VOA慢速英语20060725a

AGRICULTURE REPORT - Rains Help Ease¹ Crop Worries in U.S. Corn BeltBy Brianna Blake

Broadcast: Tuesday, July 25, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.




America's leading food crop is corn. Most of that corn comes from the middle of the country. Recently, farmers in the Corn Belt states of the Midwest have been concerned about the weather. They have been worried that dry conditions and unusually high temperatures could mean a smaller crop this year.

Rains and cooler weather last week improved conditions in many fields and helped ease concerns, at least for now.

The thought of a hot, dry summer may be enough to worry any farmer. But July is an extremely important month for maize² pollination³. Corn kernels⁴ may not develop if the soil gets too dry or the sun too hot.

Drought⁵ conditions are the leading threat each year to farmers in the United States.

The area of the country known as the Corn Belt includes Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana and Wisconsin. Other states are South Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky.

The Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service says producers have planted thirty-two million hectares of corn this year. That is a little less than last year, but more than they had expected in March.

As of July tenth, sixty-three percent of the corn crop was rated good to excellent. That number was up from fifty-eight percent last year. But it was down from sixty-eight percent the week before.

In the past few weeks, corn futures⁶ reached their highest prices in two years on the Chicago Board of Trade. On July twelfth, a bushel of corn for shipment⁷ in December cost about two dollars and eighty-five cents.

The rains last week brought corn prices down from their recent highs. Now the question is how far those prices will drop.

Demand for corn is growing, not just to feed cattle and people but also to feed engines. Ethanol from corn is becoming more popular as a plant-based fuel because of high oil prices.

Corn is used in thousands of products. Last year, American farmers produced more than eleven thousand million bushels of corn.

Farmers reported planting fifty-two percent of their corn last year from genetically⁸ engineered seed. The Economic Research Service says reports this year put the number at just over sixty percent.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts⁹ and archives of our reports are at www.unsv.com. To send us e-mail, write to [email protected]. I'm Doug Johnson.

1 ease   

n. 安乐,安逸,悠闲; v. 使...安乐,使...安心,减轻,放松

参考例句：

• His mind was at ease and he felt confident in the future. 他心情舒畅,对前途很有信心。
• You should ease up on the child and stop scolding her. 你应该对那个孩子宽松些,不要再骂她了。

2 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

3 pollination   

n.授粉

参考例句：

• The flowers get pollination by insects.这些花通过昆虫授粉。
• Without sufficient pollination,the growth of the corn is stunted.没有得到充足的授粉，谷物的长势就会受阻。

4 kernels   

谷粒( kernel的名词复数 )； 仁； 核； 要点

参考例句：

• These stones contain kernels. 这些核中有仁。
• Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。

5 drought   

n.旱灾，干旱，久旱

参考例句：

• The plants are growing in again,despite the drought.尽管干旱，植物又长出来了。
• The ground is as hard as stone after the drought.长期干旱后土地硬得就像石头一样。

6 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

7 shipment   

n.装货，装载的货物

参考例句：

• The goods are done up in bundles for shipment.货物已打包以备装船。
• Please advise the date of shipment as soon as possible.请尽快通知装货日期。

8 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

9 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句