(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From the VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
The military government of Thailand is ending payments to rice farmers to support the price of their crop. The policy was put in place by the civilian government ousted recently by the military. Officials are investigating charges of corruption and the possible loss of billions of dollars.
The military government says different measures are needed to increase agricultural development and support farmers. The rice support program was one of the most important policies of the government of ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. It helped her party win the 2011 election.
FILE - Thai farmers march through the street during a rally to put pressure on the Office of the Anti-Corruption Commission in Bangkok, Thailand, Feb. 7, 2014.
Under the policy, the government paid farmers 50 percent more than world market rice prices. The government said because Thailand was then the largest exporter of rice, it could use its power to increase the price of rice around the world.
But problems affected the program, which cost more than $19 billion. India became the world's largest rice exporter. The Thai government angered people by refusing to release information about the payments. And the program failed.
Thailand was not able to force an increase in the price of rice, and millions of tons of rice are now in storage buildings. Reports say 18 million tons of rice are being stored in Thailand, that is twice as many as normal levels.
The payments to rice farmers ended last year. Hundreds of thousands of farmers were not paid. Reports said about 20 farmers killed themselves because of financial problems. Others protested, gathering on the streets of the capital Bangkok to demand payments. In March, the government tried to make money by selling rice on the world market at lower prices.
David Dawe is a senior economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization -- a United Nations agency.
"One of the ways that they were raising money is they realized that they were going to have to sell some of the huge stocks that they had. They just couldn't continue to borrow money and sit on all these stocks and so they just started selling stocks," Dawe said.
There is some good news. The U.S. Agriculture Department predicts Thailand will be the world's biggest exporter of rice by next year. The department says Thailand will export almost 10 million tons, that is the largest amount since the country exported 10.6 million tons in 2011.
And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English. For more agriculture stories, go to our website learningenglish.voanews.com. I'm Christopher Cruise.
文本来自51voa，译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1.oust vt. 驱逐；剥夺；取代
The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.
那些领导人已被民族主义者赶下了台。
2.stock n. 股份，股票；库存；血统；树干 adj. 存货的，常备的；平凡的 vt. 进货；备有；装把手于… vi. 囤积；办货；出新芽
Two years later, when Compaq went public, their stock was valued at $38 million.
两年后康柏公司上市时，他们的股票价值为3800万美元。
内容解析
1.The policy was put in place by the civilian government ousted recently by the military.
put in place 到位；落实到位；正在实施
They put in place the tools of my new business.
他们把我干这一新行当所需要的用具安放得井井有条。
They're offended by the elaborate security measures the police have put in place.
他们被警方部署的繁复安全措施惹怒了。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
泰国军政府结束对稻农用于支持其作物价格的补贴，这一政策是最近被军方推翻的民治政府推出的，官方正调查腐败指控，以及涉资数十亿美元的损失。
军政府称需要采取不同措施来发展农业并支持农民，这个大米支持项目是被逐总理英拉·钦那瓦政府最重要的政策之一，曾帮助她赢得2011年选举。
根据该政策，政府向农民支付高于世界米市50%的价格，政府称因为泰国当时是最大的大米出口国，泰国可以使用其能力来提高全世界大米价格。
但一些问题影响了该项目，使得泰国损失了190亿美元。印度成为全世界最大大米出口国，泰国政府拒绝公布有关补贴信息的做法惹怒了人民，这个政策就失败了。
泰国未能让大米价格上涨，数百万吨大米放在仓库。报道称泰国目前储存了1800万吨大米，是正常水平的两倍。
给稻农的补贴于去年结束，成千上万农民没有得到补贴。报道称有20位农民因为经济问题自杀，也有人在首都曼谷街头抗议，要求得到补贴。三月份，政府试图以低价在世界市场上出售大米来筹资。
大卫·达维是联合国粮农组织的高级经济学家。
“他们目前筹资的一个方式，是他们意识到必须把手中的巨大储存卖出去。他们不能守着这些储存而继续借钱，所以就开始卖储备了。”
还有一些好消息，美国农业部预测泰国明年将成为全世界最大大米出口国，称泰国将出口近1000万吨大米，这是自该国2011年出口1060吨大米后最大的出口量。
这就是美国之音农业报道，登陆learningenglish.voanews.com获得更多农业报道，我是克里斯多夫·克里斯。
