VOA慢速英语2012 Agriculture Report - Mangrove Trees Fight Poverty in Eritrean Village

 

Agriculture Report - Mangrove¹ Trees Fight Poverty in Eritrean Village

农业报道 - 厄立特里亚的农村利用红树对抗贫困

From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report in Special English.

这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。

Last Friday was the anniversary of the Japanese attack on the American naval² base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The surprise attack killed 2,400 Americans and pushed the United States into World War Two. The following year, the government ordered more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry³ into 10 camps to live during the war.

上周五是1941年12月7日日本偷袭夏威夷美国海军基地珍珠港的周年纪念日。那次偷袭杀害了2400名美国人，并将美国推入二战。第二年，美国政府命令超过11万拥有日本血统者在战争期间迁入10个营地（实质为拘禁营，又名迁移中心。）生活。

Gordon Sato was born in Los Angeles and was a teenager at the beginning of the war. He and his Japanese-American family were forced to live in the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California. He learned to make corn grow in the dry, dusty soil.

佐藤·戈登（Gordon Sato）出生于洛杉矶，战争伊始时他还是一名青少年。他和他的日裔家庭被迫住进加利福尼亚州的Manzanar战争迁移中心。他学会了在这片干燥、尘土飞扬的土地上种植玉米。

He later became a cell biologist. He earned many honors for his research. But he never forgot his experience in the camp.

后来他成为了一名细胞生物学家，在研究上获得了许多荣誉。但他从未忘记自己在营地的那段经历。

In 1985 he went to Eritrea for the first time. He wanted to see what he could do to help the people in their struggle for independence from Ethiopia.

1985年，他首次前往厄立特里亚。他想去看看自己能为这些争取从埃塞俄比亚独立出来的人们做些什么。

He noticed that camels were eating the leaves of mangrove trees growing along the coast. He planted more mangroves so they could be used to feed livestock⁴. But at first all the new trees died.

他注意到，骆驼吃着沿岸生长的红树的树叶。他种了更多红树，这样就能用它们喂牲口。但起初，所有新种的树都死了。

Then Gordon Sato observed that mangrove trees only grew naturally where there was fresh water some of the time. The fresh water provided minerals that salt water lacked.

然后佐藤观察到，红树只能在不时有淡水的地方自然生长。这些淡水能够提供海水无法提供的矿物质。

"I went to the area where I planted trees before and they all died, and planted a few thousand more by providing nitrogen, phosphorous and iron. They all grew beautifully and they’ve been growing for over 10 years. They are huge trees now."

“我去到之前种下树又死了的那些地方，又通过提供氮、磷和铁，新种了几千棵树。这些树都长得很好，一直生长了十来年。现在它们都成了大树。”

Gordon Sato found a way to provide these minerals by putting nitrogen, phosphorous and iron into small plastic bags at the base of each tree. Each plastic bag had a tiny hole that was very carefully sized.

佐藤通过将氮、磷和铁放入每棵树根部的小塑料袋，找到了提供矿物质的办法。每个塑料袋都有一个尺寸合适的小孔。

The women in the village of Hargigo started to feed the leaves of the mangroves to their sheep and goats. But the animals were not producing enough milk for their babies.

Hargigo村的妇女开始用红树林的叶子喂绵羊和山羊。但这些动物无法给幼崽提供足够的乳汁。

Gordon Sato asked the villagers to grind the remains⁵ of fish they had eaten and spread this fish paste on the leaves. This provided protein for the sheep and goats so they could produce more milk.

佐藤让村民将吃剩的鱼磨碎撒到树叶上。这为绵羊和山羊提供了蛋白质，这样它们就能产更多奶。

Gordon Sato called his work in Eritrea the Manzanar Project to honor the memory of the Japanese-Americans in the relocation camp.

佐藤将他在厄立特里亚的工作称为Manzanar项目，以纪念迁移营的日裔美国人。

Today there are more than one million mangrove trees around the village.

如今，该村附近有1百多万棵红树。

Gordon Sato has also started a large garden in Mauritania to grow more mangrove trees.

佐藤还在毛里塔尼亚开办了一个大庄园种植更多红树。

December 17th will be his 85th birthday, and he is always looking for new projects and new ways to pay for them.

12月17日是他85岁生日，他一直在寻找新项目，以及为此付出的新办法。

"You don’t have to be brilliant to do useful work. All you have to have is moderate intelligence and determination, and you can make a contribution to this world."

“做有益的工作无需卓越非凡，需要的只是适度的智慧和决心。这样你就可以为世界做出贡献。”

1 mangrove   

n.(植物)红树，红树林

参考例句：

• It is the world's largest tidal mangrove forest.它是世界上最大的红树林沼泽地。
• Many consider this the most beautiful mangrove forest in all Thailand.许多人认为这里是全泰国最美丽的红树林了。

2 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

3 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

4 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。