World Food Prize goes to Ethiopian Scientist

Sorghum is an important grain for Africa. Millions of Africans have more to eat because of Gebisa Ejeta. The Ethiopian scientist developed sorghum seeds that can resist long dry periods. The seeds can also resist the Striga weed, a big cause of crop failures in Arica.

Now his work has earned him this year’s World Food Prize from the World Food Prize Foundation. He received 250,000 dollars for the award. He is only the second African to win the prize since it was set up in 1986. monty Jones, a rice specialist from Sierra Leone, was the winner in 2004.

Gebisa Ejeta is a professor at Purdue University in Indiana. Over the years, he was worked with farmers and seed companies and developed more than eighty seed types for Africa.

In the early 1980s, Professor Ejeta developed the first sorghum hybrid seeds. These resisted drought and led to a major increase in production.

Drought is not the only enemy. Striga is a parasitic weed that Africans commonly call witch weed. The plant attacks sorghum and other crops and steals water and nutrients from the roots.

In the 1990s, Gebisa Ejeta and another researcher, Larry Butler, identified the complex relationships between Striga and sorghum plants. That finding led to the development of seeds which can resist both Striga and drought.

Gebisa Ejeta was brought up in a one-room hut in a rural village in west-central Ethiopia. His mother wanted him to get and education. He walked twenty kilometers to school in a neighboring town. He left home on Sunday nights and returned on Friday. Professor Ejeta has never forgotten his African roots. Today he encourages other scientists to turn to Africa’s needs.

Ethiopian scientist  71  World Food Prize

Theme

Gebisa Ejeta, a scientist from Ethiopia, won World Food Prize in 2009.

World Food Prize

World Food Prize was  72  in 1986.

The winner receivers 250,000 dollars for the award,

Gebisa Ejeta, was the second African winner after Monty Jones, a rice

73   from Sierra Leone , who was the winner in 2004.

Growth& early  74

Gebisa Ejeta was   75 in a rural village in west-central Ethiopia and had to walk 20 kms to   76  school in a neighboring town.

77

In the early 1980s, Professor Ejeta developed the first sorghum hybrid seeds, which resisted drought and  78  in a major increase in production.

In the 1990s, Gebisa Ejeta, cooperating with Larry Butler, developed seeds   79  to both Striga and drought.

Gebisa Ejeta has worked with farmers and seed companies and developed more than eighty seed types for Africa, which makes millions of Africans avoid  80  from hunger.
練習(xí)冊系列答案
相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.

An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0??C. The seeds will be protected behind concrete walls a meter thick and high-security door.

The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present al the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0??C. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s most secure gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first proposed the idea in the 1980s. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The project is meant to ______.

A．increase the world’s food output in the future      

B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes   

C．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

D．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.    

C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the threat unclear war forever.   

D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

We can infer from the text that _______.

A．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture   

C．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before. 

D．There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before.

What is probably the best title of the passage?

A．The Best Place to Store Seeds B．Noah’s Ark（諾亞方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan

C．Concerns of World Food Supply    D．A New Way to Feed the World

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2014屆四川成都外國語學(xué)校高二（下）期末考試英語卷（解析版） 題型：書面表達

如今世界糧食短缺，價格飛漲，給部分地區(qū)造成社會動蕩。假設(shè)在你校開展的研究性學(xué)習(xí)中，你們小組以“World Food Crisis”為題進行研究，現(xiàn)在請你代表你們小組向全體同學(xué)簡要介紹你們的研究成果。主要內(nèi)容如下：

1. 造成的原因(兩條)

2. 應(yīng)對的措施 （兩條）

3. 你如何做出自己的貢獻

注意：1. 內(nèi)容包括以上要點，但不要逐句翻譯

2. 字?jǐn)?shù)120左右，文章開頭已提供，不計入總詞數(shù)　

Hello, everyone,

Now I’ll tell you something about our research project The World Food Crisis on behalf of our group. As you know, food shortages have hit many countries in the world and even caused social unrest in some areas.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

 

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：湖北省2010年高考考前最后沖刺試題英語試卷試卷類型：A 題型：閱讀理解

For the past year, the World Food Program has operated a project to prevent hunger in twenty-one countries in Africa. In the project, the United Nations agency works with small farmers to grow more and better produce.

The World Food Program buys the produce through local cooperative associations. Then it distributes the products within the country or area. The project works mainly with women. Sheila Sisulu from the World Food Program says the project aims to break a cycle that keeps people hungry. The situation is that farmers have to sell their produce at low prices after harvest, when supplies are greatest. Then they have to pay high prices to buy food for themselves during the "lean season," when supplies are limited.

