A few weeks ago, I sat with a California farmer named Dave Ribeiro. I asked him what he wished to know about farmers. He smiled and said, "That we walk among you. We look like you and talk like you. We have advanced degrees and hobbies, just like you."
Take Dave for example: He's a young man with a music degree. And if you walked past him on the street, you'd never think, "There goes a farmer."
Is someone like Dave who you picture when you think of a farmer? Probably not. I think that most people would picture a man in his overalls(工作服). I can tell you, that does not represent Dave or any of the many other farmers I have gotten to know.
Not only do we have to throw out our previous impression of farmers, but farming as a whole doesn't look much like it used to either. We recently sent a team out to see what modern farming looks like, and they found farmers to be completely different from our usual ideas about them and also came across them in some unexpected places.
In a parking lot in a neighborhood of Brooklyn, they met a new crop of young farmers who were trying to bring fresh greens closer to eaters in the city by growing them in high-tech indoor vertical(垂直的) farms. In a Florida field under the fight path of an airport, they discovered farmers with university degrees growing plants that might someday fuel our cars. And in a modern farm in California, they observed how farmers were using technology to take the best possible care of their animals.
These farmers all spend their days in very different ways—none of them looks like the previous farmer we have in our mind—but they're all working on new ways to feed our planet. Not only do we need to change our idea of what farming looks like, but we also need to change our view of where solutions can come from. Feeding all of us is going to take all of us working together.
Over the past 40 years, China has helped more than 700 million rural residents out of being poor, and the poverty rate(贫困率) — the proportion of people living below the Chinese poverty line — had fallen among the rural population from 97.5 percent in 1978 to 3.1 percent at the end of 2017, official figures shows. China's achievements in poverty alleviation(扶贫) made the world look at China with admiration.
"For me, it is unbelievable that over 40 years, that is, over the course of one working lifetime, China has gone from one of the poorest countries in the world to one that is about to eliminate(消除) absolute poverty," said Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council.
Varaprasad Sekhar Dolla, a professor of Chinese studies at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University, also spoke highly of China's achievements in poverty reduction. "If global poverty came down greatly in the last three or four decades, it's partly because of the Chinese contribution to reducing poverty within its own national boundaries," said the Indian scholar.
In the eyes of Khairy Tourk, a professor of economics with the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, "many countries look up to China to learn from its experience." "The Chinese experience is based on building a modern infrastructure(基础设施) and then on setting up special economic zones that would help underdeveloped countries to become more industrial," he added.
In the government work report delivered at the opening of the annual NPC session (全国人大会议) on March 5, China promises to reduce its population of rural poor by over 10 million this year.
Every new person added to the planet needs food, water, clothes, and so on. . Those things require extra natural resources, including land and water. But Earth's riches are limited. Less than 1 percent of Earths water can be used for drinking and washing. One out of every thirteen people around the world does not always have enough clean water.. Too many people are using too much water, especially in the already dry areas of the southwestern United States.
Food shortages(不足) are even more common. Worldwide, one out of every seven people does not get enough to eat.. Over time, the soil loses its nutrients(营养) and the farmland becomes useless for growing food. As the world becomes more crowded(拥挤的), more land is needed to make way for growing cities. . That's a problem because trees help take in a gas called carbon dioxide. Humans produce carbon dioxide by burning coal and oil. Fewer trees mean more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The buildup of carbon dioxide traps heat and pollution above Earth.
, although every person uses the planet's resources. The richest billion people, Americans especially, use the most resources. They also produce the most waste.
A. Forests are cleared away
B. Some people use a lot more than others
C. Water shortages have hit many parts of the world
D. Water pollution is a serious problem in some areas
E. More trees should be planted to handle air pollution
F. Huge needs for food force farmers to overuse their land
G. More people mean more cars, roads, schools, hospitals, and stores
Germany is a highly developed country. Many people think its people lead a luxurious (奢侈的) life. One day，my friend and I 1a restaurant. We noticed that a young couple was having their meal. There were 2 two dishes and two cans of beer on their table. I wondered if such a (n)3meal could be fine and whether the girl would leave that4man.
As we were 5 , my friend ordered more food for us. When we left, there was still about one third of the food we had ordered on the table. When we were leaving, the young man spoke to us in English. We 6that he was unhappy about us 7so much food. "We paid for our food. It is none of your 8how much food we left behind," my friend told him. The young man was so angry that he 9 took his phone out and made a call to someone.
After a while, an officer from the Social Security Organization (社会保障组织) arrived. Upon knowing what had happened, he gave us a €50 fine (罚款), which10us.
The officer told us in a 11 voice, " 12 is yours but resources (资源) belong to society. There are many 13 people in the world who are14hunger. We have no 15 to waste resources."
Their attitude to eating put both of us to 16. We need to correct our wrong 17. We are from a country which is not very rich. To save face, we often think we should order more than we can eat, which 18our friends our generosity (慷慨). We should realize that resources don't belong to a (n) 19 person but they belong to everyone. We can't20 to waste them.
