Seafood Sales Sink in S. Korea

     Fear about radiation(放射辐射) from the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan is causing sales of seafood¹ to dive in South Korea.

    At the Garak fish market, the sales pitches about fresh and cheap seafood that would usually entice² customers are falling on deaf ears.

    A fishmonger, who has changed her tune³, continually repeats that all of her seafood is Korean.

    But there are few takers, compared to previous weeks - even though only 10 percent of the seafood at the Seoul market comes from Japan.

    Fishmongers say sales have dropped by half as a result of the incessant⁴ headlines about radiation in seawater near the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

    Kim Hyun-yi says she and her colleagues are now throwing away pollock, by the boxes.  The whitefish used to sell for between $70 and $80 per box.  She says the price was reduced, earlier in the week, to $5, but still no one would buy.

    Another fishmonger, Lee Eun-young, says all people browsing⁵ are asking about the origin of the seafood displayed.

    Lee says it is difficult to sell anything but frozen fish.  She says restaurant owners buy in bulk, but they have become reluctant to purchase, and some are apparently⁶  temporarily closing their businesses while the radiation scare continues.

    Shopper Chung Myung-sun says the troubles with the Japanese nuclear power plant are prompting a change in her household’s eating habits.

    Chung says she is trying to avoid buying fish, altogether, and is switching to vegetables.  The only fish she will consider has to be frozen and caught before the radiation outbreak.

    Also shopping at the market is restaurant owner Kim Shun-hwa.  She says fresh pollock is definitely off her restaurant’s menu.

    Kim says, if word got out that she was serving it, business would definitely suffer.  So the only pollock she will consider is the frozen variety.  And, she is also worried about the safety of squid, because it comes from the waters between Japan and the Korean peninsula.

    South Korea’s government has banned the import of food from areas surrounding the Fukushima nuclear complex.  It says it is screening all  fishery products from Japan for radiation contamination,The Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, on Japan’s northeastern Pacific coast, was crippled by a March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami⁷, which topped 10 meters in height in some locations.

    Since then, workers have struggled to bring the damaged reactors⁸ under control, but the plant continues to spew radiation into the atmosphere and sea water.（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）

1 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

2 entice   

v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿

参考例句：

• Nothing will entice the children from television.没有任何东西能把孩子们从电视机前诱开。
• I don't see why the English should want to entice us away from our native land.我不明白，为什英国人要引诱我们离开自己的国土。

3 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

4 incessant   

adj.不停的，连续的

参考例句：

• We have had incessant snowfall since yesterday afternoon.从昨天下午开始就持续不断地下雪。
• She is tired of his incessant demands for affection.她厌倦了他对感情的不断索取。

5 browsing   

v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息

参考例句：

• He sits browsing over[through] a book. 他坐着翻阅书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cattle is browsing in the field. 牛正在田里吃草。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 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。

7 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

8 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。