CHINA'S BAD EARTH

“Industrialization has turned much of the Chinese countryside into an environmental disaster zone, threatening not only the food supply but the legitimacy of the regime itself”

By: Josh Chin and Brian Spegele

Published: The Wall Street Journal, The Saturday Essay; July 27, 2013; www.wsj.com; Alternatively, google the title and writers’ names

Level of Difficulty: ***

Note to the Student: This is a relatively easy level ***. It is in this file because it is a little too hard for level **. The writing task is challenging however!

BEFORE YOU READ
Dealing with a Toxic Legacy: Soil Pollution in China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hvtEgivohw

QUESTIONS

1. Although Dapu is China’s “grain basket”, farmers in the area don’t eat what they produce because………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. Despite the above, farmers persist in growing the rice because………………………………………..(Be precise)
3. Why are 25 to 60 million acres of land now unusable to farmers?
4. Even a small drop in the percentage of arable land is a problem for China because there is a danger it may not be able to …………………………………………………………………………………………………
5. The rapid urbanization in China has had the following two consequences  interms of the farming communities: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
6. What political consequence could pollution have?
7. Which of the following is not a cause of increasing rural industrialization:

·         City officials don’t want industrial complexes in the cities

·         The cost of a site for an industrial complex is high in the city

·         Industrializing the rural areas is a long standing tradition

·         Local officials are not as well educated

·         All of the above

·         None of the above

·         Other: please specify

8. Why ,in your view, were the results of the pollution study not published?
9. The excessive amounts of cadmium found in some rice in the Hunan province should come as no surprise because ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
10. The reason for Xi Jinping’s harsh response to the emerging contamination of rice supplies is probably the fact that …………………………………………………………………………………………………
11. Locals think blame recent surge in cases of cancer on ……………………………………………………..
12. Battery and smelting factories can be linked to the following health risk: ………………………..
13. What conclusion can be drawn from the paragraph discussing nitrogen fertilizers?
14. It is implied in the text that soon

·         China will not be able to feed its population

·         China will have trouble meeting the demand for food

·         The growing demand for food will not be met locally

·         All of the above,

·         None of the above

·         Other: please specify

15. There are three reasons why China is predicted to have problems dealing with the massive rural pollution. They are: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
16. Read the information concerning the soil survey carefully. Why is the Communist Party so tight lipped about the results?
17. The levels of cadmium in the rice in Hunan

·         Are not unexpected

·         Are really surprising

·         Are due to negligence

·         All of the above

·         None of the above

·         Other: please specify

18. The drammatic change in the prospects of the locals took place when ………………………………
19.  Think back about Mr. Zhu.Why is Mr. Zhu not concerned about not being able to sell his rice

WRITING TASK

The text you have just read discusses the scary dimensions of soil pollution and its ominous consequences. Write a reaction (or response essay) essay detailing your own views. Reaction essays are planned as follows in case you have forgotten:

In your introduction, introduce the problem of soil pollution in China

In your first developmental paragraph, summarize the main points of the text

In your second developmental paragraph, express your own views concerning what you have learned from the text.

In your conclusion, write a restatement

When you have completed your essay, check out the example provided under “Sample Essays”

CHINA’S BAD EARTH KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES

This truly scary text discusses, in detail ,the consequences of soil pollution. It points to large swayths of land which are now, for all intents and purposes, no longer arrable, the reasons for the predicament and also where it could leed if no measures are taken. It should, therefore, be studied carefully as a stark warning

1. A state backed chemicals factory next to her farm dumps waste water directly into the local irrigation pond.
2. Qualifying for payments made by the factory owners to compensate for polluting the area
3. Because it may be contaminated by heavy metals.
4. Feed the country’s 1.34 billion people
5. The expansion of pollution into remote areas (a safe distance from population centers), heavy use of chemical fertiklizers (to meet the country’s mounting food needs). The sentence beginning “Yet…” won’t do because the question concerns farming communities.
6. It could be the single most significant determinant of whether the Communist Party maintain its legitimacy in coming years. The previous sentence won’t do because it is a repetition of the question.
7. Fourth
8. Because the pollution levels were very high
9. Mining and the smelting of metals like zinc and lead as well as battery manufacturing are common in Hunan
10. Chinese people have a very deep connection to rice. Rice you can’t avoid won’t do because you would have to explain why this is so
11. The activities of an industrial park
12. Elevated levels of lead in the blood
13. There are pressures being placed on China’s farmland by the overuse of chemical fertilizers.
14. All of the above
15. Fear of transparency, a lumbering bureaucracy, worries over how China would cope if large areas of land were declared tainted.
16. Government officials know that the problem is really bad and if they disclose it, then the public outrage will get ahead of the ability of the state to do something about it.
17. 1 and 3
18. Construction began on an aliminium flouride factory
19. Because factory owners agreed to pay compensation as long as farmers continued to raise crop.