【英语时差8,16】农夫和树

Farmers And Trees Dear Don and Yale: For a long time now, decades probably, I've been hearing about deforestation. But who, exactly, is cutting down all the trees? Y:If I had to guess,I'd say it's farmers clearing land for planting crops.Am I right？ D:That would seem to make sense.Farmers do need to clear space to plant their fields. But actually, farmers around the world have just as much to do with planting trees as they do with chopping¹ them down.A study using satellite pictures looked at around 2.5 billion acres of farmland around the world. It found that about ten-percent of it is covered by trees. That’s an area twice as large as the Amazon rain forest. Y:That's pretty surprising.I mean why would farmers want so many trees taking up space? Don’t they want their fields to be as large as possible? D:Yes, generally. But other studies have found that trees are very useful for farmers. They help keep soil healthy. And they can be harvested to feed animals, provide timber² and wood for burning, and produce fruit. Trees also help prevent soil erosion³ and improve groundwater quality. Y:So farmers grow trees because they’re profitable⁴. D:Basically farmers have to make a living, and if trees made it harder to make a profit then farmers wouldn’t keep them around.Of course, deforestation is still a big problem. Many farmers, especially in the Brazilian rain forest, cut down thousands of trees to make way for fields. But in many other places, farms and forests work together.

1 chopping   

adj.波浪汹涌的，硕大强健的；削球；斩波；断续

参考例句：

• He was preparing fodder, chopping finely and mixing thoroughly. 他在准备饲料，把它切碎，拌好。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This fellow is always chopping and changing; he's very unreliable. 这个人反复无常，很不可靠。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 timber   

n.木材，原木，大木料，栋木

参考例句：

• These trees need more time to grow into useful timber.这些树不够年头，还没成材呢。
• The timber is graded according to its thickness.木材按厚度分级。

3 erosion   

n.腐蚀，侵蚀，磨损，削弱，减少

参考例句：

• The erosion of beach here is serious.这里海岸的腐蚀很严重。
• Drought and soil erosion had long been a major problem.干旱和水土流失一直是个老大难问题。

4 profitable   

adj.有益的，能带来利益的，有利可图的

参考例句：

• That business became profitable last year.那项生意去年变得很赚钱。
• The convention business is very profitable for the hotel industry.承办会议业务能给旅馆业带来很高的利润。