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必修
4 Unit 1
A STUDENT
OF AFRICAN WILDLIFE
It is 5:45 am and the sun is just
rising over Gombe National Park in East Africa.
Following
Jane's way of studying
chimps, our group are all going to visit them in
the forest. Jane has studied
these
families of chimps for many years and helped
people understand how much they behave like
humans. Watching a family of chimps
wake up is our first activity of the day. This
means going
back to the place where we
left the family sleeping in a tree the night
before. Everybody sits and
waits in the
shade of the trees while the family begins to wake
up and move off. Then we follow
as they
wander into the forest. Most of the time, chimps
either feed or clean each other as a way of
showing love in their family. Jane
warns us that our group is going to be very tired
and dirty by
the afternoon and she is
right. However, the evening makes it all
worthwhile. We watch the mother
chimp
and her babies play in the tree. Then we see them
go to sleep together in their nest for the
night. We realize that the bond between
members of a chimp family is as strong as in a
human
family.
Nobody
before
Jane
fully
understood
chimp
behaviour.
She
spent
years
observing
and
recording their daily activities. Since
her childhood she had wanted to work with animals
in their
own environment. However, this
was not easy. When she first arrived in Gombe in
1960, it was
unusual for a woman to
live in the forest. Only after her mother came to
help her for the first few
months
was
she
allowed
to
begin
her
project.
Her
work
changed
the
way
people
think
about
chimps. For example,
one important thing she discovered was that chimps
hunt and eat meat. Until
then
everyone
had
thought
chimps
ate
only
fruit
and
nuts.
She
actually
observed
chimps
as
a
group hunting a monkey and then eating
it. She also discovered how chimps communicate
with
each other, and her study of their
body language helped her work out their social
system.
For
forty
years
Jane
Goodall
has
been
outspoken
about
making
the
rest
of
the
world
understand and respect the life of
these animals. She has argued that wild animals
should be left in
the wild and not used
for entertainment or advertisements. She has
helped to set up special places
where
they
can
live
safely.
She
is
leading
a
busy
life
but
she
says:
I
stop,
it
all
comes
crowding in and I
remember the chimps in laboratories. It's
terrible. It affects me when I watch the
wild chimps. I say to myself, 'Aren't
they lucky?
1
though they have done nothing wrong.
Once you have seen that you
can never forget ...
She
has
achieved
everything
she
wanted
to
do:
working
with
animals
in
their
own
environment, gaining a
doctor's degree and showing that women can live in
the forest as men can.
She inspires
those who want to cheer the achievements of women.
WHY NOT CARRY ON HER GOOD WORK?
I
enjoyed
English, biology,
and
chemistry
at
school,
but
which
one
should
I
choose
to
study
at
university? I did not
know the answer until one evening when I sat down
at the computer to do
some research on
great women of China.
By
chance
I
came
across
an
article
about
a
doctor
called
Lin
Qiaozhi,
a
specialist
in
women's
diseases.
She
lived
from
1901
to
1983.
It
seemed
that
she
had
been
very
busy
in
her
chosen career,
travelling abroad to study as well as writing
books and articles. One of them caught
my eye. It was a small
book
explaining
how
to
cut
the
death
rate
from
having
and
caring
for
babies.
She
gave
some
simple rules to follow
for keeping babies clean, healthy and free from
sickness. Why did she write
that? Who
were the women that Lin Qiaozhi thought needed
this advice? I looked carefully at the
text and
realized that it
was intended for women in the countryside. Perhaps
if they had an emergency they
could not
reach a doctor.
Suddenly it hit me how
difficult it was for a woman to get medical
training at that time.
That was a
generation when girls' education was always placed
second to boys'. Was she so much
cleverer
than
anyone
else?
Further
reading
made
me
realize
that
it
was
hard
work
and
determination as well as her gentle
nature that got her into medical school. What made
her succeed
later on was the kindness
and consideration she showed to all her patients.
There was story after
story of how Lin
Qiaozhi, tired after a day's work, went late at
night to deliver a baby for a poor
family who could not pay her.
By now I could not wait to
find out more about her. I discovered that Lin
Qiaozhi had
devoted her whole life to
her patients and had chosen not to have a family
of her own. Instead she
made sure that
about 50,000 babies were safely delivered. By this
time I was very excited. Why
not study
at medical college like Lin Qiaozhi and carry on
her good work? It was still not too late
for me
to improve my
studies, prepare for the university entrance
examinations, and….
2
必修
4 Unit 2
A PIONEER FOR ALL PEOPLE
Although he is
one of China's most famous scientists, Yuan
Longping considers himself a
farmer,
for he works the land to do his research. Indeed,
his sunburnt face and arms and his slim,
strong body are just like those of
millions of Chinese farmers, for whom he has
struggled for the
past five decades. Dr
Yuan Longping grows what is called super hybrid
rice. In 1974, he became
the first
agricultural pioneer in the world to grow rice
that has a high output. This special strain of
rice makes it possible to produce one-
third more of the crop in the same fields. Now
more than
60% of the rice produced in
China each year is from this hybrid strain.
Born into a
poor farmer's family in 1930, Dr Yuan graduated
from Southwest Agricultural
College in
1953. Since then, finding ways to grow more rice
has been his life goal. As a young
man,
he saw the great need for increasing the rice
output. At that time, hunger was a disturbing
problem in many parts of the
countryside. Dr Y
uan searched for a way
to increase rice harvests
without
expanding
the
area
of
the
fields.
In
1950,
Chinese
farmers
could
produce
only
fifty
million
tons
of
rice.
In
a
recent
harvest,
however,
nearly
two
hundred
million
tons
of
rice
was
produced. These increased harvests mean
that 22% of the world's people are fed from just
7% of
the
farmland
in
China.
