VOA常速英语2019--农民们被困在贸易的“完美风暴”和天气问题之间

Farmers Stuck Between Perfect Storm of Trade, Weather Issues

This is an unwelcome sight and sound on Megan Dwyer’s rural Illinois farm.Rain, more rain. It has been one of the wettest planting seasons 30 year-old Dwyer has ever experienced.We picked up another 8 tents last night and probably three or four this morning. Ideally we’d like to be done planting corn and have a good chunk¹ of our beans in and we’re maybe five percent planted in total right now.At the end of May, Illinois farmers had about 35% of their crops Planted. A dramatic contrast to an average of 95 percent most years at the same time.Megan Dwyer is among many nationwide who have to make a decision soon, plant very late and hope it grows in time or.

这是一个在梅根·德怀尔的伊利诺伊州农场不受欢迎的景象和声音。雨,雨。这是30岁的德怀尔经历过的最潮湿的种植季节之一。我们昨晚收拾了了八个帐篷，今天早上可能又收拾了三或四个。理想情况下，我们希望种植完玉米，种下大量的豆子，现在我们大概总共种植了百分之五。五月底，伊利诺伊州的农民种植了大约百分之三十五的农作物。这与同期百分之九十五的平均水平形成了鲜明对比。梅根·德怀尔是全国许多不得不很快做出决定的人之一，她种得很晚，希望它能及时生长或者。

Or you’ve got the preventative plan options as well where you just don’t put a crop in at all. The prevented plan option is a crop insurance claim payout, meant to help farmers deal with the loss of income due to poor planting weather. An option that is rarely used. People are trying to figure out how they’re gonna make some money this year, how they’re gonna be able to pay the bills.

或者你已经有了预防计划选项，你可以选择不种任何作物。预防计划选项是农作物保险索赔，旨在帮助农民应对恶劣的种植天气造成的收入损失。很少使用的选项。人们都在想他们今年要怎么赚钱，他们要怎么付账。

Illinois farm Bureau national legislative² director Adam Nielsen says the continued rainfall is creating a perfect economic storm for those already dealing³ with five consecutive⁴ years of negative farm Income. It would be normally a very stressful year to begin with that when you add the fact that we’re now in entering year two of a trade war and a lot of our markets are closed off to us that adds a higher level anxiety and what our members are feeling. The recent breakdown⁵ in trade negotiations⁶ between the United States and China has only added to Meghan’s Dwyer’s problems.

伊利诺斯州农业局国家立法主任亚当·尼尔森说，持续的降雨给那些已经连续5年遭受农业收入减少的人带来了经济完美风暴（经济完美风暴为术语，指造成巨大经济损失）。通常是很有压力的一年开始,事实上,我们现在进入第二年的贸易战争，我们的很多市场对我们关闭, 增加了更高层的焦虑和我们的会员感觉如此。最近中美贸易谈判的破裂只会让梅根·德怀尔的问题更加严重。

60% of our soybeans get exported, for us two-thirds of our soybeans so more than That. And our end user is China, there’s a lot of uncertainty⁷ around where this products gonna go. The rain on top of that is with the flooding and not being able to get barges⁸ and river traffic through. You know nobody can even move the product even if there was a buyer, so it’s just it’s pretty scary and uncertain times.

百分之六十的大豆用于出口，而我们三分之二的大豆用于出口。我们的最终用户是中国。关于这些产品的去向有很多不确定性。最上面的雨水是洪水，无法让驳船和河流交通通过。你知道，即使有买家，也没有人能搬走产品，所以这是一个非常可怕和不确定的时期。

President Donald Trump’s promised to compensate⁹ farmers through another proposed US Department of Agriculture aid package,estimated at 16 billion dollars this year, may provide some relief for farmers. For me I don’t want it, I’d rather have markets and access to a real place to my product to go. But Dwyer like most farmers is realistically left with little choice but to accept the aid to help make ends meet, to help the farm survive to plant another day.

特朗普总统承诺通过美国农业部提出的另一项援助计划来补偿农民，该计划预计今年将达到一百六十亿美元，这可能会为农民提供一些救济。对我来说，我不想要救济，我宁愿有市场，我的产品可以进入一个真实的地方。但是德怀尔和大多数农民一样，实际上别无选择，只能接受援助来维持生计，帮助农场生存下去，继续种植作物。

But with the aid comes stigma¹⁰. I’ve seen several comments that farmers are just looking for welfare.We’re looking for that handout¹¹. We’re ready for the government to, you know pay for us to do this. And that’s not at all what happened.We’re doing it so we can put food on our table and have a crop and product to share with the rest of the country in the world.

但援助带来了耻辱。我看到一些评论说农民只是在寻求福利。我们在找施舍。你知道的，我们已经准备好了政府付钱给我们。但事实并非如此。我们这样做是为了把食物放在餐桌上，有一种作物和产品可以与世界上其他国家分享。

But before there can be a product to share, there are needs to be clear skies and warmth to dry out Dwyers fields so she can plant.At least in the short term the weather forecast isn’t giving Dwyer much hope.

但在有产品可以分享之前。需要有晴朗的天空和温暖的天气来干燥德怀尔的土地，这样她才能种植作物。至少在短期内，天气预报并没有给德怀尔带来多大希望。

1 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

2 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

3 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

4 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

5 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

6 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

7 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

8 barges   

驳船( barge的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The tug is towing three barges. 那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。
• There were plenty of barges dropping down with the tide. 有不少驳船顺流而下。

9 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

10 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

11 handout   

n.散发的文字材料；救济品

参考例句：

• I read the handout carefully.我仔细看了这份分发的资料。
• His job was distributing handout at the street-corner.他的工作是在街头发传单。