时间:2019-01-17 作者:英语课 分类:2017年NPR美国国家公共电台6月


英语课

 


MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:


In one of the world's most densely 1 populated cities, Hong Kong, if you want to grab a tomato for your salad, you might have to run upstairs - a lot of stairs. NPR's Rob Schmitz has this report on the vegetable gardens growing on the city's rooftops.


ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE 2: On a typical block in this city, thousands of people live on top of each other. Pol Fabrega thinks about all these people as he looks up at the towering high-rises above the streets. And then he thinks about all that space above all these people.


POL FABREGA: The square footage here is incredibly expensive. But yet, if you look at Hong Kong from above, it's full of empty rooftops.


SCHMITZ: It is, he says, a big opportunity for growth. Fabrega is not a developer. In a city full of bankers, he's a gardener. He helps run a gardening cooperative called Rooftop Republic.


FABREGA: In Hong Kong currently, there are around 700 hectares of farmland that are being farmed. So the amount of rooftop space is almost the same as the amount we're using today to farm, like, actual farmland.


SCHMITZ: Hong Kong's agricultural contribution to its GDP is 0.02 percent. Fabrega's goal is to boost that tiny number by filling Hong Kong's 1,500 acres of rooftop space with vegetable gardens. He's starting small by giving tutorials to city residents.


FABREGA: Put this in. Yeah.


SCHMITZ: We're on the roof of a French restaurant in Hong Kong's Central District. It's surrounded by skyscrapers 3, and it's covered with row after row of container gardens. Rooftop Republic co-founder Andrew Tsui gives a tour.


ANDREW TSUI: What we're looking at now, we have butter lettuce 4, romaine lettuce, kale. We have cherry tomato. We have carrots. We have some basil and also a lot - tons of mint.


SCHMITZ: Tsui and Fabrega stop to show expat resident Gina Ma how to remove a head of cabbage from its stalk.


GINA MA: And twist - or should I pull?


SCHMITZ: Rooftop Republic has helped fill more than 26,000 square feet of rooftop on 22 rooftop farms. The biggest one is on the roof of Cathay Pacific, where 40 employees manage container vegetable plots on a daily basis. Gina Ma's rooftop garden is tiny by comparison, but she's spreading the word at her children's school.


MA: I was like Johnny Appleseed. I was just calling everybody up - called up the school, sent an email to all my neighbors being like, I have seedlings 5. They're amazing.


(LAUGHTER)


MA: And they're all from, like, you know, stuff that - organic. And stuff you can't get here, come get it.


SCHMITZ: It's that last point, being organic, healthy, that's important to Fabrega's clients.


FABREGA: In the case of Hong Kong, we also face the particular challenge that 98 percent of our vegetables and fruits come from China. And there's endless amounts of, like, scandals surrounding the food that's coming from mainland China.


SCHMITZ: And that's why hotels and restaurants are some of Rooftop Republic's biggest clients, all in a city where returning to the land can be as simple as a quick trip up the stairs to the roof. Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Hong Kong.



ad.密集地;浓厚地
  • A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
  • We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。
n.署名;v.署名
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
n.摩天大楼
  • A lot of skyscrapers in Manhattan are rising up to the skies. 曼哈顿有许多摩天大楼耸入云霄。
  • On all sides, skyscrapers rose like jagged teeth. 四周耸起的摩天大楼参差不齐。
n.莴苣;生菜
  • Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿,我好做色拉。
  • The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。
n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 )
  • Ninety-five per cent of the new seedlings have survived. 新栽的树苗95%都已成活。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • In such wet weather we must prevent the seedlings from rotting. 这样的阴雨天要防止烂秧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
学英语单词
Abapresin
abjugate
aproval
ARRC
assembled rotor
atrial pressure
autolyzes
besson
bronchi lobaris medius dexter
ceratium fusus schuttii
ceraunograph
Cercis racemosa
chrysosplenium lanuginosum formosanum
coded current transmitter
colleges of cardinals
contrast mechanism
current, leakage
datatrak
depression curve
dimension of excavator
distribution based on manufacturing cost
documents against acceptance
dynamic flex
editorial change
electrolytic refining cell
electrostatic bond strength
enters
erable
Ernest Shackleton
family of frames of order one
Festuca kansuensis
file chisel
firm deal
forsch
genus Phthirius
gilde-slope aircraft antenna
gimmer lamb
gouge flap
group-synchronous oocyte development
Halenia elliptica
hatch coaming
hawkbits
heading die
high permeability pay
high-residual-phosphorus copper
holystones
hope chest
human information input channel
insert jib section
instructional class
intercarrier sound rejector
intermittent-feed
interpretive cortex
investigation on fiscal operations
Jerecuaro
JIFSAN
Kalliopi
knows best
Kohlrausch method
log bundle
march under standard of
maximum permissible amount
mechanical lift dock
metalic luster
meteorological map
niphotyphlosis
non-monopolies
nutricycle
pararasbora moltrechti
peieris instability
power slip
primitive bird
priviledg
Proto-Sapiens
quinary
Rhipicephalus appendicularis
rosae chinensis flos
rubber mirror
Samtan
seismic period
setting-up exercises
shut-downs
sideretine
silting bed
sort
spill one's guts
St. Moritz
stake to
sub-groupings
tannin
Taraxacum roseoflavescens
timing modulation
tinting colour
tread design
unbleached muslin
Vasaras
viscosity unit
watoo
waveguide film bolometer
weaning brash
whispering eyes
world coordinate space