高中三年级英语(人教版)全一册 Unit 4 Reading

　　As astronomy was one of the most important branches of science, it was the British government that paid for all the equipment and expenses for that part of the expedition. Since the government would not pay for such a new field of science as botany, Joseph Banks, at the age of 25, had to supply about ￡10,000 of his own money to equip the expedition.

　　On their three-year voyage, Joseph Banks not only studied and described new plants he found, but also looked out for new economic species: plants that could be grown in England or other parts of the world to produce crops that could be sold. Banks was the first to move crops from one continent to another on a large scale, helping to develop local economies with these new imports. Some plants that were spread over the globe in this way include cocoa, hemp and tea.

　　The Endeavourretumed to England in 1771. The voyage had been a great success. Wonderful discoveries had been made of strange new lands, cultures, animals and plants. After that Captain Cook made two more voyages around the world, but Joseph Banks never undertook another. From behind his desk, however, he was involved in enterprises such as the exploration of Africa and the settlement of Australia. In 1778, Banks was elected president of the Royal Society, a position he held for 42 years. During these years Banks helped to develop the royal gardens at Kew into one of the greatest botanical gardens in the world. He accumulated a great deal of knowledge about plants and agriculture. In growing strawberries Banks went back to the abandoned practice of spreading straw under the fruit to reduce the necessary amount of watering. He also built a greenhouse to experiment with growing pineapples. It was Joseph Banks who made Kew a centre of scientific and economic research.

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