(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report in Special English.
The Chinese meat processing company Shuanghui International is planning to buy the American company Smithfield Ham, it would be the biggest purchase of an American company by a Chinese buyer.
Ham and pork are the meat of pigs. Virginia ham is famous around the world and Smithfield Virginia calls itself the ham capital of the world. Larry Santure is the sales manager for Smithfield hams.
"Marco Polo actually brought the basis of curing the Virginia ham to Italy from China, and they thought about how they could make the ham in Italy, and this turned out to be the prosciutto. The settlers brought the formula for making prosciutto with them to the United States."
Native Americans then taught those early European immigrants how to cure the meat.
"The Indians had devices and methods of taking sea water and dehydrating it and producing salt, which is critical to making cured hams."
The salt is rubbed all over the fresh meat where stays for 50 days, then it is salted one more time before it is heated and smoked.
Virginia Wade manages a store that sells Smithfield ham.
"We have the genuine Smithfield ham which is aged a minimum of six months, this is very similar to the Chinese ham.
But before Smithfield ham can be made and sold by the Chinese, the purchase must be approved by the American government and by people who own stock in Smithfield Ham. There have been concerns in the past about Chinese companies doing business in the United States.
However, Gary Hofbaure expects the American Committee on Foreign Investment to approve this purchase. He is with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C.
"Are that committee has a mandate to examine takeovers on national security grounds. And it is hard to think of a product which is fruther for national security than pork."
Mr Hofbaure believes the Chinese company is buying the world's good opinion of Smithfield Ham, especially, the quality and safty of its products.
"And that's two big issues in China, so I think this company hopes by taking over to introduce the Smithfield technology in China, and turn out, you know, a better pork product made from Chinese pigs. In China, better select condition, better discipline and so far, fly down a line, there is a lot of high technology there, believe it or not. And so they are going to get something that way, in fact to get a lot in that way, I think commercially that's a big pay-off."
He also expects those Chinese pork products to be sold in China, not in the United States. We will continue to follow this story next week on the program As It Is.
And that's the Economics Report from Learning English, I'm Karen Leggett.
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.prosciutto n. 意大利熏火腿
They serve prosciutto-wrapped monkfish with a cumin-coriander crust.
他们提供意大利熏火腿包着鱿鱼芹果胡荽外壳。
2.dehydrate vt. 使…脱水；使极其口渴；使丧失力量和兴趣等
Foods are dehydrated to conserve them for future use.
把食物脱水弄干贮藏以备将来食用。
3.mandate n. 授权；命令，指令；委托管理；受命进行的工作
The election victory gave the party a clear mandate to continue its programme of reform.
选举获胜使得这个政党拥有了明确的继续推行改革的权力。
4.pay-off n. 取得成功；清偿债务
The biggest payoff epidemiologically and economically is in secondary prevention.
从流行病学和经济学的角度来看,最大的收益是防止疾病的继发.
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
中国肉食加工厂双汇国际即将收购美国公司史密斯菲尔德火腿，这将是中国买家购买美国公司的最大案例。
火腿和猪肉都来自猪，维吉尼亚火腿全世界闻名，弗吉尼亚州史密斯菲尔德自称是全世界火腿之都。 Larry Santure是史密斯菲尔德火腿的销售经理。
“马可波罗将腌制维吉尼亚火腿的秘方从中国带到意大利，他们想出在意大利制造火腿的办法，这就是意大利熏火腿，定居者将制作意大利熏火腿的秘方带到了美国。”
美国土著人教早期欧洲移民如何腌制肉食。
“印第安人有设备和方法，能取来海水并脱水，然后制成食盐，盐是制作腌制火腿的关键材料。”
然后用盐涂抹整块鲜肉，放置50天，随着加热和熏制处理，肉就更咸了。
维吉尼亚·沃德是一家出售史密斯菲尔德火腿商店的经理。
“这里有货真价实的史密斯菲尔德火腿，至少腌制了六个月，这与中国火腿很相似。”
但在史密斯菲尔德火腿能在中国制作和销售之前，这笔收购必须得到美国政府和史密斯菲尔德火腿股东的批准。过去就有人对中国公司在美国做生意感到担忧。
然而，Gary Hofbaure预料美国对外投资委员会将批准这项收购。他在华盛顿彼得森国际经济研究所就职。
“委员会以国家安全为由，下令检查这项收购。难以想到哪种产品能像猪肉那样国家安全更没关联的。”
Hofbaure认为，这家中国公司收购的是史密斯菲尔德火腿的全球好评，尤其是其产品的质量和安全度。
“中国方面有两大问题，我想该公司希望通过收购将史密斯菲尔德的技术引入中国，这样中国的猪就可被制成更好的猪肉制品。中国目前有更好的挑选条件、更好的纪律，很多的高科技，不管你信不信。所以他们会这么做的，并从中得到很多。我想从商业角度来说这是笔大买卖。”
他还预测这些中国猪肉制品将在中国销售，而不是在美国。在下周的新闻杂志中我们会继续报道这件事。
这就是美国之音慢速英语经济报道，我是凯伦·莱格特。
