhere near able to meet that need.Therefore,there is still a tong way to find a suitabte sotution that puts sufficient food on the dinner table white keeping people and the environment as healthy as possible 8