【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 ad the best color. Then he told them to hang them to dry all winter. The next spring the seeds should be knocked out of their seedheads and planted. He studied how to improve the soil. He advised farmers to clear weeds from the ground before planting crops. They could either let the animals eat the weeds or turn the soil over so that the weeds were covered and would rot. Then he gave advice on Turing over the soil. The first time each year, farmers should dig deeply, but the second time should be less deep. Therefore the autumn ploughing of the soil should be deeper thant the spring ploughing. He suggested changing crops in the field every year: rive one year and wheat the next so that they would always get good harvests. They should also grow different plants next to each other in the field. He also gave adive on how to fish, keep a garden and even make wine.He wrote down his in a book called Qi Min Yao Shu, which was considered an important summary of the knowledge of farming. For centuries after Jia Sixie died, it was studied by Chinese farmers and students of agriculture.Unit 3A MASTER OF NONVERBAL HUMOURAs Victor Hugo once said, “Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face”, 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 mon in acting families at that time, especially when the family ine 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, bee 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 himhis 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, wornout shoes and a small round black hat. He walked around stiffly carrying a walking stick. This character was a social failure but was loved for his optimism and determination to overe 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 midnineteenth 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 spaghetti. Then he cuts off the leather top of the shoes as if it were the finest steak. Finally he tries cutting and chewing the bottom of the shoe. He eats each mouthful with great enjoyment. The acting is so convincing that it makes you believe that it is one of the best meals he has ever tasted!Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed and produced the films the starred in. In 1972 he was given a special Oscar for his outstanding work in films. He lived in England and the USA but spend his last years in Switzerland, where he was buried in 1977. He is loved and remembered as a great actor who could inspire people with great confidence.AN APRIL FOOL’S JOKE: THE NOODLE HARVESTApril Fool’s day, or April 1st, is known in many countries as a day for playing jokes on others. It is usually a time when children make fun of each other, but sometimes other people can get caught in the fun too.One of the most famous jokes in England took place on British television in 1957. It was a Monday night when there were always many serious programmes on the television. One of them was called Panorama, this show explored problems and progress all over the world, so nobody was surprised when it began with a report on the excellent noodle harvest in the south Switzerland. The programme mentioned two reasons for the good crop: an unusually warm winter and the disappearance of the insect that attacked the noodle crop every year. The reporter showed many noodle trees with the farmers pulling noodles off them and putting them into baskets. The people watching were told that they may not have heard of noodles from this part of the world because noodles were grown as part of small family businesses.The programme makers makers realized that people might wonder why noodles were always the same size so that they explained that “it was the result of many years’ patient research with the tree to produce noodles of exactly the same length.” But even so they explained, the life of a noodle farmer was not easy. “The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for noodle farmers. There is always a chance of very cold weather spoiling their crop. Then it is difficult for them to get top prices on the markets.” Many people in England believed this story. They rang the BBC to find out hoe to grow their own noodle tree. They were told to “place a piece of noodle in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” This may seem very silly, but in the 1950s very few British people travelled aboard for their holidays and even fewer of them ate noodles. So it seemed possible to imagine that noodles grew on tree like apples, pears and nuts. People also trusted the Pano