自2019年以来，新冠病毒在全球蔓延流行，波及了许多产业，全球经济也受到了严重影响。据英国《每日邮报》4月21日报道，联合国发出警告：“全世界将会有30多个国家受到此次经济危机的影响，出现大规模饥荒，而此次的世界性饥荒会波及的全球人口高达2.5亿。”世界性饥荒(world hunger)这个问题在托福写作的考试中也曾多次出现，去年的家庭版考试中就有考过一次，考题如下：World hunger is a complicated issue that has been frequently discussed but not resolved. Some people believe the problem can only be addressed by wealthy governments and large companies. Other people believe that each one of us can actually do something to solve the problem of hunger. Which opinion do you agree with? Why?此题看似有一些难度，但是如果我们从“导致世界性饥荒发生的原因“入手，就会简单很多。世界性饥荒发生的原因其实涉及到很多个方面，除了上面提到过的经济危机之外，还包括：环境污染、人口爆炸、气候条件不佳、种植技术落后等等，而这一切的解决都离不开政府和企业的支持，不是靠个人的力量可以轻松解决的。所以，选择前者会更容易写，上述提到的点都可以写入写作。那提到了种植技术，我们在这里就不得不提到一个人啦，那就是袁隆平，袁爷爷，我们的“世界杂交水稻之父”。今天，就让我们一起来了解了解他的故事!(本故事取自胡敏老师主编的《用英语讲中国故事--熟练级》)

　　Defeating Hunger with Hybrid Rice用杂交水稻战胜饥饿

　　Do you know that people used to eat a kind of white clay called guanyintu in times of famine, even though they knew they would die of it? Have you ever had the grisly experience of finding bodies of people who have starved to death littering the countryside?

　　你知道什么是“观音土”吗?你明白人为什么会“易子而食，析骸以爨”吗?你见过真正的“饿殍遍野，民不聊生”吗?

　　Peace, happiness and well-stocked granaries-we should take none of them for granted.

　　岁月静好，仓廩殷实，是因为有人替你负重前行。

　　The first winner of the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Yuan Longping is also known as the “World's Father of Hybrid Rice.” Each day, Yuan, who is nearly 90 years old, gets on his old motorbike to inspect his experimental fields twice：at nine o'clock in the morning and at three o'clock in the afternoon, from the moment the seed is planted to the time of its harvest. His wife says that he looks at his plants in the fields in the way other people look at their beloved sons. Sometimes he is so engrossed that he forgets to go home for his meals.

　　他是袁隆平，是首届国家最 高科学技术奖得主，是中国工程院院士，是“世界杂交水稻之父”。每天上午9点和下午3点，这位年近90的老头子都要骑上他的旧摩托车，到试验田里转上一圈，从播种开始到收获为止。他的老伴儿说，去田里看水稻就跟别人看儿子一样，越看越着迷，有时甚至忘了回家吃饭。

　　What Yuan Longping looks at is hybrid rice. Hybridization means that two rice varieties that have certain differences in inheritance and good complementary characteristics are selected to produce hybrid varieties with heterosis so as to improve the yield and quality of rice. Yuan Longping is the leading scientist in the area of hybrid rice in China. He succeeded in developing hybrid rice varieties with “three line methods” and “two line methods,” and super riceⅠandⅡ. He also proposed the implementation of the “Bumper Harvest Project of Growing on Three Mu and Yielding That of Four.” In Sepemter 2017 Yuan Longping declared that he had mastered a new technique to removed cadmium, a harmful heavy metal, from rice. In October that year crop yield measuring was carried out at the experimental base for the “Seawater Rice” Project led by Yuan Longping. As a result, it is now possible that the 280 million mu (One mu equals to 0.667 hectares) of saline-alkali land in China will in the future be transformed into good farmland.

　　袁隆平看的水稻，正是“杂交水稻”。所谓杂交，是指选用两个在遗传上有一定差异，在优良性状上又能互补的水稻品种，进行杂交，生产出具有杂种优势的杂交种，从而提高水稻的产量和品质。袁隆平是中国杂交水稻研究领域的带头人，先后成功研发出“三系法”杂交水稻、“两系法”杂交水稻、超级杂交稻一期、二期，并且提出实施“种三产四丰产工程”。2017年9月，袁隆平宣布成功掌握剔除水稻中重金属镉的新技术。10月，由袁隆平挂帅的“海水稻”项目在基地进行实地测产，2.8亿亩的盐碱地在未来也许能成为种庄稼的良田。

　　What do these achievements of Yuan Longping's mean? They mean that China can feed 20% of the world's population with 7% of the world's farmland.China has solved the issues of providing enough food for its 1.3 billion population and ensuring domestic food security. China's hybrid rice is promoted in over 30 countries and regions worldwide, planted on a total area of 1.5 million hectares. Hybrid rice has made an outstanding contribution to hunger reduction all over the world.

　　袁隆平的这些成就意味着什么?意味着中国可以用世界7%的耕地养活世界20%的人口;意味着中国自己解决了13亿多人的吃饭问题，保障了国家的粮食安全问题;意味着中国杂交水稻也在世界上30多个国家和地区进行推广，种植面积达到150万公顷，杂交水稻也为世界减少饥饿作出卓越的贡献!

　　But the research on hybrid rice was never an easy undertaking. In October 2014 large-area crop losses and complete failure occurred in fields planted with the “Liangyou 0293” rice variety in Bengbu and Anqing, Anhui Province. The crops in over 10,000 mu of fields were affected. There were continual voices expressing doubt about Yuan Longping and his hybrid rice, and the research on hybrid rice went through a difficult period. Nevertheless, Yuan Longping soldiered on. He went to the affected areas personally, and carried out investigations with experts from Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Anhui Agricultural University. In the end, it was found that the disaster was caused by an abnormal rice blight. The variety had strong lodging resistance but it had the weakness of high susceptibility to rice blight. Anhui was not an area prone to rice blight in the past. But that year there was a rare spell of low temperature and rainy weather. People did not take proper measures to prevent the rice disease, which resulted in its spread.

