Unit19

1. Unit19

2. Reading

3. Warming-up: Look at the pictures at p.45, describing what you see and comparing traditional and modern farming. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each way?

7. Scanning **Divide the text into 4 parts and find the main idea of each part: The 1st part — the first paragraph The 2st part — the second paragraph The 3st part — the third paragraph The 4st part — the fourth, fifth and sixth paragraphs.

8. Paragraph 1: Traditional agriculture in China. The development of agriculture before the 1980s. Paragraph 2: New techniques to protect environ-ment as well as increasing produs-tion from the 1990s. Paragraph 3: Ways to solve the problem of the shortage of arable land. Paragraph 4: 1. Grow vegetables in greenhouses. 2. Use GM to create plants that produce more and bigger and better crops. What are theways?

9. 1.China has only about 67,000 sq. km of arable land. • 2. No advanced technical information was brought in from abroad before 1980. • Scientists have always tried to increase farming production without harming the environment since the early 1990s. • Traditional methods of farming have no advantages so they won’t be used in future agriculture. • The average arable land for each Chinese is much less than that of the world. T F T F T

10. 6. Growing vegetables in green houses has so many advantages that it can reduce losses caused by bad weather and that it can partly settle the problem of the shortage of arable land. 7. GM is a new technique that can make a plant quite different from what it used to be, bigger and healthier and with no diseases, but it takes longer time to grow. 8. The GM technique can only be used on plants, but not on animals at the present time. T F F

11. AGRICULTURE Traditional agriculture Modern agriculture Future agriculture chemical fertilization one family business high technology and electric pump fertilization, irrigation traditional methods harmful to the environment not harmful to the take care of the environment environment 7% of arable land to feed 1.3 billion people GM technique green houses a natural seed is changed the roots hang in water containing nutrients need much less time without danger from disease protected from wind, rain and insects computer controls the temperature fruits are bigger and healthier

12. Questions: 1.what farming techniques have been modernized ? Chemical fertilisers To improve the soil Electric pumps To irrigate the crops Two or more crops are planted each year To increase production

13. 2.what are the disadvantages of chemical fertilisers? They are harmful to the environment. 3.How will you solve this problem?

14. 4.what other techniques can help to solve this problem? GM 5.What can we change through GM? • Change fruits, vegetables and even animals • The way they grow • Where they can grow • How they will taste • What colour and what shape they will have

15. 6.Suppose you are a scientist of GM,how you would change the following and why.

16. 7.What is the biggest problem to Chinese farmers? 8. What does GM mean?

17. Discussion Except the earth,where else can we find more land?

18. If you were one of the scientist, what would you do to develop agriculture on Mars ?

19. Integrating reading ---Get the students to finish the exercise 3 on P110 as an introduction of the text. ---Ask the students to pick out as many pieces of advice as possible in the text.

20. 1. Farmers should do things at the right time of the year. 2. Farmers should examine the soil carefully. 3. If the condition of the soil is not good, farmers should improve it. 4. Before sowing or planting crops, farmers should clean rough ground and remove weeds. 5. Farmers should let sheep or cattle (cows) walk on the land before sowing or planting crops. 6. Farmers should plough the land, so weeds are destroyed.

21. 7. When ploughing the land, farmers should plough deep the first time and less deep the second time. 8. Farmers will get the best results I they change crops in their fields. 9. If farmers plant rice in a field one year, and wheat in that field the following year, they will harvest good crops. 10. If farmers plant wheat close together, they will have better results than when plant wheat leaving space between the plants. 11. It is good to grow different plants next to each other in the same field.

22. Farmer’s proverbs and sayings The wisdom of farmers about the weather and farming is collected in many popular proverbs and passed on from generation to generation. The following proverbs tell you something about the weather in England. Are they true for China? No weather is ill, if the wind be still. Yellow sky at sunset, wind in the morrow. Rain before seven, clear by eleven. Aprl showers bring May flowers. Deeds are fruits, words are but leaves. The best ground bears weeds as well as flowers. Never cackle unless you lay.

23. Grammar The use of “it”(2) for Emphasis It ison this arable landthatthe farmers produce food for the whole population of China. It wasfrom the early 1990s thatscientists started to develop new techniques to increase agricultural production without harming the environment.

24. 1. It is on this arable land that the farmers produce food for the whole population of China. “it” 引导强调句。It无意义，只起语法作用。 Jia Sixie wrote a book called Qimin Yaoshu around 540 AD. --- It was Jia Sixie who wrote a book called Qimin Yaoshu around 540 AD. --- It was a book called Qimin Yaoshu that Jia Sixie wrote around 540 AD. --- It was around 540 AD that Jia Sixie wrote a book called Qinmin Yaoshu. ------其结构：It + be + 强调部分 + that (人物用who/whom) ＋句子其他成分。

25. 1. 强调主语 The children often help the parents do he farm work. It is the children who often help the parents do the farm work. 2. 强调宾语 Future agriculture should depend on high technology. It is high technology that future agriculture should depend on. 3. 强调地点、时间等状语。 The farmers produced food for the whole population of China on this arable land. It was high technology that future agriculture should depend on.

26. 2. To make as much use of the land as possible, two or more crops are planted each year where possible. (1)as … as possible 尽可能的…. We need to send the letter off as soon as possible. Hold your breath for as long as possible. (2) where possible = where it is possible. Fill in the words in the blanks where necessary. Come to see her when possible.

27. Some useful expressions in the text: make as much use of the land as possible, bring in…, as well as…, be harmful to…, be friendly to…, protect … from…, a variety of…, over the years, have an effect on…, make good money, make use of…, in the 1980s, be different from…, stand for…, in other words, go against…, from far and near, come to know…, fall in love with…, as a result of…, be covered with…, to one’s joy,