American agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug has received the Congressional Gold Medal.
Norman Borlaug is often called "the man who saved a billion lives" and "the father of the Green Revolution."
His work helped fight starvation in India and Pakistan in the nineteen sixties. He won the nineteen seventy Nobel Peace Prize.
He, ninety-three years old ,still works as an adviser at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico.
In accepting the medal, he urged Congress and the administration to increase development assistance for agriculture. He said the world needs better and more technology to deal with hunger. In his words: "Hunger and poverty and misery are very fertile soils into which to plant all kinds of 'isms,' including terrorism."
In the 1940s, Norman Borlaug and a team developed highly productive and disease-resistant wheat for farmers in Mexico. About twenty years later, millions of people in India and Pakistan were in danger from grain shortages.
The improved wheat from Mexico also grew well in South Asia, combined with changes in growing methods. Norman Borlaug persuaded farmers to use more fertilizers and pesticide chemicals and to water their crops with irrigation systems. Also many a crop can be planted in the same field. The results were big production gains that many believe saved as many as a billion lives.
President Bush noted that hunger still affects much of the developing world. He said the most fitting honor for Norman Borlaug is to lead a second Green Revolution that feeds the world. Yet his support for new agricultural technologies has been criticized at times over the years.
Some researchers worry about the effects of industrial methods of modern farming.
Population researcher Paul Ehrlich, for example, wrote a nineteen sixty-eight book called
"The Population Bomb." He predicted that population growth would cause widespread harm to the planet.
But now, some people are saying there should be greater attention and respect for Norman Borlaug. A major theme of his work is that people can deal with difficulties and that technology can improve their lives.
小题1:Norman Borlaug is called “the Father of the Green Revolution” mainly lies in that_______.
A．he developed highly productive wheat to help fight against hunger
B．he made a great contribution to fighting against terrorism and hunger
C．he developed a kind of wheat that is environmentally friendly
D．he sticks to the belief that technology can improve our lives.小题2:The best title for the passage would be________.
A．Norman Borlaug, the Father of the Green Revolution
B．Golden Moments----a Long-life Struggle
C．Hunger------a Serious Problem That Affects the Developing World.
D．Norman Borlaug, the Savior of the Developing Country.小题3:Which of the following is NOT supported by the passage?
A．Despite his age, Norman Borlaug still works for the improvement in agriculture
B．Norman Borlaug thinks that hunger and poverty tend to breed crimes and evil
C．Without Norman Borlaug’s work, hunger problem wouldn’t completely be settled now
D．Paul Ehrlich thinks that population growth would cause widespread harm to the planet.小题4:It can be inferred from the passage that_________.
A．Congress and the administration are to blame for hunger and poverty
B．not all people are in favor of his new agricultural technologies
C．people can defeat terrorists by improving modern farming
D．the Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor given by Congress.
