working in the fields is new to the students. it is entirely different from classroom studies. with great curiosity① and excitement, we students of senior two began our learning-from-peasants activities in jianxing village, jiang wan township, not far from shanghai.

　　to our disappointment, the first day's work was not to till② the land; rather we were asked to pull up weeds③ in the fields. weeding seems to be as easy as turning over one's hand, but not at all. the weeds clustered④ together and there were so many of them, that we could hardly see the crops. some weeds were so deeply rooted they wouldn't be pulled up even by two people. weeding went on for three days. we all had aching back and legs, yet we were happy to see the fruits of our work.

　　on the fourth day, the boys in our class were required to scoop⑤ up the mud from a riverbed and carry it into the fields. the mud is quite fertile and is used for planting tomatoes. we used handcarts to carry the sludge. it was hard for one boy to push the cart along the muddy path. we exerted⑥ all our strength to move the carts forward.besides carrying sludge and pulling up weeds, other students filled small plastic cups with soil, while still others carried iron pipes from one place to another.

　　during our spare time, we paid visits to peasant houses. we were happy to see that the living standard of the peasants is rising rapidly. families have colour tvs, washing machines, and refrigerators. we were shocked to learn that an ordinary peasant can earn 5,000 yuan a year----ten times more than in 1977. five thousand yuan a year! how much it is! however, i'm sorry to say that the level of literacy⑦ is still very low.

　　we came back to school last week. though we only worked for two weeks, we learned a lot. it is an experience i shall remember all my life.