Page 93 - English Class 9

pesticides which would kill the insects in their field and soon make them
rich. They were only too willing to buy them and shopkeepers made them
available.

“First we bought one,” says Mahendra, “then another. After that there was
an avalanche of them. Now look where we are. “The energy of the salesmen
was overpowering and enormous quantities were sold. But the chemicals
were applied more or less indiscriminately -often in the wrong way and
the wrong time. It wasn’t our fault,” Mahendra claims. “We were so excited
by the thought that we would soon be free of the whims of nature. What
would you have done?” But after a few years they were in for a nasty
surprise. Despite the mixture of powerful chemicals on the potatoes, a
few moths survived. They reproduced themselves at a terrifying rate,
devouring all the potatoes they could find. The chemicals, it seemed, had
disturbed the previous natural balance by killing not only pests but their
natural predators. So the new moth had the crop all to itself. The farmers’
first reaction was to increase the dose of the pesticide then to try new
chemicals, one after another. But it just needed one or two resistant moths
to survive and they could produce a new and tougher strain, immune to
the most powerful pesticide.
New pesticides came in with new promises that they would finish off the
evil moth. And indeed they produced good results for a time. But soon it
was clear that they were not the permanent solution either. Farmers are in
despair. They have not only seen their harvest disappear but they feel that
they have lost the creative potential of the land itself.

Mahendra himself is more hopeful. He has returned to more natural
methods. He is letting some of his land lie fallow and changing the
irrigation system in the hope that the moths will go away.

(Source: adapted from Campus English, Macmillan Publications)

A. Use the correct words from the box below to complete the following
sentences.

avalanche plague combat predator despair
resistant nasty

a. As responsible citizens it is our duty to …………… all social evils.

English 9 87