History of agriculture

For hundreds of thousands of years, prehistoric people lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. Then about 8000 B.C., people took the first steps toward agriculture. Some tribes discovered that plants could be grown from seeds. They also learned that certain animals could be tamed and then raised in captivity. These two discoveries marked the beginning of the domestication of plants and animals. Scholars believe that domestication began in the Middle East and then spread to surrounding areas. People who farmed no longer had to travel in search of food. They could thus build permanent settlements. Some of these settlements developed into the first cities. Some of the cities, in turn, produced the world's first civilizations.

The first great civilizations arose in two regions of the Middle East. One region was the Nile River Valley of Egypt. The other was Mesopotamia. Both regions had fertile soil, but neither received enough rain for crops to grow. Farmers discovered, however, that they could raise crops during most of the year if they used river water for irrigation. By about 3000 B.C., Egyptian and Mesopotamian farmers had developed the world's first large- scale irrigation systems and had invented a plow that oxen could pull.

The Roman Empire began as a country of small farms on the Italian peninsula before 500 B.C. By the A.D. 200s the Romans had developed new farming methods, e.g. systems of crop rotation. The selective breeding of plants and livestock began in Europe during Roman times, too.

During the Middle Ages European farmers invented a three-field system of crop rotation during the Middle Ages. In many areas, it replaced the Roman two-field system. On most European farms horses gradually replaced oxen as the chief source of power. Many special- purpose livestock breeds were developed.

The European voyages of discovery that began in the 1400s greatly affected agriculture throughout the world. In various parts of the Americas, Indian farmers grew cocoa beans, corn, peanuts, peppers, rubber trees, squash, sweet potatoes, tobacco, and tomatoes. Europeans first learned of these crops, and how best to grow them, from the Indians. The Europeans, in turn, brought their seeds, livestock, and farming tools and methods to the regions they explored and settled.

During the early 1700s, a great change in farming called the Agricultural Revolution began in the United Kingdom. By the mid-1800s, it had spread throughout much of Europe and North America. The Agricultural Revolution was brought about mainly by three developments. They were (1) improved crop-growing methods, e.g. a four-field rotation system; (2) advances in livestock breeding by means of developing new, better breeds; and (3) the invention of new farm equipment, such as the seed drill, the cotton gin, the harvester, the thresher and the steel plow.

Вариант № 3

I.Перепишите предложения, определите в каждом из них видовременную форму и залог глагола- сказуемого, переведите предложения на русский язык.

These students will be sent to Moscow to take part in the conference.

1) A new foreign film is being watched at the cinema now.

2) The farmers will have planted the crops by the end of the month.

3) The last student was being examined at 3 o'clock yesterday.

4) Engineers are trained at this university.

II. Перепишите предложения и переведите их на русский язык, найдите и подчеркните инфинитив и причастие, определите функцию инфинитива и причастия в предложении.

1) To use new machines on the farms is very important.

2) They passed groups of farmers packing ripe apricots.

3) He had the happy look of a man just returned home after a long absence.

4) To increase the yields farmers use fertilizers.

5) The book to be read is on the shelf.

6) Taking a book from the shelf, he sat down under the floor-lamp to read it.

7) Packing was the first thing to be done.

8) To irrigate this area was difficult.

III. Перепишите предложения, найдите и подчеркните объективный и субъективный инфинитивные обороты, переведите на русский язык.

1) The Polish dancers were announced to be arriving next week.

2) The discussion seemed to be coming to an end.

3) We didn't expect him to return so soon.