(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
President Barack Obama signed a new Farm Bill into law this month. Under the legislation, the federal government will no longer guarantee automatic payments to farmers. Critics say the law replaces the old payment system with new assistance that may violate international trade rules. The law also includes changes in how the United States helps hungry people around the world.
President Barack Obama, surrounded by members of Congress, signs the Farm Bill, Feb. 7, 2014, at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.
The new Farm Bill ended $5 billion a year in automatic payments to farmers. The president said the law sends a message to people who have abused the system.
"This bill helps to clamp down on loopholes that allowed people to receive benefits year after year whether they were planting crops or not. And it saves taxpayers hard-earned dollars by making sure that we only support farmers when disaster strikes or prices drop," the president said.
The new legislation expands programs that protect farmers from bad weather or low crop prices. It raises the lowest price growers will be paid for some crops. And it offers a taxpayer-supported insurance program to farmers, the program guarantees that their wages do not drop much from year to year.
Dan Sumner is an economist with the University of California, Davis. He told VOA on Skype that the new Farm Bill could cause problems.
"That's the kind of assurances that the U.S. government is willing to provide that most farmers in the world, in fact, don't have access to," he said.
He adds that with the help of the government, American farmers can produce and export more crops, but he warns that could hurt crop prices.
"That drives down world prices and it's a little tougher for farmers in developing countries to compete with that," Sumner said.
U.S. government subsidies pushed down world cotton prices in the early 2000s, the United States lost an international trade dispute over those payments. Dan Sumner says the new Farm Bill could re-open that dispute.
But groups representing growers say trade rules do let governments pay a limited amount of subsidies to farmers. Dale Moore is the chief of policy at one of those groups - the American Farm Bureau Federation.
"We're pretty confident that it would take an extremely bad situation for us to even come close to violating those particular limits, something the United States hasn't come close to in years," said Dale Moore.
Other changes in the Bill should help food aid get to more needy people around the world.
Aid groups will be able to spend more of the assistance they receive to buy food from markets near where it will be used, earlier rules forced aid groups to buy food from American farmers.
Eric Munoz works for the aid group Oxfam America.
"Not only will that save money, but it will help reach people faster. The actual program of buying locally is a much quicker response than buying food from the United States and shipping it," said Eric Munoz.
He told VOA on Skype that with the same amount of money, help can now reach more hungry people.
And that's the Agriculture Report. 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.loopholes n. 漏洞；枪眼（loophole的复数）
They tightened the loopholes in those acts.
他们堵住了那些法案中的漏洞。
2.dispute vt. 辩论；怀疑；阻止；抗拒 vi. 争论 n. 辩论；争吵；争端
The matter in dispute is the ownership of the house.
眼下的纠纷是这所房子的所有权问题。
3.subsidies n.补助金，补贴，津贴（subsidy的名词复数）
They are lobbying for higher subsidies.
他们在游说议员赞成增加补助金。
内容解析
1.This bill helps to clamp down on loopholes that allowed people to receive benefits year after year whether they were planting crops or not.
clamp down on （对…）进行压制（或取缔）
When the President's position was threatened, he issued an order to clamp down on all anti-government activities.
当总统的地位受到威胁时，他下令取消一切反政府活动。
The mayor had become ineffectual in the struggle to clamp down on drugs.
市长打击毒品的努力未见成效。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
总统巴拉克·奥巴马本月将新农业法案签署为法律，根据该法，联邦政府将不再给农民自动发放补贴，批评者称该法废除了旧的补贴体系，代之以可能违反国际贸易规则的新援助。该法还就美国如何帮助全世界饥饿人口的政策做出修改。
新的农业法案终止了每年向农民自动提供的50亿美元补贴，总统称该法向那些滥用该体系的人传达这样的信息：
“该法有助于消除这样一个漏洞，即不管人们是否种作物都能年复一年地得到补贴，这就确保了只有遭受灾害或价格下跌的农民才能得到补贴，节省了纳税人辛辛苦苦挣来的钱。”
新法扩大了保护农民不受恶劣天气和低价影响的项目，提高了农民种植某些作物的最低价格，为农民提供由纳税人承担的保险项目，该项目确保其收入每年不会下降太多。
丹·萨摩是加州大学戴维斯分校的经济学家，他通过Skype告诉美国之音新农业法案将导致问题出现。
“美国政府提供的这类保障是世界上大多数农民都无法得到的。”
他说有了政府的帮助，美国农民就能产出和出口更多作物，但他警告说这会损害粮食价格。
“这会使世界粮价下跌，发展中国的农民与之竞争就更难了。”
21世纪初美国政府的补贴使得世界棉花价格下跌，美国就补贴问题在国际贸易争端上失败。丹·萨摩说新的农业法案会使这类争议再次出现。
但代表种植者的组织称贸易规则确实允许政府给农民一定的补贴，戴尔·摩尔是美国农业事务联合会的政策首席代表。
“我们十分确信这将使得我们处于很糟糕的状态，几乎要违反特别的限制，美国多年来都没有近乎违反这些限制了。”
该法案的其他改变将使得食物援助抵达世界各地有需要的人手中。
援助组织将从获得的援助中花费更多来在所需地区附近市场购买食物，之前的规定使得援助组织从美国农民手中购买粮食。
艾瑞克·穆尼奥斯就职于援助组织美国乐施会。
“这不仅省钱，还能更快地帮助人们。与在美国买食物并运送来相比，在当地购买食物的方案能进行更快速的应对。”
他在Skype告诉美国之音，用同样多的钱可以帮助更多饥饿人口。
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道，登录learningenglish.voanews.com获得更多农业报道，我是克里斯多夫·克里斯。
