Some time after 10，000 BC，people made the first real attempt to control the world they lived 56 ，through agriculture. Over thousands of years，they began to depend less on 57 could be hunted or gathered from the wild，and more on animals they had raised and crops they had sown.

Farming produced more food per person 58 hunting and gathering，so people were able to raise more children. And，as more children were born，more food 59 (need). Agriculture gave people their first experience of the power of technology 60 (change)lives.

By about 6000 BC，people 61 (discover)the best crops to grow and animals to raise. Later，they learned to work with the 62 (season)，planting at the right time and，in dry areas， 63 (make)use of annual floods to irrigate(灌溉)their fields.

This style of farming lasted for quite a long time. Then，with 64 rise of science，changes began. New methods 65 (mean)that fewer people worked in farming. In the last century or so，these changes have accelerated. New power machinery and artificial fertilizers(化肥)have now totally transformed a way，of life that started in the Stone Age.