　　然而，杂交水稻的研究并非一帆风顺。2014年10月，安徽蚌埠、安庆等地种植的“两优0293”发生大面积减产、绝收，受灾面积超过万亩。外界对袁隆平和他的杂交水稻的质疑声不绝于耳，杂交水稻的研究一度陷入尴尬。袁隆平不言不语，亲自前往安徽，与安徽农科院、农业大学的专家一起到受灾的田间现场进行鉴定，原来，出现的异常系稻瘟病所致。“两优0293”在抗倒伏的能力上很强，但也具有“高感稻瘟病”的劣势，此前安徽并非稻瘟病多发区，但当年出现了罕见的连续低温阴雨天气，加上预防措施不到位，导致该病爆发。

　　Yuan Longping returned his office, and sat there musing for a long time. Although he had found the cause of the crop failures, he also realized that the local farmers had suffered irretrievable losses that year. He became more conscious about his responsibility. Not dwelling on self-reproach and refusing to give up easily, he started a new and more rigorous round of research on hybrid rice. During that period, when food security was not completely guaranteed, the “yield” was the most important target. As the demand for food supplies had been basically met in China, the targets of “high quality and multi-resistance” became more and more important. After many years of experiment and research, Yuan Longping finally bred a batch of super-rice varieties characterized by high yield, good quality, high resistance and wide adaptability.

　　回到办公室，袁隆平独自坐了好久。减产绝收的原因虽然找到了，但今年安徽地区农民的损失已经无法挽回。他更加清楚自己肩上责任的重大，不自怨自艾、也不轻易退却，而是更加谨慎地开始了新一轮杂交水稻研究。在没有完全解决粮食安全的历史阶段，“产量”指标最重要。随着粮食问题的基本解决，“优质、多抗”的指标越来越重要。袁隆平经过多年的实验和研究，终于培育出了一批产量高、品质优、抗性强、适应广的超级稻品种。

　　Besides the disaster resistance of the rice crops, people also raised their requirements for rice quality. Once, Yuan Longping heard that many people queued up to buy rice at a shop in Shanghai which had put up a notice saying, “We Do Not Sell Hunan Rice.” People believed that the rice from Hunan was mostly hybrid rice, which did not suit their taste.

　　除了水稻的抗灾能力，人们对米质的要求也进一步提升。一次，袁隆平听说上海的一个米店突然挂上了一个牌子，上面写着“不卖湖南米”，马上就有很多人排队购买。因为在当时人们看来，湖南米多杂交水稻的产物，不卖湖南米就没有劣质米，杂交水稻的口感还是差。

　　This incident shocked Yuan Longping. After the improved yield and disaster resistance, the market posed new challenges to him and his hybrid rice. Once again, he went to the fields to find ways to improve the quality and taste of rice. After many days of hard work in the fields, he found more free combinations of his two-line hybrid rice. There were richer inheritance resources to be used so that the probability of selecting good combinations was greatly increased. The quality of super-rice became excellent.

　　这件事让袁隆平很受震动。产量和抗性上去后，市场又对他和他的杂交水稻提出了新挑战。他又一次扎进田间，研究提升水稻米质、口感的办法。经过无数个面朝黄土背朝天的日子，两系杂交水稻配组更加自由，有了更为丰富的遗传资源可以利用，选育优良组合的概率也大大提高，超级稻的米质变得特别好。

　　One day Yuan Longping saw a farmer who looked to be of the same age as himself harvesting rice with his grandson. The rice variety was “Y Liangyou 1.” The old man told Yuan that this rice was good, but “it is too costly to grow.” The scientist was surprised. The seeds of the rice were given to agro-technical stations free of charge as part of demonstration projects. Did anyone charge the peasants for the seeds or what? The old man replied, “No. But because the rice tastes so good the growers have one or two more bowls of rice for themselves at each meal, so it seems that we cannot make much money since we don’t want to sell a lot of it to the market.” Yuan Longping laughed after hearing his words.

　　有一天，袁隆平路过一个乡村，碰到一个和他年纪相仿的农民带着孙子在田里割稻子，割的就是“Y两优1号”品种。他小心翼翼地问那个农民这个品种好不好。农民老大爷回答：“好是好，就是划不来!”袁隆平心里一惊，这个水稻的种子是免费给农技站示范的，难道有人从中收费了?结果老大爷说：“不是，因为这个米太好吃了，一顿饭至少多吃两碗，所以‘划不来’。”袁隆平听后，哈哈哈地笑了起来。

　　At sunrise Yuan Longping puts on his straw hat and goes to the fields on his motorbike. He is a true cultivator who plants his wisdom and harvests the dream of helping all people escape hunger.

　　太阳出来了，袁隆平又戴上草帽，骑上摩托车，朝田头奔去。他是一位真正的耕耘者，播撒智慧，收获让所有人远离饥饿的梦想。

　　祖国的强盛，离不开一个个伟大的科研工作者背后的付出。2021年5月22日，袁隆平爷爷因病医治无效，在长沙逝世，享年91岁。而他为中国，为这个世界做出的贡献，我们永远都不会忘记。袁爷爷，谢谢您!今后，家家户户每一缕升起的炊烟，都将是我们对您的怀念。国之脊梁，先生千古，袁爷爷一路走好...