(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report.
Bicycle frames are usually made out of materials like carbon fiber, steel or aluminum. But in rural Ghana, a businessman has developed another way to make bicycles from a natural product -- bamboo.
Bamboo does not get much respect in Ghana. Farmers think of bamboo as an unwanted plant that needs to be cleared from their land. Construction workers use it to support buildings while they are being built.
But Kwabena Danso thinks bamboo is much more valuable. He operates a business called Booomers International. His company makes bicycle frames out of bamboo. The wooden bike parts are sent from Mr. Danso's village to other countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.
Kwabena Danso says bamboo can help a country like Ghana in many ways. He says he wants to, in his words, "get the people to know that there's a great advantage to bamboo."
Young men from nearby villages come to work at Booomers International. They sand, glue and connect the bamboo frames. The company makes about 50 of the bicycle frames each month. The bamboo is grown locally. The glue to hold the parts together is made of flour from the cassava plant.
Mr. Danso says Booomers International provides good jobs to young men like Abdul Razak. He serves as a foreman or supervisor for the company. Mr. Razak says that without this job, he would still be living at home with his parents. He adds that the job helps him a lot.
Kwabena Danso has sold only a few of his bamboo bicycle frames within Ghana. Walter Kudzodzi is one of his customers. He bought a bicycle earlier this year. Mr. Kudzodzi says his bike gets a lot of attention when he rides around his neighborhood.
"For example on Saturday, I rode about five kilometers around my neighborhood and everywhere I went, people were just looking at me. And once and a while you hear the exclamation, ‘Hey, it's made out of bamboo, hey, that's the bamboo bicycle,' yeah know, and anytime I stopped to take a breather, people come close to me and say, ‘Wow, we heard about this, but this is the first time we've seen it. Is it functional?' Does it work? I say yeah, try it."
Mr. Danso's business has received lots of orders for his bicycles. He says Booomers is ready for expansion. He hopes to have more of his bamboo frames not just in foreign countries, but also on the roads of Ghana.
And that's the VOA Learning English Technology Report. For more technology stories, go to our website learningenglish.voanews.com. I'm Jonathan Evans.
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.unwanted adj. 不需要的；有害的；讨厌的；空闲的
She felt unwanted.
她感到没人要她。
2.cassava n. 木薯（等于cassawa）
Main grain crop has cassava, taro, corn, banana to wait.
主要粮食作物有木薯 、 芋头 、 玉米 、 芭蕉等。
3.exclamation n. 感叹；惊叫；惊叹词
Sue gave an exclamation as we got a clear sight of the house.
我们清晰地看到房子时，苏发出了一声惊叹。
内容解析
1.Bicycle frames are usually made out of materials like carbon fiber, steel or aluminum.
make out of 由…制造；用…做原料；理解
Water pipes used to be made out of elm.
水管过去是用榆木做的。
The evening dress is made out of pure silk.
这件睡衣是用真丝做的。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。
自行车框架一般是用碳纤维、钢或铝制成的，但在加纳农村地区，一名商人用竹子这种天然材料来制作自行车。
加纳人并不怎么看重竹子，农民们认为竹子是无用的植物，需要从田野中去除掉。建筑工人在盖房子时用来支持建筑物。
但克瓦贝纳·丹索认为竹子的价值不止于此，他开了一家名为Booomers国际的公司，该公司用竹子制作自行车框架。这种竹子制作的零件从丹索的家中发往德国、荷兰和澳大利亚等国家。
克瓦贝纳·丹索说竹子能从多个方面帮助加纳这样的国家，他说他想“让人们知道竹子有很多优势”。
附近村庄的年轻人来“Booomers国际”上班，他们把竹子打磨后用胶水粘合成竹制车架，该公司每月生产50个这样的自行车框架，竹子是当地产的，用来粘部件的胶水是用木薯作物制作的。
丹索说本公司为阿卜杜勒·拉扎克等年轻人提供了很好的工作，拉扎克是该公司管理人员，他说如果没有这个工作，他就仍和父母一起在家住，他说这个工作对他帮助很多。
克瓦贝纳·丹索在国内只售出了少量的竹自行车框架，沃尔特·肯加西是他的一位客户，他今年早些时候买了一辆自行车，他说当他在家附近骑车时引发了很多人关注。
“比如周六，我在家附近骑了5公里，人们过来看我，有时你会听到人们惊叹，‘啊，这是竹子做的！这是竹子自行车！’只要我停下来歇口气，就有人过来说，‘我们听说过这个，但却是第一次看到，真的能骑吗？’我说是的，你可以试一下。”
丹索的公司收到了很多自行车订单，他说本公司准备进行扩展。他希望将这种竹自行车框架不仅出现在外国，也出现在加纳的道路上。
这就是美国之音慢速英语科技报道，登陆learningenglish.voanews.com获得更多科技报道，我是乔纳森·伊万斯。
