VOA慢速英语2009年-Agriculture Report - Remembering Norman Bo

This the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Norman Borlaug led what was known as the Green Revolution. As a plant scientist, he may have saved more lives than anyone else in history -- as many as a billion, by some estimates. He traveled the world to help poor people develop better ways to produce food.
　
Norman Borlaug

He worked in the fields to show farmers new ways to grow wheat, rice and other crops. And he worked in the laboratory to breed new wheat varieties that could resist disease. Lately he worried about a new threat, a fungus¹ called Ug99. It was discovered in Uganda ten years ago and has spread in Africa and now Asia.

NORMAN BORLAUG: "This is a new strain of stem rust² organism that has the power to destroy most of the wheat varieties being grown around the world."

Norman Borlaug taught at Texas A&M University and worked on international projects until not long before his death on September twelfth. He was ninety-five and suffering from cancer.

In nineteen forty-four he began work on a project in Mexico financed by the Rockefeller Foundation. By the middle of the nineteen fifties, Mexico had doubled its wheat production per hectare.

Norman Borlaug and his team had even greater success in Pakistan and India. Farmers could grow four times more than before. Later in life he tried to bring the Green Revolution to Africa.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen seventy and the Presidential Medal of Freedom seven years later. He won the Congressional Gold Medal two years ago.

But not everyone considered him a hero. Environmental activists³ criticized his intensive methods, including the use of fertilizers and pesticides⁴. He suggested that Western critics had never known real hunger, and wondered if they had ever watched their children go hungry. But later, he also urged farmers not to overuse chemicals.

At his ninety-fifth birthday party in March, Norman Borlaug told VOA that he was worried about the world's ability to feed itself.

NORMAN BORLAUG: "We are adding eighty-four million people to the population every year. We have a big job on our hands."

World hunger has been rising slowly since the late nineties. A big increase is expected this year because of the economic crisis, combined with higher food prices.

The World Food Program said last week that the number of hungry people will pass one billion this year for the first time in history. But the United Nations agency says the flow of food aid is at a twenty-year low.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Bob Doughty⁵.

 

1 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

2 rust   

n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退

参考例句：

• She scraped the rust off the kitchen knife.她擦掉了菜刀上的锈。
• The rain will rust the iron roof.雨水会使铁皮屋顶生锈。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。