3 Comprehension check

1. Answer the following questions:

1. What is Harvesting Machinery?

2. What types of harvesting machinery do you know?

3. What is crop Harvesting Machine?

4. For what purposes is used grain Harvesting Machine?

5. Give an example of root crop Harvesting Machine.

6. Call vegetable Harvesting Machine.

3. Make a plan to the text.

4. Find English equivalents.

В наши дни, механическое устройство, рисовое поле, типичная машина для сборки урожая, пример из этой категории, использоваться, сбор овощей.

5. Make a dialog.

Texts for additional reading

Text 1 Equipment for planting cereals

Learn the words.

the wheat – пшеница

a drill – сеялка

an acreage – площадь

a broadcasting – посев

a lowland – низменность

flooded fields – затопленные поля

sorghum – сорго

the varieties – сорта

to become dormant during winter – становиться пассивным зимой

to resume – возобновлять

to mature – созревать

to require vernalization – требовать яровизации

an exposure – воздействие

the hardiness of the crop – морозостойкость культур

an irrigation – полив

winter cereals – озимые зерновые

Equipment for planting cereals

Broadcasting by hand was used in the USA as the main method of planting wheat and other small grains about a century ago. Later various types of grain drills and seeders have been developed.

Today, with a 12-foot (фут = 30,5 cm) tractor-drawn drill one person can seed 50 to 60 acres per day at a proper rate and at uniform depth. To increase the daily acreage two or more of these drills are combined together.

Planting

The warm-season cereals are grown in tropical lowlands year-round and in temperate climates during the frost-free season. Rice is commonly grown in flooded fields, though some strains are grown on dry land. Other warm climate cereals, such as sorghum, are adapted to arid conditions.

Cool-season cereals are well-adapted to temperate climates. Most varieties of a particular species are either winter or spring types. Winter varieties are sown in the autumn, germinate and grow vegetative, then become dormant during winter. They resume growing in the springtime and mature in late spring or early summer. This cultivation system makes optimal use of water and frees the land for another crop early in the growing season.

Winter varieties do not flower until springtime because they require vernalization: exposure to low temperature for a genetically determined length of time. Where winters are too warm for vernalization or exceed the hardiness of the crop (which varies by species and variety), farmers grow spring varieties. Spring cereals are planted in early springtime and mature later that same summer, without vernalization. Spring cereals typically require more irrigation and yield less than winter cereals.

EXERCISES:

1. Answer the following questions:

1) What is the main method of planting grain a century ago?

2) What equipment is used for planting crops?

3) What kind of cereal do you know?

4) Are sown winter varieties in the autumn?

5) When are planted spring cereals?

6) What kind of cereals require more irrigation?