No 21 Working the Land 躬耕于田
Nowadays, sufficient and nutritious food is available at the local grocery so there’s a common assumption that it’s produced easily. But I’m convinced that this is far from the case. As a Chinese ancient poem goes, every single grain on your plate is the result of hard work. Indeed, people have overcome enormous technical difficulties to boost yields of crops and improve their characteristic in the aspect of quality.如今，数量充足营养丰富的食品在当地的杂货店就可买到，因此人们普遍假设其生产非常容易。但我相信情况远非如此。正如一句中国古诗所说，谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。事实上，为了增加农作物产量并提高它们在质量方面的特性，人们克服了巨大的技术难题。
To tackle the crisis of food shortage, Yuan Longping devoted his life to developing self-pollinating hybrid rice, which can attain a higher yield than conventional crops. Envisioning broom-sized rice ears and salty soil rice, he turned his visions into reality through intense effort, enabling farmers to expand their output greatly and alleviating hunger and poverty. Today, it’s estimated that 60 percent of domestic rice consumption in China is comprised of crops generated from Yuan’s hybrid strains. Despite his advanced years, he didn’t retire for leisure because deep down he cares not celebrity or money.
为解决食品短缺危机，袁隆平一生致力于研发可自我授粉的杂交水稻，它们能获得比传统作物更高的产量。展望着扫帚大小的稻穗和盐碱土壤稻，他以热切的努力把想象变为现实，使农民能够极大地扩大产量并减轻了饥饿和贫穷。如今，据估计中国国内稻米消费量中有大约60%来自他的杂交品种形成的作物。尽管年事已高，他也不为了休闲而退休，因为在内心深处他不在意名望和金钱。
In conventional farming, widespread use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers kills helpful bacteria in soil and leaves harmful chemicals, which affects crops’ nutritional value and flavour and, in turn, the humans who digest them. Hence, to make the crops rich in nutrition and essential minerals, people have employed organic farming as an alternative to chemical farming. For instance, in an extension of urban farm, a wartime tunnel against bombs, people stop using man-made chemicals entirely and plant crops with diverse roots to use different depths of soil, such as wheat and beans.
在传统种植业中，杀虫剂和人造肥料的广泛使用杀死土壤中的有益细菌并留下有害化学物质，这会影响作物的营养价值和口味，进而影响消化作物的人类。因此，为了让庄稼富含营养和必要矿物质，人们采用了有机种植作为化学种植的替代品。例如，在一处由战时防轰炸隧道扩建成的城市农场，人们完全停止使用化学物质，为使用土壤的不同深度种植有着不同根系的作物，例如小麦和豆类。
选背：It’s a pity that organic and sustainable farming is nowhere near able to meet the increasing consumption demands of food. Therefore, scientists have been conducting agricultural research to make innovations. For instance, drip irrigation which can deny moisture to weeds and hydroponics using nutrient-rich water instead of soil have been widely used in commercial vertical farms. Besides, self-driving agricultural machinery can carry out a diversity of tasks such as ploughing and planting, fertilising and irrigating, managing pest and harvesting.
遗憾的是，有机可持续农业完全不能满足日益增长的食品消费需求。因此，科学家们一直在进行农业研究以做出革新。例如，商业性垂直农场已经广泛使用避免给予杂草水分的滴灌（技术）和使用营养液而不是土壤的水栽（技术）。此外，自动驾驶的农业机械能进行各种任务，例如耕田和播种，施肥和灌溉，除虫和收获。
未融入本文的单词表词汇：sorghum 高粱