时间:2018-12-15 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2008年(六)月


英语课

The hardest-hit state is Iowa, the leading corn state and last year's top soybean producer. Transcript 1 of radio broadcast:
24 June 2008


This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Farmers in parts of the American Midwest face a difficult recovery after the worst flooding in fifteen years. Storms that flooded rivers and drowned crops have been blamed for at least twenty-fourth deaths since late May.
 






In Missouri, a farm under flood waters from the Mississippi River last week




The floods displaced 2 tens of thousands of people in several states across America's agricultural heartland. There are concerns that crop losses could push already-high food prices even higher.

Fertile lands in some states could be mistaken for lakes. The mighty 3 Mississippi River broke through or flowed over the tops of dirt levees in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.

The floods hit hardest in Iowa, the leading corn state and also the top soybean producer last year. Thirty-eight centimeters of rain fell on some cropland over a two-week period. Governor Chet Culver has declared most counties as disaster areas. Iowa officials have said that crop damage in that state could reach three billion dollars.

The United States Department of Agriculture is expected to announce estimates of crop losses in the coming days. The department is being urged to let farmers plant corn on land set aside for conservation.

Some farmers may replant corn. Others may replace corn with soybeans. What farmers do now depends partly on the extent of damage to the land. Floodwaters in some areas may contain industrial waste or other harmful substances.

What the weather does during the rest of the growing season will also be important.

Rain delays have left soybean planting behind the five-year average in twelve of eighteen major soybean-producing states. Other crops including wheat, rice and oats have also suffered.

In Burlington, Iowa, as many as fifty trains normally pass through the city every day, mostly carrying coal or passengers. But Burlington is quiet now until water is off the rails and workers can inspect for damage. City Manager Doug Worden says Burlington took steps to prevent severe property damage after the record floods of fifteen years ago.

While the Midwest deals with recent flooding, the nation's top agricultural state, California, faces increasingly dry conditions. On June fourth, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought, the first such action since nineteen ninety-one. The order followed two years of below-average rainfall and other limitations on water supplies.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss 4.



1 transcript
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书
  • A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
  • They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。
2 displaced
移动( displace的过去式和过去分词 ); 替换; 移走; 撤职
  • Gradually factory workers have been displaced by machines. 工厂的工人已逐渐被机器取代。
  • He was displaced by another young man. 他已被另一个年轻人顶替。
3 mighty
adj.强有力的;巨大的
  • A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
  • The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。
4 moss
n.苔,藓,地衣
  • Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
  • He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
学英语单词
abdominal cavities
accelerator ZDMC
agrip
alginic acid
anacanthus
anti-bottom quark
arrested failure
associated emission
banderol, banderole
basic separating
basosexine
Belling saccharimeter
bepitying
Biassini
bitterweeds
cammaron
capital of Oklahoma
change-over channel steamer
charge-storage diode
chloralkaline
chlorobenzyl chloride
cholecystokinin (cck)
complemeent (darlington 1932)
correlation analysis method
countervailing
deformation loss
detectable effect
dimethyldihydroresorcinol
direct-current grid bias
distributed feedback
dyadic array
electronic shower
Elsholtzia hunanensis
filter editor
food and beverage expenses
footlongs
glass reinforced concrete glass
grant woods
harangue
heading per steering compass
herringbone pipe
hewsons
hinchleys
Holter system
incipient incision
incipient scorch
Incomati (Komati)
internal strapped block
isoolivil
laser-Raman spectrometry
laxogenin
leakage and drip
Lisfranc's tubercle
lobes
macgregor hatch cover
maximum colour acuity
medium irrigated emulsion
metachromatic bodies
Molatón
Morinville
nabzenil
negotiated meaning
nitrogen-to-protein conversion factor
non-americans
offspringless
organizatory
Otego
Over-allotment option
OWRS
Panax schin-seng Nees
Passengers Ships in Inland Waters
pastoral stage
pentetate
petersen sir elutriator
phase interchange rate
Polygonum patulum
pteroxygonum giraldii dammer et diels
rabelo
relieve stress
schwalb
scratch resistance
seat cover for vehicle
security option
seen with half an eye
self starter
sequential data structure
setting-out work
shapiro-wilk test
side by side display
superimposed preeclampsia
sweated joint
telocollinites
tendon lengthening
thermal radiation destruction distance
topological relation
total equity
ultraviolet dwarf
uredinology
Vilyuy
virtual volume
volumetrics
xanthohumol