(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Foraging for food in urban areas is on the rise.
Not dumpster diving.
Collecting fruits and herbs.
Throughout cities, forgotten fruit trees still produce, well, produce.
For example, there was a peach tree in my former backyard in Somerville, near Boston.
And today there are even maps to some of those trees so foragers can take advantage of free produce that otherwise goes largely uneaten—by people, anyway.
But after one member of what’s called the League of Urban Canners in the Boston area was discovered to have relatively high levels of blood lead, researchers at Wellesley College decided to test urban fruit and herbs.
They wanted to see if the fruit posed a threat due to lead or other contaminants in urban soils.
The League of Urban Canners provided 166 samples of foraged fruit, including apples, peaches, and cherries, and herbs.
The scientists dehydrated samples in a manner similar to that of the urban canners, and they compared those specimens to commercially available fruit.
Apples did indeed contain lead.
But the amount in an average apple was significantly lower than what the EPA considers safe in a day’s supply of tap water.
Next, the team investigated the nutrients in foraged urban fruit.
And the picked fruit in general had higher levels of most micronutrients than did store-bought fruit.
Calcium and iron were higher in all urban samples, and other nutrients including manganese, zinc, magnesium and potassium were higher in some urban fruits.
The study was presented at a recent meeting of the Geological Society of America.
The scientists thus conclude that it’s safe and healthy to eat fruit from most urban trees in common spaces.
Just make sure that peach does not belong to somebody else before you pick it.
参考译文
在城市中搜寻食物正变得越来越流行。
不是在垃圾堆里翻捡。
而是采摘水果及香草。
尽管身处城市当中，但被人遗忘的果树仍然开花结果。
比如波士顿附近萨默维尔市我以前的家后院中就有一颗桃树。
而且直到今天甚至地图指明道路供采摘者免费获取这些大自然的馈赠，否则大部分水果也不会被人们吃掉。
但波斯顿地区罐头系列产品中的某一种被发现血铅含量相当高后，威尔斯利大学的研究人员即刻决定对城市采摘水果以及香草进行检测。
他们想要了解城市土壤中的铅或其他污染物是否已对城市采摘水果构成威胁。
城市罐头系列产品为此提供了包括苹果、桃子、樱桃及香草在内的166个采摘水果样本。
科学家们采用制作城市罐头的类似方法对水果样本进行脱水，并将这些标本与商业水果进行比较。
结果他们发现苹果样本中的确含有铅。
但这些苹果的平均含铅量远低于EPA所公布日均自来水中含铅量的安全标准。
这个团队紧接着对城市采摘水果的营养含量进行分析。
与商店水果相比，采摘水果总体上微量元素含量偏高。
所有城市水果样本中钙和铁的含量都偏高，同时锰、锌、镁、钾的含量也较高。
这项研究已经在美国地质学会最近举行的一次会议上发表。
科学家们因此得出结论，大多数城市中的水果还是安全无害的。
你只需要确认自己采摘的不是别人的就可以。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
1.on the rise 上涨
例句:US suicide rates appear to be on the rise, driven mostly by middle-aged white women, researchers reported recently.
研究人员近日发布的一项研究报告称，目前美国的总体自杀率呈上升趋势，其中中年白人女性的自杀率增长尤为显著。
2.decide to 决定
例句:Little boys, being what they are, might decide to play on it.
出于天性，小男孩们可能会决定利用这一点。
3.want to 想要
例句:Do ring if you want to talk about it.
你要是想谈谈，一定给我打电话。
4.due to 由于
例句:His success was largely due to hard work.
他能成功主要是由于他工作努力。
