Unit2 Working the Land-Reading(2)

In a recent harvest, however, nearly two hundred million tons of rice was produced. These increased harvests mean that 22% of the world's people are fed from just 7% of the farmland in China.

Dr Yuan is now circulating his knowledge in India, Vietnam and many other less developed countries to increase their rice harvests. Thanks to his research, the UN has more tools in the battle to rid the world of hunger.

Using his hybrid rice, farmers are producing harvests twice as large as before. Dr Yuan is quite satisfied with his life.

However, he doesn't care about being famous. He feels it gives him less freedom to do his research.

He would much rather keep time for his hobbies. He enjoys listening to violin music, playing mah-jong, swimming and reading.

Spending money on himself or leading a comfortable life also means very little to him. Indeed, he believes that a person with too much money has more rather than fewer troubles.

He therefore gives millions of yuan to equip others for their research in agriculture. Just dreaming for things, however, costs nothing.

Long ago Dr yuan had a dream about rice plants as tall as sorghum. Each ear of rice was as big as an ear of corn and each grain of rice was as huge as a peanut.

Dr Yuan awoke from his dream with the hope of producing a kind of rice that could feed more people. Now, many years later, Dr Yuan has another dream: to export his rice so that it can be grown around the globe.

One dream is not always enough, especially for a person who loves and cares for his people.