(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
The United States Department of Agriculture has agreed to meet industrial proposals to change the design of meat labels and how meat is described. The Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board plans more than 300 changes to the familiar words found on meat labels.
Meathead Goldwyn writes for the Huffington Post website. His own website, Amazing Ribs is about barbecue, grilling, and outdoor cooking. Meathead, as he called himself, says meat labels have always confused as well as informed. The food writter sees some improvement in the proposed labels, but he says some planned label changes will continue years of confusion.
"Pork butt, for example, does not come from the part of the animal most people think. It doesn't come from the butt which is flying(?) for the rear end, it comes from the shoulder. And instead of naming it "pork shoulder" which would be really logical, they now call it "Boston roast", so they went from confusing to meaningless."
Today's common names developed overtime, as meat cutters used terms that described parts of animals, as well as cuts made by butchers.
After the new changes, people may have to read more of the label to know what kind of meat they are buying. For example, labels currently say "beef" or "pork" on the first line. The new labels will use smaller print and will identify the animal on the second line. Also, cuts of meat that were traditionally names for beef products like rib steak, will now also being used for pork, that means a rib steak could come from either a cow or a pig.
The labels for chicken and other poultry will not change, labels for fish will not change either. Meathead questions the use of French words that will replace the traditional descriptions of some cuts of meat.
"As that, I mean why is that, what I mean, you know, at least, somewhat descript it. And 'bottom round' is now 'maralow steak', that's sounds like a way to raise the price, you know, calling it a 'maralow steak'."
The meat industry wants meat producers and supermarkets to voluntarily adopt the new description. There are no legal requirements to make the changes. But the Food and Drug Administration is considering new rules that would require complete details on labels about where meat was raised, and processed. Meathead says the combined label changes would be even more confusing to some people.
"What if there are two steaks side by side, or three, Mexican, American, and Canadian, which one they gonna pick up? And then how do they respond to a piece of meat from Shanghai, that's labelled Denver roast."
Indeed, and that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English, it was written by Anker Decker, and I'm Steve Ember.
文本为51VOA听写整理
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.butcher n. 屠夫
The butcher struck off a chop.
屠夫砍下了一片带骨肉。
2.rib steak 肋排
Grilled rib steak, pork chop, knuckle, chicken with herbs, spit-roasted lamb, pork meats, spaghettis.
煎肋排，猪排，鸡肉，烤羊腿，意大利细面等。
3.bottom round 底中圆腿肉
She showed off a bottom round roast she had unearthed that was marked down to $7.21 from $18.26.
她给记者看了一块刚刚找到的从18.26美元打折到7.21美元的后臀牛肉。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
美国农业部同意满足工业提议，改变肉产品标签的设计以及关于肉的描述。畜牧业牛肉推广和研究委员会计划在肉制品标签上广为人知的词语上做300处修改。
Meathead Goldwyn为赫芬顿邮报网站撰稿，他自己的网站Amazing Ribs涉及野餐、烧烤和户外厨艺。他称自己为Meathead(傻瓜)，他说肉产品标签除了告知信息外，也一样会令人混淆。这位食物作者认为提议的标签有了一些提高，但还有一些拟议的改变照样会令人困惑很多年。
“梅头肉(Pork butt)并非来自人们通常认为的部位，也并非来自臀部，而是肩部。如今不是改为符合逻辑的"猪肩胛"(pork shoulder)，而是改为波士顿烤肉(Boston roast)，这样令人不解的名字越发无意义了。”
今天的普通名字会与日改变，切肉工人会像屠夫那样使用动物部位命名肉块。
有了新的改变，人们只得仔细读标签以明白所购买肉的来源。比如，标签上通常会在第一行写明“猪肉”或“牛肉”，新标签会用较小的字体，在第二行标明动物名。一般说来，牛肉产品的名字如今也用在猪肉上，比如肋排，这意味着肋排可能来自牛或猪。
而鸡和其他家禽的标签将保持不变，鱼的标签也不变。对于那些将改变一些切肉传统描述的法语词汇，Meathead表示质疑。
“我质疑的是为什么这么描述呢？底中圆腿肉如今成了maralow排，听起来像是为了提高价格，就改了这么个名字。”
肉食行业希望厂家和超市能自动改变新描述，并无作此改变的法律规定。但食品与药物管理局正考虑一些新规定，要求在标签上详细描述肉的饲养地和加工地。Meathead说整个标签的改变会更加令人迷惑。
“如果有两三块肉排放在一起呢，墨西哥的、美国的、加拿大的，消费者该买哪个呢？如果一块肉来自上海，却被标为丹佛烤肉，消费者该如何应对呢？”
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道，作者安加·德克，我是斯蒂夫·恩波。
