【正文】 earch was supported by the 。As a result of Yuan Longping39。s discoveries Chinese rice production rose by percent in the 199039。，%。There were other advantages thousand square kilometers of rice fields were converted to growing vegetables and other cash ，5萬(wàn)平方公里原來(lái)的稻田現(xiàn)在被用來(lái)種植蔬菜和其他經(jīng)濟(jì)作物。Following this, Yuan Longping39。s rice was exported to other countries, such as Pakistan and the ，袁隆平研制的水稻還出口到巴基斯坦和菲律賓等國(guó)家。In Pakistan rice is the second most important crop after wheat and will be grown in many parts of the ，水稻是繼小麥之后的第二種最重要的作物并將在許多地方種植。The new hybrid rice has been developed by the Yuan Longping Hightech Agricultural Company of 。Its yield is much greater than the yield of other types of rice grown in 。 5 A Trip Along the Three Gorges三峽之旅In August1996, Peter Hessler, a young American teacher of English, arrived in the town of Puling on the Yangtze ，一位年輕的美國(guó)英語(yǔ)教師彼得赫斯勒，來(lái)到長(zhǎng)江之濱的涪陵。He and a colleague were to spend two years there teaching English at a teacher training 。They were the only foreigners in the 。The first semester finished at the end of January and they had four weeks off for the Spring could go anywhere they ，第一學(xué)期結(jié)束了，他們有四周的春節(jié)假期，可以隨處旅游。They decided to take a boat 。We decided to buy tickets for the jiangyou “江油號(hào)”的船票。Our colleagues said, “You shouldn39。t go on those :”你們不要坐那種船。They are very ，They are mainly for goods and people trading along the 。乘客多是沿江做生意的人。They don39。t stop at the temples and there won39。t be any other foreigners.“ 那些船不?？繌R宇，也不會(huì)有別的外國(guó)游人乘坐?！?That sounded fine to 。We just had to show our passports and they let us get on the 。We left the docks on a beautiful ，我們離開(kāi)碼頭。The sun was shining brightly as we sailed downstream through a hilly ，陽(yáng)光很燦爛。Men rode bamboo rafts along the river39。s edge and coal boats went ，運(yùn)煤的小船來(lái)來(lái)往往。As the sun set we docked at ，我們的船在豐都靠岸。We could see the sun setting behind the white was ，美麗極了。We slept through the first gorge, which is called the Qutang ，我們正在睡夢(mèng)中。The gorge narrows to 350 feet as the river rushes through the twomilehigh ，峽谷窄處只有巧350英尺?！癘h, well,” my friend said, “at least we have two more left.” 我朋友說(shuō):“至少我們能看見(jiàn)另外兩個(gè)峽谷?！盇s Wushan we made a detour up the Daning River to see some of the smaller ，我們繞道溯游大寧河，觀賞了幾處小峽谷。The next day we went through the big gorges on the Yangtze ，我們經(jīng)過(guò)了長(zhǎng)江的大峽谷。It was a lovely morning as we went through the Wu 。We passed the Xiang River, home of Qu Yuan, the 3rd century BC ，那是公元前三世紀(jì)一位詩(shī)人屈原的家鄉(xiāng)。There was so much history along the Yangtze 。Every rock looked like a person or animal, every stream that joined the great river carried its legends, every hill was heavy with the ，條條支流部流淌著傳說(shuō)，座座小山承載著過(guò)往。As we came out of the third gorge, the Xiling Gorge, we sailed into the construction site of the ，輪船駛?cè)氪髩谓ㄔO(shè)處的江面。All the passengers came on took pictures and pointed at the site, but we weren39。t allowed to get off the ，大家拍照片，對(duì)著工地指指點(diǎn)點(diǎn)，但不可以下船。The Chinese flag was blowing in the 。On a distant mountain was a sign in 20foot characters.“Build the Three Gorges Dam, Exploit the Yangtze River,” it “建造三峽大壩，開(kāi)發(fā)長(zhǎng)江資源”。 6 The Monster of the Lake Tianchi天池里的怪物 The “Monster of Lake Tianchi” in the Changbai Mountains in Jilin province, northeast China, is back in the news after several recent ，中國(guó)東北吉林省長(zhǎng)白山的“天池怪物”又成了新聞。The director of a local tourist office, Meng Fanying, said the monster, which seemed to be black in color, was ten meters from the edge of the lake during the most recent ，最近有人看見(jiàn)怪物就在離湖邊十米的地方，怪物的顏色似乎是黑色的?！癐t jumped out of the water like a sealabout 200 people on Changbai39。s western peak saw it,” he :“大約有兩百多人從長(zhǎng)白山的西峰看見(jiàn)過(guò)怪物，它像海豹一樣躍出水面。”Although no one really got a clear look at the mysterious creature, Xuejunlin, a local photographer, claimed that its head looked like a ，但當(dāng)?shù)匾晃粩z影師薛俊林聲稱(chēng):怪物的頭看起來(lái)像馬頭?！癐n another recent sighting, a group of soldiers claim they saw an animal moving on the surface of the ，一群戰(zhàn)士證實(shí):他們看見(jiàn)湖的水面上有東西在游動(dòng)。The soldiers, who were walking along the side of the lake, watched the creature swimming for about two 。”It was greenishblack and had a round head with locentimeter horns“, one of the soldiers ?！惫治锏念伾珳\綠帶黑，圓形的頭上有十厘米左右的角。A third report came from Li Xiaohe, who was visiting the lake with his ，當(dāng)時(shí)他和家人正在湖邊游玩。He claims to have seen a round black creature moving quickly through the three or four hundred meters it dived into the 。Ten minutes later the monster appeared again and repeated the ，怪物再次出現(xiàn)，并重復(fù)了相同的動(dòng)作。 Xiaohe said that he and his family were able to see the monster clearly because the weather was fine and the lake was ，因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)天氣好，湖水平靜。There have been reports of monsters in Lake Tianchi since the beginning of the last century, although no one has seen one close ，一直就有關(guān)于天池怪物的報(bào)導(dǎo)，盡管還不曾有人近距離目睹過(guò)。Some photos have been taken but they are not clear because it was too far ，但由于距離太遠(yuǎn)，看起來(lái)模糊不清。Many people think the monster may be a distant cousin of the Loch Ness monster in ，天池里的怪物或許是蘇格蘭尼斯湖中怪物的遠(yuǎn)親。They also think that there might be similar creatures in other lakes around the ，在世界其他地方的湖泊中可能也有類(lèi)似的怪物。Scientists, however, are ，科學(xué)家們表示懷疑。They say that the lowtemperature lake is unlikely to be able to support such large living ，溫度低的湖中不可能存活如此大的生物。Lake Tianchi is the highest volcanic lake in the is 2,189 metres high and covers an area of about ten square places it is more than 370 metres ，海拔2，189米，面積有10平方公里，有的地方水深達(dá)370米。