【正文】 of ri ce that coul d feed m ore peopl e. Now, many years l ater, Dr Yuan has another dream: to export his ri ce so that i t can be grown around the gl boe. One dream i s not al ways enough, especi al y for a person who loves and cares for his peopl e. Chemi cal or ani c farmi ng? O ver the past hal f century, using chem ical fertil izers has vee very mon i n farm ing. Many farmers wel ed them as great way to stop crop disease and i ncrease producti on. Recently, however, sci enti sts have been finding that l ongterm use of these ferti lizers can cause damage to the land and, even more dangerous, to peopl e?s heal th. What are som e of the probl em s caused by chemi cal fertil izers? First, they damage the l and by ki li ng the hel pful bacteri a and pests as wel l as the harmful ones. Chemi cal s also stay i n the ground and underground water for a lonog ti me. This afects crops and, therefore, anim als and hum ans, since chem icals get inside the crops and cannot just be washed off. These chemi cal s i n the food supply bui ld up in peopl e?s bodi es over time. Many of these chemical s can lead to cancer or other i l neses. In additi on, fruit, vegetabl es and other food grown wi th chemical ferti li zers usual ly grow too fast to be ful of m uch nutri ti on. They may l ook beauti ful, but i nsi de there is usual ly m ore water than vitamins and mi nerals. With these discoveri es, some farmers and many customers are begi nning to turn to anic farmi ng. O rgani c farm ing is si mply farmi ng wi thout usi ng any chemical s. They focus on keepi ng their soi l ri ch and free of disease. A healthy soil reduces disease and hel ps crops grow strong and heal thy. O rgani c farm ers, therefore, often prefer usi ng natural waste from anim al s as fertil izer. They feel that thi s makes the soi l in thei r fields richer i n mi neral s and so m ore fertil e. This al so keeps the ai r, soil , water and crops free from chemi cal s. O rgani c farm ers also use m any other methods to keep the soil fertil e. They often change the knd of crop in each field every few years, for exampl e, growi ng corn or wheat and then the next year peas or soybeans. Crops such as peas or soybeans put i mportant minerals back into the soil , making it ready for crops such as wheat or corn that need ri ch and fertile soil. O rgani c farmers also pl ant crops to use different l evels of soi l, for exampl e, pl anti ng peanuts that use the ground?s surface fol owed by vegetables that put down dep rots. Some anic farmers prefer pl anting grass between crops to prevent wind or water from carryi ng away the soi l, and then l eavi ng it in the ground to bee a natural ferti l i zer for the next year?s crop. These many di ferent ani c farming methods have the same goal: to grow god food and avoid dam agi ng the environment or people?s health. An earl y farmer pi oneer Some peopl e thought Jia Sixi e was a lucky m an. H e had worked for the em peror and when he got ol d, he was abl e to go his hometown to rel ax. Jia Sixi e, however, had other plans. He had always been i nterested i n agriculture and i ntended to do something to make Chinese farmi ng even better. Ji a Si xie l ived in the si x century AD. He was born i n Yidu in Shandong province and worked in Gaoyang, whi ch is also i n Shangdong. As he rode through the countryside on his journeys for his work he l oked out at the fiel ds. Som e of them were greener and had more crops than others. Som e cows and sheep l ooked healthier than others too. H e was l ost in though. What coul d a farmer do to get good crops from hi s fiel ds? Surely there must be rules that woul d help them. He thought he coul d use hi s knowl edge to find out the best ways for farm ers to grow crops and then wri te a book to hel p them. In doi ng so he col lected information from farm ers who did wel , studi ed i t and di d experiments to fi nd the best way. For example, he studi ed ways of keepi ng seds and advised farmers to choose seedheads whi ch had the best col or. Then he told them to hang them to dry al wi nter. The next spri ng the seeds should be knocked out of their seedheads and planted. He studied how to i mprove the soil . H e advised farmers to cl ear weeds from the ground before pl anting crops. They could either l et the animal s eat the weeds or turn the soi l over so that the weeds were covered and woul d rot. Then he gave advice on Turing over the soil . The fi rst ti me each year, farm ers shoul d di g deeply, but the second tim e should be less deep. Therefore the autum n ploughing of the soil should be deeper thant the spri ng ploughing. He suggested changi ng crops in the fiel d every year: ri ve one year and wheat the next so that they would al ways get good harvests. They should al so grow di fferent pl ants next to each other in the fi eld. He also gave adi ve on how to fi sh, kep a garden and even make wine. He wrote down his in a book cal ed Qi Mi n Yao Shu, whi ch was considered an important sum mary of the knowl edge of farm ing. For centuri es after Jia Si xi e died, i t was studied by Chinese farmers and students of agri culture. Uni t 3 A MASTER O F N ONVERBAL HUMOUR As Victor Hugo once said, “Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face”, and up to now nobody has been abl e to do thi s better than Charl ie Chaplin. H e brightened the l ives of Am ericans and Briti sh through two world wars and the hard years in between. He made people laugh at a time when they felt depressed, so they coul d feel more content with thei r l ives. Not that Charlie?s own l ife was easy! He was born in a poor family in 1889. His parents were both poor music hal l perform ers. You m ay find it astoni shing that Charli e was taught to si ng as soon as he coul d speak and dance as soon as he coul d wal k. Such trai ning was mon i n acting fami li es at that time, especial y when the famil y i n