听力练习

Severe drought hits China

Drought conditions badly affects the nations wheat producing regions. CNN's John Vause explains.

With no rain here in Beijing, and across many central and northern provinces, officials say many parts of the country are now in the grips of the worst drought in five decades. Rainfall has been up to ninety percent below normal, leaving more than four million people without drinking water so to two million livestock. But as you say, the biggest concern is for this winter wheat harvest, in some parts, the crop is almost half, almost half of the crop products are now being threatened by this drought.

Frequent co-steps too have not helped the situation, we are talking about an area of 24 million acres of farmland, the hardest hit regions, could see their crop yields fall by 20% this year according to one expert. Add to that problem, 20 million migrant workers, who are now without a job, many have returned from the city to their family farms. They were hoping to work the land until the economy improved, but now that may not be an option, because there’s not enough water for irrigation. There is also concern about a blow to farm incomes which will be another hit to this economy which has already been struggling with the collapse in exports. The government has declared a Category One Emergency. There could be some relief coming over the weekend. Weather forecasters predict some rainfall in some of the hardest hit regions over the next few days. Andrew?

John, half the crop, half the wheat crop potentially under threat, what can the government do apart from pray for rain.

Well, this Category One Emergency gives an access to transportation facilities, like railways and also to airlines and that kind of things to move an aid around as needs, it also frees up a lot of money to help farmers in those regions. There’s also this strategic Grain Reserve which the government won’t tell us or won’t release figures on how much is being held there. But last year, for example, China had a bumper grain harvest more than 500 million tons, almost half of that was bought up by the government. They keep part of that in this Gain Reserve for these types of emergencies, but you have to keep in mind that China, since 2003, has been a net grain importer. So any hit to this winter wheat harvest will almost likely be felt around the world.

VOCABULARY

1. winter wheat 冬小麦

2. crop yields 作物产量 谷物收获量

3. apart from 远离, 除...之外

4. strategic reserve 战略储备

5. bumper n.缓冲器 缓冲

6. keep in mind prep.记住,不忘

7. importer n.输入者, 进口商

文本参考中文翻译

干旱严重影响中国的小麦种植区。CNN记者John Vause报道。

北京，中部和北部的许多省份已经长时间没有降雨，相关官员表示，中国许多地区面临五十年来最严重的干旱。降雨量比往年正常水平偏低90%，400多万人，200多万头牲畜饮水困难。但是，最严重的问题就是冬小麦。在某些地区，冬小麦占所有粮食产量的大约一半，由于干旱，生产受到严重威胁。

相关辅助措施并没有缓解旱情。受灾最严重的地区有2400万英亩农田，据专家估计，该地区小麦产量将减少20%。此外，2000万农民工失业返乡。他们希望从事农业，直到经济好转，但是现在毫无选择，灌溉用水不足。同时，由于出口减少，经济受到冲击，农民收入将会减少。中央发布一号紧急通知。周末期间，形势将有所缓解。天气预报预测，未来几天，在旱情最严重地区将有部分降雨。Andrew？

John，一般的农作物受到威胁，中国政府除了祈祷降雨之外还能做什么呢？

一号紧急通知给运输设施提供了便利，比如铁路和航空运输，以及所有用来运输援助物品的设施，同时政府还拨款对旱区农民进行帮助。同时还有战略储备粮，当然政府不会告诉我们具体数字。但是，以去年为例，中国粮食产量超过5亿吨，大约一半由政府收购。其中一部分作为储备用粮来应对此类紧急事件。但是你要记住，自2003年开始，中国已经是一个纯粹的粮食进口国。所以，这次冬小麦收获受到的打击将会影响全世界。