VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-06-13 City Gardens Provide Healthy Food

 

AS IT IS 2013-06-13 City Gardens Provide Healthy Food

 

Hello, again!  I’m Jim Tedder¹ in Washington.  Today we talk about food, sleep, getting older, and your health.  We all know that fresh fruits and vegetables not only taste good, but they are also very good for you.  But in many parts of Africa, particularly in the cities, these important foods are hard to come by.  Karen Leggett reports that may be changing.

City gardens are beginning to provide healthy food and money for people in several African countries. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported last year that over half of all people in African cities are living in poor neighborhoods. The report is called “Growing Greener Cities in Africa.”

Senegal’s capital, Dakar, is home to four million people. The city has several “micro” garden projects, including one at a hospital.

“This is an idea of Professor Papa Salif Sow simply to contribute to improving the quality of food offered to inpatients and I confess that since this noble initiative², we noticed a great improvement for example like weight gain.”

Now the Senegalese government and local groups are training people to grow crops on top of buildings and other empty spaces. They grow in containers made from old wooden pallets and car tires. The plants require little water. More than 5,000 families have been shown how to use this technology.

A garden project in the South African city of Johannesburg targets people who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. A balanced diet is important for people who have HIV. But finding healthy food at a good price can be difficult.  Annah Mogoathe digs potatoes out of the ground. She says the food she grows and eats from the garden makes her stronger and healthier.

Lettie Ngubeni directs the Osizweni Community Center near Johannesburg. She says it often takes time to persuade people to see the value of growing vegetables.

“It’s not our culture. And it was difficult at first when we started to change the mind-set of the people. You know in this place, the culture is that you buy, instead of doing the gardens.”

The Osizweni Community Center trains people how to plant and grow crops. They are taught water use management, and can ask questions. The program has already helped about 250 people. Another group has launched a roof-top garden project to help people moving into Johannesburg. Tshediso Phalane is vice³ president of the Thlago cooperative⁴.

“Because the idea is get a job. And the only way to get a job is to work on a factory. But now we are going to change the mind-set by saying: look you have skills from the homelands. Why can’t you utilize⁵ the skills on the rooftop and see what it is we can come up with.”

What they are coming up with includes rows of spinach⁶, beets⁷, celery, strawberries, lemons and figs⁸. Some of the farmers grow food for their own families. They sell extra fruits and vegetables at lower prices than the local markets. Bonyume, a young woman, says working at the rooftop garden has changed the lives of her sons.

“I’m gonna heat my oil, put onions, lots of onions, green peppers. Then I’ll put spinach, salt, I’ll stir, put my Knox cube, then I make my pap on the side, because I don’t have money for meat these days since it’s the middle of the month, but still I don’t go hungry. There’s plate on the table.”

Doreen Khumalo says her garden produces enough to feed 50 people. Now she wants to be partners with a housing company.

“They have 69 buildings. If you plant all the 69 buildings, the city will be green. Everybody would eat healthy.”

Back in Senegal, a rooftop gardener says he is showing his children that you do not have to be wealthy to eat healthy. I’m Karen Leggett.

Are people less happy or more happy the older they get? If you answered more happy, then you were right, at least based  on a study in 2008. It found that people generally become happier and experience less worry after age fifty. In fact, it found that by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were at eighteen.

The findings came from a Gallup survey of more than three hundred forty thousand adults in the United States in two thousand eight. At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five.

Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry⁹ and Behavioral Science at Stony¹⁰ Brook¹¹ University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. Stress levels dropped sharply¹² after people reached their fifties.

Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their seventies. But the people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.

The survey also found that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men did.

The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed¹³ or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being¹⁴ related to age.

So why would happiness increase with age? One theory is that, as people get older, they become more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.

The findings appeared in the Proceedings¹⁵ of the National Academy of Sciences.

Happiness is not the only thing that apparently¹⁶ improves with age. In a study, people in their eighties reported the fewest problems with the quality of their sleep. Researchers surveyed more than one hundred fifty thousand American adults. The study, led by Michael Grandner at the University of Pennsylvania, appeared in the journal Sleep.

The original goal was to confirm the popular belief that aging is connected with increased sleep problems. The survey did find an increase during middle age, especially in women. But except for that, people reported that they felt their sleep quality improved as they got older.

All of us at VOA hope you eat well, sleep well, and age well.  And we thank you for spending some time with us on this Thursday, the 13th day of June.

On this date in 1903, one of America’s greatest football players was born.  His name was Red Grange, and people called him the “Galloping Ghost.” 

Also on this date, way back in 1884, the people of New York City headed out of town to Coney Island to escape the summer’s heat.  When they arrived at the beach, they saw an unusual site.  America’s first roller coaster was open for business.  Passengers sat on a moving bench and rode down 180 meters.  Tickets cost only 5 cents.

World news comes your way at the beginning of each hour on the Voice of America.

1 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

2 initiative   

n.主动性，首创精神，主动权（的行动），倡议

参考例句：

• He went to see the headmaster on his own initiative.他主动去看望校长。
• His employer had described him as lacking in initiative and drive.雇主说他缺乏进取心和干劲。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 cooperative   

adj.有合作意向的，合作的；n.合作社（企业）等

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• We decided to set up a cooperative.我们决定开办一家合作社。

5 utilize   

vt.使用，利用

参考例句：

• The cook will utilize the leftover ham bone to make soup.厨师要用吃剩的猪腿骨做汤。
• You must utilize all available resources.你必须利用一切可以得到的资源。

6 spinach   

n.菠菜

参考例句：

• Eating spinach is supposed to make you strong.据说吃菠菜能使人强壮。
• You should eat such vegetables as carrot,celery and spinach.你应该吃胡萝卜、芹菜和菠菜这类的蔬菜。

7 beets   

甜菜( beet的名词复数 )； 甜菜根； （因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而）脸红

参考例句：

• Beets are Hank's favorite vegetable. 甜菜根是汉克最爱吃的蔬菜。
• In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上，大麦，苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。

8 figs   

figures 数字，图形，外形

参考例句：

• The effect of ring dyeing is shown in Figs 10 and 11. 环形染色的影响如图10和图11所示。
• The results in Figs. 4 and 5 show the excellent agreement between simulation and experiment. 图4和图5的结果都表明模拟和实验是相当吻合的。

9 psychiatry   

n.精神病学，精神病疗法

参考例句：

• The study appeared in the Amercian science Journal of Psychiatry.这个研究发表在美国精神病学的杂志上。
• A physician is someone who specializes in psychiatry.精神病专家是专门从事精神病治疗的人。

10 stony   

adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的

参考例句：

• The ground is too dry and stony.这块地太干，而且布满了石头。
• He listened to her story with a stony expression.他带着冷漠的表情听她讲经历。

11 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

12 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。

13 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

14 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

15 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

16 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。