Module 4 课时跟踪练（一) Introduction & Reading - Pre-reading

　　Ⅰ.阅读理解

　　A

　　You may hear the expression: "If you give a person a fish, they will eat for a day. If you teach a person to fish, they can eat for a lifetime."

　　One way to explain this is that helping people grow their own food is a better way to fight hunger. That is the purpose of an agricultural research organization called HarvestPlus.HarvestPlus is teaching people around the world how to grow what it calls "smart" crops (庄稼). Its project in Mozambique, a country in Southeast Africa, is having surprising influences.

　　Sweet potatoes have vitamin (维生素) A, which keeps your eyes healthy and helps the body fight disease. In 2006, HarvestPlus workers provided orange sweet potato plants to people in 24 Mozambique villages. The workers taught these people how to grow the vegetables and also explained the importance of vitamin A to staying healthy.

　　Farmers in Mozambique had been planting white and yellow sweet potatoes, which have very little vitamin A. However, one small, orange sweet potato has a full day's supply of vitamin A.

　　Alan de Brauw from the International Food Policy Research Institute says about 70 percent of children there were not getting enough vitamin A. He says the potatoes had a surprising influence on the health of children. At the end of the three­year study, the researchers found that children living in villages growing orange sweet potatoes had 40 percent fewer chances of getting diarrhea (痢疾) than other boys and girls. Among children under the age of three, the difference was 50 percent.

　　Experts (专家) are suggesting that connecting agriculture and health problems is natural and helpful. Anne Herforth, a food expert, says the findings do a good job making the connection between food production and health. "Look, you produce a food and it's available to people to eat and they like it; then it does good things for health."

　　语篇解读：本文是说明文。农业研究组织HarvestPlus以一种特殊的方式不仅解决了粮食危机而且还改善了人们的健康状况。

　　1．Why was HarvestPlus set up?

　　A．To provide food for people around the world.

　　B．To help farmers increase crop production.

C．To do research on agricultural products.