Yuan Longping, a Chinese scientist, has saved people without any magic. His success on hybrid rice (杂交水稻) fed millions of people in hunger.
Yuan (be) born on September 7, 1930. After graduating from the then Southwest Agriculture Institute (农业学院), he worked as a teacher at an agriculture school in Hunan.
About 50 years ago, some natural disasters (灾难) hit China. Yuan saw many people lose their lives because of hunger every day. Since then, he (do) research on how to grow good quality rice. In 1964, he found a natural hybrid rice plant by accident. It had great advantages over others. Yuan was excited about what he discovered. He then decided (study) this particular plant.
In 1973, he started to grow a type of hybrid rice. It (produce) 20% more rice each unit than common ones. The next year he had a great success. This progress made China the world’s leader in rice production.
In China, most rice fields (稻田) grow Yuan’s hybrid rice. He (call) the “Father of Hybrid Rice”.
Now he is 84 years old. He still (have) a dream. He hopes hybrid rice (grow) as tall as Chinese sorghum (高粱) one day!