VOA慢速英语20060207a
时间:2019-01-16 作者:英语课 分类:2006年慢速英语(二)月
AGRICULTURE REPORT - Norway Plans to Store Seeds of All the World's CropsBy George Grow
Broadcast: Tuesday, February 07, 2006
This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic 1 Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to represent all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month.
The structure will be designed to protect the world's food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on Earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke 2 to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his words, the worst came to the worst.
Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above zero degrees Celsius 3. The seeds will be protected behind concrete walls a meter thick and high-security 4 doors.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin 5 America.
To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below zero Celsius. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mister 6 Fowler says the proposed 7 structure will be the world's most secure 8 gene 9 bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason.
Norway first proposed the idea in the nineteen eighties. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet 10 Union was permitted use of Spitsbergen.
New Scientist says the plan won United Nations approval 11 in October at a meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. Internet users 12 can read and listen to our reports at www.unsv.com. This is Shep O'Neal.
- They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
- The sort of animal lived in the Arctic Circle.这种动物生活在北极圈里。
- They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
- The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
- The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
- The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。
- A security guard brought him down with a flying tackle.一名保安人员飞身把他抱倒。
- There was tight security at the airport when the President's plane landed.总统的专机降落时,机场的保安措施很严密。
- She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
- Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。
- Mister Smith is my good friend.史密斯先生是我的好朋友。
- He styled himself " Mister Clean ".他自称是“清廉先生”。
- There is widespread discontent among the staff at the proposed changes to pay and conditions. 员工对改变工资和工作环境的建议普遍不满。
- an outcry over the proposed change 对拟议的改革所发出的强烈抗议
- He found a secure foothold and pulled himself up.他找到了一个稳固的踏脚处并爬了上去。
- Extra men are needed to secure the camp against attack.需要增加兵力以保护军营免受攻击。
- A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
- The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。
- Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
- Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
- The audience has expressed its approval.观众已经认可。
- The teacher signed his approval.老师做了手势表示同意。