How Did Yuan Longping Revolutionize China’s Rice Production?
①Yuan Longping was born in 1930 in Hubei. As a child, he was very interested in plants and other living things. He grew up to be a curious and hard-working plant scientist. Yuan wanted to solve the problem of food shortages, so he began conducting experiments to improve rice yields per hectare (10,000 m2).
②Plants come in many different varieties; for example, some types of rice have long grains, while others have short grains. For centuries, people have been crossing different plant varieties to create hybrids. Such plants proved to have desirable qualities from both parents. Yuan believed that it was possible to do the same with rice. He tried different ways of creating rice hybrids, only to discover that his attempts were unsuccessful.
③Even though it often seemed too difficult to complete this task, Yuan didn’t give up. After many years of hard work, his experiments finally bore fruit. This was a major discovery since no one had previously been able to cross two different kinds of rice. It had a huge impact: the first hybrid rice variety increased China’s rice production by 100 million tonnes in little over a decade.
④Yuan didn’t stop there — instead, he continued experimenting and created super hybrid rice with yields over 15 tonnes of rice per hectare. Thanks to Yuan’s work, China became self-sufficient in rice. Our country continued to increase its rice yields to become one of the biggest food donors in the world. In 2019, he received the Medal of the Republic for his outstanding contributions. At the age of 90, Yuan Longping still hasn’t retired. With a growing global population, the world needs to produce enough food to feed everyone, and Yuan is working to make this happen.
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3 . The Last Straw?
Every second, the world uses 160,000 plastic bags — that is a total of over five trillion per year. Up to 99 percent of these plastic bags hang around for at least 1,000 years and pollute Earth. And yet, plastic bags are hardly a necessity in our lives. Of all the changes we could make to create a more sustainable lifestyle, a total ban on plastic bags should be simple.
At the beginning of 2021, Shanghai put in effect a ban on all plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets, as well as a ban on non-degradable plastics in many other areas. Over the years, individuals and companies have worked to replace plastic items, such as cups and straws, with paper ones.
Customers complain that paper straws often become soft and break before they can finish their hot drinks. Experts, however, have repeatedly stressed plastic substitutes (替代品) are not the ultimate solution, and that our consumption habits need a bigger change.
In college, one of my environmental science professors promoted a type of waste-free living. She carried around a small glass jar with her, and in it was all her trash she collected for the entire year. She was able to do this by bringing her own cup to Starbucks, her own bags to the shops, and never buying anything that came wrapped in plastic. Her food waste also became compost.
Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.
A.Clearly she demonstrated our ability to live a completely healthy life without creating a great deal of plastic waste. |
B.Plastic bag litter has even caused great problems in some areas. |
C.If they’re free to use and easily disposed of, they’re a mere tool that we don’t have to think about. |
D.Some of these decisions have been met with criticism. |
E.Unfortunately, such a high level of pollution doesn’t come without consequences. |
● However, Hua did receive the support of a
● He loved maths and studied so hard that he managed to win a
● Then something terrible happened: because of a serious illness, his left leg became
● Despite this terrible setback, Hua continued to study on his own and
● Mentally, at least, most of us could
● The same old favorites recur year in year out
● Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are
● If we remain
● We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we
A.The vocabulary and grammatical differences between British and American English are such that are hardly to be noticed. |
B.Like women, bio-medicine is the same area as men have put in great efforts. |
C.Beauty contests, whether organized with noble intentions or just for fun, have attracted criticism since they were first held. |
D.The Beauty Pageant Contest is accessible to all men, however his background on previous body-building qualifications. |
1. 计算机被认为是一项最重要的发明。(regard)
2. 我们攀登那座山的尝试最终成功了。(attempt)
3. 在这部电影里担任主角让她喜极而泣。(role)
4. 在这个房间开讲座是没有用的,因为高架的噪音会淹没声音。(use)
Surprisingly, since modern PR was largely an American invention, America’s relations is being threatened by PR efforts in other countries. Ten years ago, for example, the world’s top five public relations agencies were American-owned. In 1991, only one was. The British in particular are becoming more sophisticated and creative. A recent survey found that more than half of all British companies include PR as part of their corporate (公司的) planning activities, compared to about one-third of U.S. companies.It may not be long before London replaces New York as the capital of PR.
Why is America lagging behind in the global PR race? Firstly, Americans as a whole tend to be fairly provincial and take more of an interest in local affairs. Knowledge of world geography, for example, has never been strong in this country. Secondly, Americans lag behind their European and Asian counterparts (相对应的人) in knowing a second language. Less than 5 percent of Burson—Marshall’s U.S.employees know two languages. Ogilvy and Mather have about the same percentage. Conversely, some European firms have half or more of their employees fluent in a second language. Finally, people involved in PR abroad tend to keep a closer eye on international affairs. In the financial PR area, for instance, most Americans read the Wall Street Journal. Overseas, their counterparts read the Journal as well as the Financial Times of London and The Economist, publications not often read in this country.
Perhaps the PR industry might take a lesson from Ted Turner of CNN (Cable News Network). Turner recently announced that the word “foreign” would no longer be used on CNN news
broadcasts. According to Turner, global communications have made the nations of the world so interdependent that there is no longer any such thing as foreign.
1. Compared with the American PR personnel, what is/are an advantage (s) of the non-Americans involved in PR?
A. They tend to be more internationally minded
B. They speak more and better foreign languages.
C. They usually pay more attention to global financial situation.
D. Both A and B.
2. What is the immediate cause of the downfall of America’s public relations?
A.The number of US public relations agencies had greatly decreased by 1991. |
B.Other countries have increased their efforts in public relations. |
C.On the global scale, cultural differences have significantly shrunk. |
D.The British companies are becoming especially sophisticated and creative in public relations. |
A.an American | B.a Briton | C.Ted Turner | D.an Asian |
A.strict in thinking | B.like people from rural areas |
C.limited in outlook | D.interested in geographical knowledge |