Dr
Yuan
is
now
circulating
his
knowledge
in
India,
Vietnam
and
many
other
less developed countries to increase their rice
harvests. Thanks to his research, the UN has
more tools in the battle to rid the
world of hunger. Using his hybrid rice, farmers
are producing
harvests twice as large
as before.
Dr
Yuan is quite satisfied with his life. However, he
doesn't care about being famous. He
feels it gives him less freedom to do
his research. He would much rather keep time for
his hobbles.
He enjoys listening to
violin music, playing mah-jong, swimming and
reading. Spending money
on himself or
leading a comfortable life also means very little
to him. Indeed, he believes that a
person with too much money has more
rather than fewer troubles. He therefore gives
millions of
yuan to equip others for
their research in agriculture.
Just
dreaming
for
things,
however,
costs
nothing.
Long
ago Dr
yuan
had
a dream
about
rice plants as tall as sorghum. Each
ear of rice was as big as an ear of corn and each
grain of rice
was as huge as a peanut.
Dr Yuan awoke from his dream with the hope of
producing a kind of rice
3
that could feed more people. Now, many
years later, Dr Yuan has another dream: to export
his rice
so that it can be grown around
the globe. One dream is not always enough,
especially for a person
who loves and
cares for his people.
CHEMICAL OR ORGANIC FARMING?
Over the past half century,
using chemical fertilizers has become very common
in farming. Many
farmers
welcomed
them
as
a
great
way
to
stop
crop
disease
and
increase
production.
Recently,
however,
scientists have been finding that long-term use of
these fertilizers can cause damage to
the land and, even more dangerous, to
people's health.
What are some
of the problems caused by chemical fertilizers?
First, they damage the
land by killing
the helpful bacteria and pests as well as the
harmful ones. Chemicals also stay in
the ground and underground water for a
long time. This affects crops and, therefore,
animals and
humans, since chemicals get
inside the crops and cannot just be washed off.
These chemicals in
the food supply
build up in people's bodies over time. Many of
these chemicals can lead to cancer
or
other
illnesses.
In
addition,
fruit,
vegetables
and
other
food
grown
with
chemical
fertilizers
usually
grow
too
fast
to
be full
of
much
nutrition.
They
may
look
beautiful,
but
inside
there
is
usually more water than vitamins and
minerals.
With
these
discoveries,
some
farmers
and
many
customers
are
beginning
to
turn
to
organic farming. Organic
farming is simply farming without using any
chemicals. They focus on
keeping their
soil rich and free of disease. A healthy soil
reduces disease and helps crops grow
strong and healthy. Organic farmers,
therefore, often prefer using natural waste from
animals as
fertilizer. They feel that
this makes the soil in their fields richer in
minerals and so more fertile.
This also
keeps the air, soil, water and crops free from
chemicals.
Organic farmers also use many other
methods to keep the soil fertile. They often
change
the kind of crop in each field
every few years, for example, growing corn or
wheat and then the
next year peas or
soybeans. Crops such as peas or soybeans put
important minerals back into the
soil,
making
it
ready
for
crops
such
as
wheat
or
corn
that
need
rich
and
fertile
soil.
Organic
farmers also plant crops to use
different levels of soil, for example, planting
peanuts that use the
ground's surface
followed by vegetables that put down deep roots.
Some organic farmers prefer
planting
grass
between
crops
to
prevent
wind
or
water
from
carrying
away
the
soil,
and
then
4
leaving
it
in
the
ground
to
become
a
natural
fertilizer
for
the
next
year's
crop.
These
many
different organic farming methods have
the same goal: to grow good food and avoid
damaging the
environment or people's
health.
必修
4 Unit 3
A MASTER OF NONVERBAL HUMOUR
As Victor Hugo
once said,
and up to now nobody has
been able to do this better than Charlie Chaplin.
He brightened the lives
of Americans
and British through two world wars and the hard
years in between. He made people
laugh
at a time when they felt depressed, so they could
feel more content with their lives.
Not
that Charlie's
own
life
was
easy!
He
was born
in
a
poor
family
in
1889.
His
parents
were both poor
music hall performers. You may find it astonishing
that Charlie was taught to sing
as
soon
as
he
could
speak
and
dance
as
soon
as
he
could
walk.
Such
training
was
common
in
acting
families at this time, especially when the family
income was often uncertain. Unfortunately
his father died, leaving the family
even worse off, so Charlie spent his childhood
looking after his
sick
mother
and his
brother.
By
his
teens, Charlie had, through his
humour,
become
one
of
the
most popular child actors in England.
He could mime and act the fool doing ordinary
everyday
tasks. No one was ever bored
watching him -his subtle acting made everything
entertaining.
As time went
by, he began making films. He grew more and more
popular as his charming
character, the
little tramp, became known throughout the world.
The tramp, a poor, homeless man
with a
moustache, wore large trousers, worn-out shoes and
a small round black hat. He walked
around stilly carrying a walking stick.
This character was a social failure but was loved
for his
optimism and determination to
overcome all difficulties. He was the underdog who
was kind even
when others were unkind
to him.
How did the
little tramp make a sad situation entertaining?
Here is an example from one of
his most
famous films, The Gold Rush. It is the
mid-nineteenth century and gold has
just been
discovered in California.
Like so many others, the little tramp and his
friend have rushed there in
search
of
gold,
but
without
success.
Instead
they
are
hiding
in
a
small
hut
on
the
edge
of
a
mountain during a
snowstorm with nothing to eat. They are so hungry
that they try boiling a pair
of
leather
shoes
for
their
dinner.
Charlie
first
picks
out
the
laces
and eats
them
as
if
they
were
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