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[00:05.20]Lesson 13 1 Dialogue
[00:11.15]Wang Bing(WB)and Carl are having lunch in a cafe in Los Angeles.
[00:18.60]WB:Hi,Carl.Have you ordered yet?
[00:22.96]CARL:No,I'm just looking at the menu.Are you hungry?
[00:28.63]WB:Yes,Isure am.I got up late and went without breakfast.
[00:35.08]Right now I could eat an ox.
[00:38.84]CARL:OK.I'll get the waiter.
[00:42.61]A few moments later
[00:46.26]WAITRESS:Just let me wipe your table and then I'll take your order.OK?
[00:52.32]CARL:I'll have a ham salad,please.
[00:56.45]WB:And I'll have a hot dog,with a potato salad.
[01:01.28]WAITRESS:Anything to follow?
[01:04.31]CARL:Banana ice cream with hot chocolate sauce for me,please.
[01:09.96]WB:I'll have apple pie with ice cream and jam sauce.
[01:15.81]WAITRESS:OK.
[01:18.65]CARL:SO how are you,Wang Bing?Are you excited about your new job?
[01:26.41]WB:Yes,I'll start work at the Farm Institute next month.
[01:32.29]I'm looking forward to that.
[01:35.63]My only regret is that it's quite a long way from all my friends.
[01:41.59]CARL:All the same,I expect you'll enjoy coming into town now and again.
[01:48.56]WB:Yes.I'd like to invite you to dinner at my flat before I move.
[01:55.23]CARL:That would be nice.Let's fix a date.
[01:59.88]Lesson 14
[02:09.15]2 Reading comprehension
[02:13.69]FEED THE WORLD(1)
[02:17.85]Agriculture first started about 10,000 years ago,
[02:23.49]when people began to grow crops in the river valleys of the Nile in Egypt,
[02:30.15]in the Middle East and in India.
[02:34.83]Today farming employs more people than any other type of work.
[02:41.38]It is thought that one billion people,
[02:45.64]that is half the world's workers,earn their living by farming.
[02:52.30]The problem is how to feed a growing world population of over 6 billion.
[02:59.96]For one thing,two thirds of the earth's surface is water,
[03:06.49]although this does provide a lot of food in the form of fish.
[03:12.97]Only about 11% of the earth's land surface is suitable for growing crops.
[03:21.33]And this area is becoming smaller day by day.
[03:27.57]In China there is only 7% of the land used for growing crops,
[03:35.33]which feed 22% of the world population.
[03:41.20]That is why the Chinese people are making great efforts to protect their farmland
[03:48.36]and increase agricultural prlduction.
[03:52.91]Farmland is being lost for several reasons.First,it is being built on.
[04:01.45]Second,when wind and rain have removed a lot of the soil,
[04:08.11]no more crops can be grown on this land.
[04:12.97]Third,a lot of irrigated1 land has become too salty to grow plants.
[04:20.34]Also,it is well known that pests continue to eat crops,causing damage.
[04:28.49]The FAO(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
[04:37.73]has worked out that up to 30% of food is lost in storage.
[04:44.29]Food stores are frequently ruined by rain or damp,or eaten by mice.
[04:52.15]In a word,hunger is a big problem in the world today.
[04:58.11]No one is sure how many people are hungry,
[05:02.86]but it is thought that 500 million people in the world do not have enough to eat,
[05:10.62]that is about one in ten.
[05:14.78]Every year about 40 million people starve to death.
[05:21.12]Various things can be done to increase the food supply in the world.
[05:27.08]The area of farmland can be increased by irrigation.
[05:32.64]Take the Aswan Dam in Egypt for example,
[05:37.40]where desert land can now be used for growing crops.
[05:42.44]The same has happened in the west of the USA,
[05:47.19]particularly for the growing of fruit.
[05:51.27]Farmers can increase their corn crops three times simply by watering their fields.
[05:57.93]In Europe,Holland continues to increase its area of farmland
[06:04.77]by pumping water from low-lying areas.
[06:09.45]Scientists continue to develop new types of plants which prlduce heavier crops
[06:16.89]They are also developing new types of plants
[06:21.65]that can be grown in poor soil or even sand,
[06:27.29]and that are less likely to be attacked by pests and diseases2.
[06:33.67]Lesson 15
[06:42.91]1 Reading comprehension
[06:47.59]FEED THE WORLD(2)
[06:51.43]What can be done in order to make sure that no one in the world goes hungry?
[06:58.80]Generally speaking,the human race has the information and experience to do this.
[07:06.95]However,humans have so far not been wise enough to make correct decisions.
[07:14.81]In the European Union(EU),where 81% of the land is farmed,
[07:23.17]there is plenty of food,in fact often too much.
[07:29.41]Farmers have the right to sell their crops to the EU.
[07:34.69]For example,if the apple harvest is very good
[07:40.54]and there are so many apples on the market that farmers cannot sell them,
[07:47.07]the EU will buy apples from the farmers and throw them away.
[07:53.94]And the fact that farmers are also paid by the EU
[07:59.69]for not growing crops surprises many people.
[08:04.86]If they leave some of their fields free and do not plant anything,
[08:11.70]they will still receive money from the EU.There is a similar system in the USA.
[08:20.56]It has been proved that the way to produce the most food
[08:25.91]is to let farmers grow crops
[08:29.96]either to feed their family or to sell,whichever they choose.
[08:36.94]However,although this happens in China,
[08:41.48]it does not happen in some other countries,like India.
[08:47.75]There,most of the land is owned by rich people who pay peasants very little money
[08:55.30]to work in the fields for them.
[08:58.96]If the peasants could farm the land themselves,
[09:03.40]food production would be much higher.
[09:07.94]What is needed is a change in land ownership3,
[09:13.40]and it has been suggested that the land should be shared equally among the peasants.
[09:21.27]The problem is that most politicians in India are landowmers.
[09:27.82]They would not vote to lose their land and wealth,
[09:32.79]even if it resulted in a fairer society.
[09:37.46]Many less-developed countries
[09:41.30]are in debt because they borrowed money from richer countries
[09:46.66]in order to develop industry.
[09:50.81]Unfor tunately they find it difficult to repay4 this money.
[09:56.27]As a result,farmers are forced to plant"cash crops",like coffee,tea,cocoa,
[10:06.01]nuts and tobacco that are sold abroad in order to pay off the country's debts.
[10:13.67]The problem is
[10:16.52]that much of the land is used for crops that will never feed the population.
[10:23.07]If fewer cash crops were grown,
[10:27.04]more food could be produced and there would be less or no starvation.
[10:33.81]Many western countries raise and butcher a large number of beef cattle.
[10:40.86]The problem with beef cattle is that 10 kilograms of grain
[10:46.90]is needed to produce just one kilogram of meat.
[10:52.33]In the USA,for example,75% of the grain is used to feed animals.
[11:00.48]This grain could be used to feed humans,rather than animals.
[11:06.96]However,in hilly,dry or mountainous areas where it is impossible to grow crops,
[11:15.71]it makes very good sense to keep sheep or goats.
[11:21.48]These provide milk,meat and wool,
[11:25.74]yet this does not take land away from food production.
收听单词发音 |
1
irrigated
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| [医]冲洗的 | |
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2
diseases
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| n.疾病( disease的名词复数 )；弊端；恶疾；痼疾 | |
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3
ownership
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| n.所有(权)，所有制 | |
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repay
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| v.偿还，报答，还钱给 | |
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