People all over the world eat rice. Millions of people in Asia, Africa and South America eat it every day. Some people eat almost 1 but rice. Rice is a kind of grass. There are more than 7, 000 kinds of rice. Farmers  2 rice in many countries, even in the southern part of the United States and in eastern Australia. No one really knows 3 rice came from. Some scientists think that it started to grow in two places. They think that one kind of rice grew in southern Asia thousands of years ago. Someone in China 4 about it almost 5, 000 years ago. Another kind 5 grew in west Africa. Other scientists think that rice 6 India, and Indian travelers took it to other parts of the world.

There are two main 7 to grow rice. Most rice grows in wet soil. People in many countries do all of the work of growing rice 8 hand. This is the same way farmers worked hundreds of years ago. In some countries, people now 9 machines on their rice farms. People use every part of the rice plant. They make rice oil from it. They 10 make baskets, brooms and roofs for their houses. They burn dry rice plants in fires for cooking.