IV. Use the verb in brackets in the appropriate tense form
Variant I
I.Translate the text into Russian
MODERN ERA: BRITISH AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION AND GREEN REVOLUTION
After 1492, a global exchange of previously local crops and livestock breeds occurred. Key crops involved in this exchange included the tomato, maize, potato, manioc, cocoa bean and tobacco going from the New World to the Old, and several varieties of wheat, spices, coffee, and sugar cane going from the Old World to the New. The most important animal exportation from the Old World to the New were those of the horse and dog.
The potato became an important staple crop in northern Europe. Since being introduced by Portuguese in the 16th century, maize and manioc have replaced traditional African crops as the continent's most important staple food crops.
By the early 1800s, agricultural techniques, implements, seed stocks and cultivated plants had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages. With the rapid rise of mechanization in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the form of the tractor. These advances have led to efficiencies enabling certain modern farms in the United States, Argentina, Israel, Germany, and a few other nations to output volumes of high-quality produce per land unit. In the past century agriculture has been characterized by productivity, the substitution of labor for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. The cereals, rice, corn, and wheat provide 60% of human food supply. Between 1700 and 1980, "the total area of cultivated land worldwide increased 466%" and yields increased dramatically, particularly because of selectively-bred high-yielding varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, and machinery. For example, irrigation increased corn yields in eastern Colorado by 400 to 500% from 1940 to 1997.
Intensive agriculture has become associated with decreased soil quality in India and Asia. The monocultures typically used in intensive agriculture increase the number of pests, which are controlled through pesticides. Integrated pest management (IPM), which has been promoted for decades and has had some notable success. Although the "Green Revolution" significantly increased rice yields in Asia, yield increases have not occurred in the past 15–20 years. The genetic "yield potential" has increased for wheat, but the yield potential for rice has not increased since 1966. It takes a decade or two for herbicide-resistant weeds to emerge, and insects become resistant to insecticides within about a decade. Crop rotation helps to prevent resistances. Agricultural exploration expeditions, since the late nineteenth century, have been mounted to find new species and new agricultural practices in different areas of the world. Two early examples of expeditions include Frank N. Meyer's fruit- and nut-collecting trip to China and Japan from 1916-1918 and the Dorsett-Morse Oriental Agricultural Exploration Expedition to China, Japan, and Korea from 1929-1931 to collect soybean germplasm to support the rise in soybean agriculture in the United States.
|
|
|
In 2005, the agricultural output of China was the largest in the world, accounting for almost one-sixth of world share, followed by the EU, India and the USA. Six countries - the US, Canada, France, Australia, Argentina and Thailand - supply 90% of grain exports. The United States controls almost half of world grain exports. Water deficits, which are already spurring heavy grain imports in numerous middle-sized countries, including Algeria, Iran, Egypt, and Mexico, may soon do the same in larger countries, such as China or India.
II. Make up 5 questions to the text
III. Choose the correct answer
1. If the weather were hot, Julia … to the beach.
a) will go b) would go c) went
2. If he … me, I will phone him himself.
a) doesn’t phone b) didn’t phone c) hadn’t phoned
3. We … him to the country if he had asked us.
a)would take b) would have taken c) would be taken
4. If Tom were more careful he … so many mistakes in his tests
a) won’t make b) wouldn’t make c) wouldn’t made
5. I wouldn’t refuse if they … to give them a lift.
a) asked b)ask c) would ask
IV. Use the verb in brackets in the appropriate tense form
1. I wish I (can) give up smoking.
2. She wishes she (see) him at yesterday’s party.
3. I wish I (pass) my driving test last Monday.
4. I wish (not to forget) my friend’s birthday yesterday.
5. He wishes he (know something about cars.
Дата добавления: 2018-11-24; просмотров: 254; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!