Watch the video and answer the questions.
1. Why do farmers produce uniform crops?
2. Who mauntains uniform crops?
3. What is “hybrid vigor”?
4. What are the disadvantages of seeds produced by hybrid crops?
https://youtu.be/zI_lwy8KfHI
Comprehension Activities
3. Translate the following groups of words.
for instance, lodging resistant varieties, a major crop production problem, one of the main controlling measures, plant breeding, plant breeder, winter hardiness, to eliminate undesirable characteristics, high disease resistance, to develop a variety, a superior variety, drought-resistant variety, general crop improvement methods, the same variety.
4. Make up sentences using words from exercise 3.
5. Answer the following questions to text A.
1. Can the heredity of plants be changed?
2. What was the main method of improving crop plants in the past?
3. What plant characteristics can be improved by breeding?
4. How can a superior variety be developed?
5. What do desirable plant characteristics vary with?
6. What are the three general methods of crop improvement?
7. What is hybridization?
6. Read text B without using a dictionary. Guess the meaning of the words in bold.
Text 6В
A new hybrid
A new hybrid has been developed by crossing wheat and rye. It is the first man-made cereal named triticale. Its name comes from a combination of the scientific names for wheat, Triticum and rye, Secale.
The aims of hybridization between the two crops are increasing protein content of wheat and combining high yields of wheat with drought-resistance of rye.
The first hybrids between wheat and rye were obtained in 1875. But those hybrids were highly sterile and did not reproduce. Triticale as a variety was first produced in Hungary (Венгрия) in 1968. In North America the first variety of triticale was developed in 1970. A few thousand hectares of triticale were grown in the Soviet Union in 1973.
At present there are triticales that can be produced commercially. The crop is classed now as a feed grain. As such it is equivalent to other cereals. But the grain quality is not very good for bread making.
Protein content of the hybrid can be 30 percent, compared to 8 or 10 percent in corn and 13 – 5 percent in rye and wheat. Triticale protein is high in essential amino acids which make the crop very good as feed for livestock.
Plant breeders are now working at developing triticales with shorter stems that will not lodge. Much breeding work should be done in improving the grain quality and increasing the yield.
7. Put the questions in the logical order so that they could serve as a plan to text B.
1. What triticale characteristics should be improved?
2. What is triticale?
3. What are the uses of the crop?
4. Are there any varieties of triticale?
5. What characteristic makes triticale superior to wheat and rye?
6. What are the aims of crossing wheat and rye?
8. Characterise triticale as compared to wheat and rye (in Russian and/or in English).