What is a hybrid?

　　什么是杂交???

　　How to obtain hybrid rice?

　　如何获得杂交水稻？??

　　Why are we interested in hybrid rice?

　　我们为什么对杂交水稻感兴趣？??

　　Hybrid rice  n. 杂交水稻

　　You may hear about the Father of Hybrid Rice Yuan Longping when you were a little kid.

　　小的时候你可能就听说过，袁隆平是中国的杂交水稻之父。

　　Heterosis  n. 杂种优势

　　Hybrid rice has more advantages over conventional one such as stronger resistance to drought, better adaptability and higher yield. These advantages are also called heterosis.

　　杂交水稻对比传统水稻有很多优势，例如更强的抵御干旱的能力，更多的适应性和更高的产量。这些优势被称为杂交优势。

　　Self-pollinated  adj. 自花授粉的

　　Monoecious   adj. 雌雄同株

　　Rice is monoecious and self-pollinated. At the flowering stage the pollen of stamens will fall onto the pistils，which is called selfing.

　　水稻是雌雄同株且自花授粉的植物。在花期，雄蕊的花粉会落到雌蕊上完成授粉，这种情况称作自交。

　　Inbreeding depression  n. 自交衰退

　　The result of selfing is that the heterosis will disappear gradually and the offspring will become weaker and weaker. This is called inbreeding depression.

　　杂种优势会随着自交逐渐消失，后代的杂交优势会逐渐变弱。这种现象叫做自交衰退。

　　Manual pollination  n. 人工授粉

　　So we naturally come up with the manual pollination to achieve hybridization of rice by manual intervention.

　　所以我们自然想到通过人工授粉的方式来实现水稻的杂交。

　　We have to remove the stamens first to make sure that selfing is unavailable which is obviously not practical for mass production.

　　如果要阻止自花授粉，我们就得移除雄蕊，但是这在大规模生产中显然是无法实现的。

　　Cross-pollination  n. 异花授粉

　　Yuan Longping’s team found a variety of rice in Hainan which is characterized by the death of stamens and is unable to complete selfing. Cross-pollination is the only way to achieve reproduction.

　　袁隆平的团队在海南发现了一株雄蕊失活的水稻，无法通过自花授粉来完成自交繁殖。只能通过异花授粉进行繁殖。

　　It is exactly the rice we need for manual pollination.

　　这就是我们需要用于人工授粉的水稻。

　　"I have always had two dreams: The first dream is to pursue high yield and higher yield of rice; the second dream is having hybrid rice planted throughout the globe. I have always worked hard to make my dream come true, and I hope to encourage you to realize these two dreams together with me," Yuan said.