But when farmers produce more food, they can sell more. And when they produce high-quality food, they can get higher prices. They can also store food for themselves, and have enough money to buy food if they need to during the lean season. Sheila Sisulu says the farmers are now starting to earn profits through the project.

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development help the farmers choose the best seeds and fertilizers. They also advise the farmers on the quality levels that the World Food Program requires to buy their produce.

Two other groups recently launched a separate effort to increase food security in Africa. The groups are the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and the New Partnership for Africa's Development. They say African governments have to increase their investment in agriculture in order to fight problems related to climate change. The groups want the governments to develop programs in seeds, soil health, policy and markets.

Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan is the chairman of AGRA. The group's president, Namanga Ngongi, says many African governments are not meeting a target of spending ten percent of their national budgets on agriculture. But he says investment has risen from four percent of national budgets to probably five and a half percent today.

1. The underlined word “l(fā)ean” in Paragraph 2 probably has the same meaning with ______.

A. He is a tall, lean and handsome boy, liked by many girls.

B. The changes made the company leaner and more competitive.

C. The company recovered well after going through several lean years.

D. The doctor told him that lean meat was healthier for his mother than fatty meat.

2. According to Sheila Sisulu, the project _____.

A. distributes the products within the whole world

B. has benefited few African farmers during the past year

C. enables the African farmers to sell their produce at low prices after harvest

D. can help the farmers to get away from the situation that keeps them hungry

3. The problem of hunger in Africa can possibly be relieved by ______.

A. United Nations chief

B. the World Food Program

C. African governments and farmers

D. the Food and Agriculture Organization

4. Which can be the best title?

A. Hunger, the most serious problem in Africa      

B. Two efforts seek to increase food security in Africa

C. A project to grow more and better produce in Africa

D. More investments in agriculture by African governments

 

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2010-2011學(xué)年寧夏高三第二次月考英語卷 題型：閱讀理解

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.

     An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill（鉆孔） deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0ºC. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.

     The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will e from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0ºC. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

1.The project is meant to ______.

    A．increase the world’s food output in the future

    B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes

    C．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

    D．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

    A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

    B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.

    C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever.

    D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

3.We can infer from the text that _______.

    A．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before.   

B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture

    C．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

    D．There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before.

4.What is probably the best title of the passage?

    A．The Best Place to Store Seeds    

    B．Noah’s Ark（諾亞方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan

    C．Concerns of World Food Supply  

    D．A New Way to Feed the World

 

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：20102011學(xué)年度上海市高二下學(xué)期期中考試英語題 題型：信息匹配

Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from the list A-F for each paragraph.  There is one extra heading which you do not need.

A. The reasons for the problematic food situation in Britain.

B. The effect of the situation on farmers.

C. The variety of British food.

D. The surface richness of food and questions it brings.

E. The different situations at home and abroad.

F. The recent reason for the huge supply of food.

 

1

The long years of food shortage in Britain have suddenly given way to huge food supply.  Stores and shops are crowded with food.  Rationing(定量供應(yīng)) has already seemed too distant to today’s Britons.  Even overseas suppliers have been asked to hold back deliveries.  Yet, instead of joy, there is widespread uneasiness and worries.  Why do food prices keep on rising, when there seems to be so much more food about?  Is the surface huge amount of food only temporary, or has it come to stay?  Does it mean that we need to think less now about producing more food at home?

2

The recent growth of food supply on the world food market has certainly been unexpectedly great, partly because two continuous big grain harvests in North America are now being followed by a third.  Most of Britain’s overseas suppliers of meat, too, are offering more this year and home production has also risen.

3

    Then why is the food situation in Britain still faulty?  On the one hand, The British government has gradually cut down support for food.  On the other hand, the shops are overstocked with food not only because there is more food available, but also because people, frightened by high prices, are buying less of it.

4

    Moreover, the rise in food prices at home has come at a time when world prices have begun to fall, with the result that imported food, with the exception of grain, is often cheaper than the home-produced variety.  And now grain prices, too, are falling internationally.  British consumers are beginning to ask why they should not be able to benefit from this trend.

5

The significance of these developments is not lost on farmers.  The older generation have seen it all happen before.  Despite the present price and market guarantees, farmers fear they are about to be squeezed between cheap food imports and a smaller home market.  Present production is running quickly compared with years ago.  However, farmers haven’t shared any benefit from the change.

 

 

 

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習(xí)冊答案