(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
The western United States is suffering from a severe lack of rain, this extreme dry weather condition is called a drought. The dry area includes the large state of California. Many of the fruits and vegetables eaten in the United States are grown there.
Andy Domenigoni is a farmer in Riverside, California. His father, grandfather and great grandfather all farmed in the same area. He says farmers have good and bad years, and this year is one of the bad ones.
Drought in California as of January 15 (U.S. Drought Monitor)
"I have some fields that we planted almost a month ago that are still not out of the ground," Domenigoni said.
He says it usually takes five to seven days for the wheat to begin growing, but not this year. He shows us a brown field.
"And you can see behind me, this field was planted two weeks ago and it is just bone dry. The seed is not in any moisture. It can't sprout. We got to wait for the rain," Domenigoni said.
Mr Domenigoni is not the only person waiting for rain. Bill Patzert is climatologist of NASA - the American Space Agency. He says drought conditions in the American West and Southwest have been getting worse for the past ten years.
"Ranchers in the West are selling off their livestock. Farmers all over the Southwest, from Texas to Oregon, are fallowing in their fields because of a lack of water. So for farmers and ranchers, this is a very painful drought," Patzert said.
Mr Patzert says Southern California is dealing with the worst drought since officials begin keeping records more than 135 years ago.
Milt McGiffen is a field crop expert at the University of California. He says the drought in his state is going to affect many people for many years to come.
"The short-term impact is going to be higher food prices. The longer-term impact is going to be you're just not going to have as much production in the country. It's part of an overall trend in the next 50 years," said Milt McGiffen.
He says as the population increases, the amount of water for each person is decreasing. And he says that can not continue. He says a technology solution is urgently needed.
Bill Patzert of NASA says what happens on California farms affects Americans and people around the world. He says the California farms provide food for the United States, and export food to the world.
A United Nations report said world food prices in 2013 were among the highest ever. Food experts say they will not know how much the drought in the western U.S. will affect the price of food for 2014 until later this year. Experts agree there is no easy for quick answer to the problem of making sure farmers have enough water to grow their crops.
And that's the Agriculture Report. For more agriculture stories, go to our website learningenglish.voanew.com, where you can also find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports. 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.bone dry 极干燥的；十分干燥的
Now the river bed is bone dry.
目前河床十分干燥。
2.rancher n. 大农场经营者；大农场工人
The rancher must always be on guard against the dangers that nature can create.
牧场主必须时刻防备可能发生的自然灾害。
3.livestock n. 牲畜；家畜
The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.
大雨和洪水淹死了许多家畜。
4.fallow adj. 休耕的；不活跃的 n. 休耕地；休耕 vt. 使（土地）休闲；潜伏
There followed something of a fallow period professionally, until a job came up in the summer.
接下来事业上出现了一个空档，直到夏天的时候来了份新工作。
内容解析
1.Ranchers in the West are selling off their livestock.
sell off 廉价出清（存货）
The company is selling off some sites and concentrating on cutting debts.
该公司正在变卖一些地皮，全力削减债务。
He was forced to sell off his land.
他被迫廉价出卖土地。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
美国西部目前严重缺少江水，这种极端干旱的气候条件被称作大旱。干旱区包括最大的州加州，美国人消费的很多水果和蔬菜都产自这里。
安迪·多梅尼格尼是加州大学河滨的一位农民，他的父亲、祖父和曾祖父都曾经营过同一个农场。他说农民的收成有好有坏，今年的糟糕的一年。
“我一个月前在有的地里种了种子，但现在还没发芽。”
他说麦子发芽通常需要5到7天，但今年不是这样。他给我们看一块褐色的田地。
“看看我背后，这块地是两周前播种的，现在还是很干旱。种子得不到湿气，就不会发芽，我们一直在等雨。”
等雨的不仅是多梅尼格尼一人，比尔·帕泽特是美国航天局的气候学家，他说过去十年来美国西部和东南部的干旱状况越来越严重。
“西部的牧民廉价卖了牲畜，整个西南部的农民们，从德州到俄勒冈，都在休耕，就是因为缺水。所以对农民和牧民来说，干旱很让人难过。”
帕泽特说自官方135年前开始记录干旱以来，南加州正应对最严重的一次干旱。
Milt McGiffen是加州大学的农田作物专家，他说加州的干旱将在很多人多年的生活。
“短期的影响将是粮食价格上涨，长期影响是美国的产量会降低，这就是未来50年整体趋势的一部分。”
他说随着人口数量的增长，每个人所能得到的用水量在减少。他说这种状况不会继续下去的，他说目前迫切需要技术来解决这一问题。
美国航天局的比尔·帕泽特说加州农场的干旱会影响美国和全世界人口，他说加州农场为美国提供粮食，并向全世界出口粮食。
联合国的一份报告称2013年的粮食价格是有史以来最高的，粮食专家称直到今年晚些时候才能知道美国西部干旱将对2014年的粮价产生怎样的影响。专家认为，在确保农民有足够的水来种植作物这一问题上，目前还没有快速的解决办法。
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道，登录learningenglish.voanew.com获得更多农业报道，还能获得有关节目的文本、音频和播客，我是克里斯多夫·克鲁斯。
