美国国家公共电台 NPR--东北部的枫糖业季节已经开始

Maple¹ sugaring season has begun in the Northeast

Transcript²

Maple sap is being gathered to make maple sugar. A crew in Keene, N.Y., has been working in an 80-acre sugar bush. They will tap 10,000 maple trees in the next few weeks.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Maple sugaring season is just beginning in the Northeast. That's when maple sap is gathered to make maple sugar. But for commercial operations, the work goes on all winter, where teams tap the trees to collect the sap. North Country Public Radio's Amy Feiereisel went out with a tapping crew in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)

AMY FEIEREISEL, BYLINE³: It's 9 a.m., about 20 degrees, and I'm following six men through the woods on snowshoes. Today they're working in an 80-acre sugar bush in Keene in the Adirondacks. This crew will tap 10,000 maple trees in the next few weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Last night, I was telling myself, remember this this time.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Laughter).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Don't forget next year what this feels like.

FEIEREISEL: So we snowshoed about a quarter mile, and now we're sort of in the woods, just filled with tubing - clear blue tubing wrapping, crisscrossing across the trees. And this is where they're going to be working today.

(SOUNDBITE OF TAPPING)

MICHAEL GRAY: This particular sugar bush had been sugared for a very long time.

FEIEREISEL: That's Michael Gray, the operations manager of South Meadow⁴ Farm Maple Sugarworks. He knows this sugar bush really well.

GRAY: In certain places, there's still old buckets hanging on the trees, you know, kind of grown in to the trees and rusted⁵ out.

FEIEREISEL: These days, tapping looks a lot different. The crew separates, each person following a different plastic tubing line from tree to tree and drilling fresh holes for this year's sap. This is Will Madison's third year tapping.

WILL MADISON: And I'm kind of doing a visual inspection⁶ of the tree. Like, is it in good health? Is it alive? Is the top half of it broken off and fallen? Is the tree still there? This one looks good, so we'll tap it.

FEIEREISEL: He's got a hammer in hand, a drill at his hip⁷ and a plastic spout⁸ ready to go.

MADISON: And I'm going to sort of listen to the sound of the tree. Like, is it sounding solid or hollow? And that sounds pretty solid there. Scrape off a little bit of the excess bark, drill my hole, line up my spout and hammer it in. And that's that. Piece of cake. Then you do that a couple thousand more times.

(SOUNDBITE OF TAPPING)

FEIEREISEL: It's really peaceful out here. It started cloudy, but it's starting to clear off, and sort of this gentle sunlight is making patterns on the snow. Really, it's this landscape of white snow and then the gray tree trunks, green, and then this crew of six men weaving their way in and out, between the trees and the tubing, stopping every 50 feet or so to tap another tree.

(SOUNDBITE OF DRILL)

FEIEREISEL: For NPR News, I'm Amy Feiereisel in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAVID'S "AYA")

1 maple   

n.槭树，枫树，槭木

参考例句：

• Maple sugar is made from the sap of maple trees.枫糖是由枫树的树液制成的。
• The maple leaves are tinge with autumn red.枫叶染上了秋天的红色。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 meadow   

n.草地，牧草地

参考例句：

• The children ran free across the meadow.孩子们在草地里自由地奔跑。
• The meadow is peopled with wild flowers.草地长满了野花。

5 rusted   

v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I can't get these screws out; they've rusted in. 我无法取出这些螺丝，它们都锈住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My bike has rusted and needs oil. 我的自行车生锈了，需要上油。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

7 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

8 spout   

v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱

参考例句：

• Implication in folk wealth creativity and undertaking vigor spout.蕴藏于民间的财富创造力和创业活力喷涌而出。
• This acts as a spout to drain off water during a rainstorm.在暴风雨季，这东西被用作喷管来排水。