Chinese scientist Yuan Longping, known as “Father of Hybrid Rice”(杂交水稻之父), passed away in Changsha on May 22, 2021. Chinese people expressed their sadness at the death of the great man.
Although he was one of China’s most famous scientists, Yuan Longping considered himself as a farmer. Yuan’s lifelong dedication(贡献) to solving the problem of hunger made him a national hero in China. Born in Beijing in 1930, Yuan graduated(毕业) from Southwest Agricultural College in 1953. Since then, finding ways to grow more rice had been his life goals. As a young man, he saw the great need for increasing the rice output(产量). At that time, hunger was a big problem in many parts of the country. Yuan searched for a way to increase rice output without expanding(扩大) the area of the fields.
Having spent over fifty years on hybrid rice research, Yuan had helped China work a great wonder—feeding nearly one fifth of the world’s population with less than nine percent of the world’s total land. More than 820 million people were hungry in 2018, according to a UN report. Since the 1980s, Yuan’s team has offered training courses to many countries in Africa.
Yuan said he had two dreams—to “enjoy the cool under the rice crops taller than men” and that hybrid rice could be grown all over the world to help solve the global food scarcity(全球粮食短缺). Thanks to Yuan Longping, China was able to stop hunger. We can't imagine what our life would be like without his efforts.
【小题1】Yuan Longping is famous as “Father of Hybrid Rice”.
【小题2】Yuan Longping passed away at the age of 91.
【小题3】Yuan Longping found a way to increase rice output by expanding the area of the fields.
【小题4】It took Yuan Longping fifty years to do hybrid rice research.
【小题5】This article is mainly about a great scientist and his dedication.
