时间:2018-12-08 作者:英语课 分类:VOA常速英语2008年(四月)


英语课
By Gilbert da Costa
Abuja
30 April 2008


Nigeria, Africa's biggest importer of rice, plans to buy 500,000 tons of rice amid a global grain shortage.  Gilbert da Costa reports for VOA from Abuja the purchase was approved during a meeting of President Umaru YarAdua and the governors of Nigeria's 36 states.


The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says Nigeria will import 4.5 million tons of cereal, mostly wheat and rice, in 2008 to bridge the shortfall caused by poor harvests.


Producer prices of staples 1 such as millet 2, maize 3 and sorghum 4 have increased 100 to 200 percent during the past year.


After the meeting, the governor of southeastern Akwa-Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, said the rice imports will ease the unprecedented 5 rise in food prices.


"The rice will arrive at about 5,000 naira [about $41] per bag or even less, and so those who are hoarding 6 and attempting to sell at 10,000 [$82] or 12,000 [$100] will have no option than to bring the rice to the market and ensure that the people get it at a reasonable price," he explained.


Food riots have broken out in more than a dozen African countries in recent months, prompting concern in Nigeria, one of the continent's most volatile 7 countries.  Tuesday, police in the northern city of Kano stopped a rally against soaring food prices.  The House of Representatives last week summoned the agriculture minister over what was described as "the imminent 8 food crisis".


The governor of Ogun state in the southwest, Segun Agagu, says the meeting also agreed on measures to boost food production and reduce dependence 9 on imports.


"Federal government will work through the ministry 10 of agriculture and water resources and co-ordinate the states and research institutes to ensure that in the medium to long-term, Nigeria produces not only enough food for herself, but should be in a position to export food," he said.


The Nigerian government last month ordered the release of 65,000 tons of food from strategic reserves to help curb 11 rising prices.


Experts predict the food crisis in West Africa could deepen in the coming months as reserve food stocks run out and prices climb.




1 staples
n.(某国的)主要产品( staple的名词复数 );钉书钉;U 形钉;主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )
  • The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
  • I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句
2 millet
n.小米,谷子
  • Millet is cultivated in the middle or lower reaches of the Yellow River.在黄河中下游地区,人们种植谷子。
  • The high quality millet flour was obtained through wet milling.采用湿磨法获得了高品质的小米粉。
3 maize
n.玉米
  • There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
  • We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
4 sorghum
n.高粱属的植物,高粱糖浆,甜得发腻的东西
  • We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
  • They made sorghum into pig feed.他们把高粱做成了猪饲料。
5 unprecedented
adj.无前例的,新奇的
  • The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
  • A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。
6 hoarding
n.贮藏;积蓄;临时围墙;囤积v.积蓄并储藏(某物)( hoard的现在分词 )
  • After the war, they were shot for hoarding. 战后他们因囤积而被枪决。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Actually he had two unused ones which he was hoarding up. 其实他还藏了两片没有用呢。 来自英汉文学
7 volatile
adj.反复无常的,挥发性的,稍纵即逝的,脾气火爆的;n.挥发性物质
  • With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定,投资冒着很大的风险。
  • His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱,喜怒无常。
8 imminent
adj.即将发生的,临近的,逼近的
  • The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
  • The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。
9 dependence
n.依靠,依赖;信任,信赖;隶属
  • Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
  • He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。
10 ministry
n.(政府的)部;牧师
  • They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
  • We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。
11 curb
n.场外证券市场,场外交易;vt.制止,抑制
  • I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
  • You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。
学英语单词
a good bet
a.f.d.
Acetalgin
adverse judgement
Agadir Melloul
articulation of elbow
assembly pulley
associated space
Bachelor of Laws
be bad company
become extinct
blaest
body effect diode amplifier
Bourgignot
broner
carbide tipped reamer
carpogenic
cash account method of cash budget
cause elimination
centre-of-pressure travel
cerulescent
climbing irons
corkier
cross-track
cutleaf coneflower
dischevel
discovers
double beam densitometer
external trigger input
field beans
floccillation
Form-figure
glomus nigrum
gone to waste
haploid(haplotype)
hawke bay
heat and vent system
hemogallol
homeness
homocerebrin
homoresistant
hotel appointments
in-house
information transfer experiments
intermatic
international council of ballroom dancing (icbd)
inverted receiver
jus fruendi aut frucus
kirk session
legal force
local population sample
low water period
macaroni-and-cheese
marine vertical seismic profiling
master's mate
minimax sequential decision function
modified jelly-roll process
mount a ladder
multitemporal image
neuroelectric
non-viability
nonconifer
nondecreasings
npm
nuclear strategy
operating system component
orthophyric texture
output end mirror
paradoxists
precausation
primary database
prostrators
punched card processing equipment
punish the bottle
qutayba
renewable energy resources
reoffending
Right up your street
Roca Partida, Pta.
sanaa (sana)
slope ramp
solubilizes
Streptococcus saprophyticus
subspiracular lobe
summitt
ta-da
taiya
teeth zone
telemetered medium environment buoy
the better part of
the hokey-pokey
time of useful consciousness (tuc)
time-pressed
uniaos
unsyringed
upskier
wachtmeisters
waste liquid
wet lay-up technique
width of transition steepness
wild pumpkin
winnfield