Pre-reading Key Vocabulary These words are important for understanding the text. Match the words with the definitions.
solution
someone who is expected to be in a place but is not there.
reform
a plant grown for food, usually on a farm.
to occupy
a small hard part produced by a plant that can grow into a new plant.
absentee
to improve a situation by correcting things.
landowner
empty or finished, because a supply of something has all been used.
peasant
a way to solve a problem or deal with a bad situation.
to oppose
the substance in which plants grow.
Crop
to be in control of a place that you have entered by force.
fertiliser
a natural or chemical substance which helps plants to grow.
pesticide
a person who owns land.
exhausted
someone who works on another person’s farm or their own small farm
soil
a chemical used for killing insects.
seed
to disagree with or disapprove of a plan or policy.
True or False? Find the answers in the text.
TRUE FALSE
1 Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of food.
2 Half of the population of Brazil is hungry.
3 Twenty years ago more than 5 million people lost their homes in three southern states.
4 Between 1981 and 1984 277 absentee landlords were murdered.
5 At first the poor families planted food instead of cash crops.
6 The fertilisers and pesticides made them ill.
7 Now people farm in the same way their parents and grandparents farmed.
8 Between 1995 and 1999 260,000 families got land from the government.
9 In the same period nearly 1 million small farmers lost their land.
10 Monsanto is a big biotech company.
Working the land to feed the people
L E V E L O N E
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E L E M E N TA RY
