VOA标准英语2012--India's Agriculture Boom Fuels 'Rural Urbanization'

 

India's Agriculture Boom Fuels 'Rural Urbanization'

Life in India's countryside still involves plenty of hard work. But standards of rural living have gone up dramatically in recent years.

Inflated¹ food prices - otherwise a headache for politicians and urban consumers - have put more money in the pockets of farm workers. Generous government subsidies² and lenient³ credit policies have helped fuel investment in tractors and other heavy equipment. It also has created a consumer market that makes many of India's hundreds of thousands of remote villages look a little more like cities.

“We have amenities⁴ the previous generations could never afford to have. We have motorbikes, mobile phones, a fridge, and other things,” said Sanjay Singh, a rural villager.

The rural appetite for vehicles is especially strong. Shankar Prasad is one businessman cashing in on the trend.

“In the case of motorcycles we find that about 50 percent of our buyers are from rural areas and only 50 percent, rest of them are from urban areas. In case of consumer durables⁵ when there was no sale about 10 years back of consumer durables. Now, we find that 50 percent of our sales are from the villages. So I will tell you the divide between the urban and rural area is blurring⁶,” said Prasad.

The investment bank Credit Suisse described that blurring of urban and rural as "the great Indian equalisation" in a recent analyst⁷ report.

Fewer and fewer rural Indians are getting their income directly from agriculture. Salim Ansari said many are finding jobs in urban-style construction.

“Just like in the city, lots of new buildings are going up here. There are car garages, towers, and big houses. We have all the city amenities in our village,” said Ansari.

Wi-fi Internet is increasingly available in the countryside. So is satellite TV programming, and flatscreen monitors on which to watch it.

Stores offer convenience items many older generations never had - like instant noodles, and personal grooming⁸ products.

“In the past we used to use sticks or cow dung ash to clean our teeth," said Arun Mondal, a rural villager. "But now, just like urban people, we use a toothbrush and toothpaste. We use shampoo and expensive oils and creams. We have everything in our village that people have in towns and cities.”

For mothers like Lalti Devi, the difference between the past and the present is less important than the future opportunities that rural prosperity creates for the young.

“There used to be nothing in this village. Everybody was illiterate⁹. But now, people are sending their children to schools,” said Devi.

About two-thirds of India's 1.2 billion people live in rural villages. With the overall Indian economy stagnating¹⁰, policymakers can be expected to look more and more to the countryside as an engine of growth.

1 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 lenient   

adj.宽大的，仁慈的

参考例句：

• The judge was lenient with him.法官对他很宽大。
• It's a question of finding the means between too lenient treatment and too severe punishment.问题是要找出处理过宽和处罚过严的折中办法。

4 amenities   

n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快

参考例句：

• The campsite is close to all local amenities. 营地紧靠当地所有的便利设施。
• Parks and a theatre are just some of the town's local amenities. 公园和戏院只是市镇娱乐设施的一部分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 durables   

n.持久的，耐用的( durable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Running at 50-year lows below trend. Move from durables to services consumption could be big. 在低于趋势线的50年最低水平下，从耐用品消费到服务消费的转变可能很大。 来自互联网
• The table below shows the consumer durables owned in Britain from 1972 to 1983. 该图表展现的是1972-1983十一年间英国耐久消费品的拥有量。 来自互联网

6 blurring   

n.模糊，斑点甚多，（图像的）混乱v.（使）变模糊( blur的现在分词 )；（使）难以区分

参考例句：

• Retinal hemorrhage, and blurring of the optic dise cause visual disturbances. 视网膜出血及神经盘模糊等可导致视力障碍。 来自辞典例句
• In other ways the Bible limited Puritan writing, blurring and deadening the pages. 另一方面，圣经又限制了清教时期的作品，使它们显得晦涩沉闷。 来自辞典例句

7 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

8 grooming   

n. 修饰, 美容，（动物）梳理毛发

参考例句：

• You should always pay attention to personal grooming. 你应随时注意个人仪容。
• We watched two apes grooming each other. 我们看两只猩猩在互相理毛。

9 illiterate   

adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲

参考例句：

• There are still many illiterate people in our country.在我国还有许多文盲。
• I was an illiterate in the old society,but now I can read.我这个旧社会的文盲，今天也认字了。

10 stagnating   

v.停滞，不流动，不发展( stagnate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I feel I'm stagnating in this job. 我觉得，干这份工作我没有长进。
• ITT was stagnating when Geneen became the chief executive officer in 1959. 1959年吉宁出任行政总负责人时，国际电话电报公司正处于不景气时期。 来自辞典例句