英语阅读二610Word格式文档下载.docx

1、Its early August and the countryside appears peaceful. Planting庄稼 has long been finished and the fields are alive with strong, healthy crops. Soybeans and wheat are flourishing under the hot summer sun, and the corn, which was “knee-high by the fourth of July”, is now well over six feet tall. Herds

2、of dairy and beef cattle are grazing peacefully in rolling pastures which surround big, red barns and neat, white farmhouses. Everything as far as the eye can see radiates a sense of prosperity. Welcome to the Midwestone of the most fertile agricultural regions of the world.八月上旬，乡间田野呈现出一派宁静的景象。春耕播种早

3、已结束，地里的庄稼在茁壮成长，大地充满了微生机。大豆小麦在夏日的骄阳下长势喜人。在月日国庆时，玉米还高不没膝，而现在已有六英尺多高了。成群的奶牛和菜牛在绵延起伏的草场上安静地啃食青草，在牧场的中间座落着几栋红色大牲口棚和几幢整洁的白色住房。放眼望去，到处都展现着繁荣的景象。欢迎到中西部来这里是全世界最富饶的农业地区之一。 The tranquility of the above scene is misleading. Farmers in the Midwest put in some of the longest workdays of any profession in the Unit

4、ed States. In addition to caring for their crops and livestock, they have to keep up with new farming techniques, such as those for combating soil erosion and increasing livestock production. It is essential that farmers adopt these advances in technology if they want to continue to meet the growing

5、 demands of a hungry world.上面所描述的宁静景象会使人产生错觉。其实中西部的农民在美国所有的职业中投入的工作量最大。除了照料庄稼和牲畜外，他们还得跟上最新的农业技术，比如防止土壤侵蚀的技术、增加牲畜产量的技术。如果农民想继续满足这个充满饥饿的世界日益增长的食品需求，那他们采用这些先进技术就是至为关键的。Agriculture is the number one industry in the United States and agricultural products are the countrys leading export. American farmers

6、 manage to feed not only the total population of the United States, but also millions of other people throughout the rest of the world. Corn and soybean exports alone account for approximately 75 percent of the amount sold in world markets.农业是美国的第一产业，农产品是美国的主要出口产品。美国农民不但要努力为本国所有人提供食品，而且还要为世界其他地区百万人提

7、供食品。仅玉米和大豆两项出口产品就大约占世界市场销售总量的75。This productivity, however, has its price. Intensive cultivation exposes the earth to the damaging forces of nature. Every year wind and water remove tons of rich soil from the nations croplands, with the result that soil erosion has become a national problem concerni

8、ng everyone from the farmer to the consumer.但这样的生产力也有基代价。这种集约耕种使土壤受到了自然界破坏力量的侵袭。每年自然界的风和雨水都要从这个国家耕地上带走大量肥沃的土壤，结果土壤侵蚀现已成为一个关系到从农民到消费者每一个人的全国性问题。Each field is covered by a limited amount of topsoil, the upper layer of earth which is richest in the nutrients and minerals necessary for growing crops. Ev

9、er since the first farmers arrived in the Midwest almost 200 years ago, cultivation and, consequently, erosion have been depleting the supply of topsoil. In the 1830s, nearly two feet of rich, black top soil covered the Midwest. Today the average depth is only eight inches, and every decade another

10、inch is blown or washed away. This erosion is steadily decreasing the productivity of valuable cropland. A United States Agricultural Department survey states that if erosion continues at its present rate, corn and soybean yields in the Midwest may drop as much as 30 percent over the next 50 years.每

11、块耕地的表层土壤都是有限的，而庄稼生长所必需的养分和矿物质在表层土壤最丰富。自从第一批农民在近二百年前来到中西部地区以来，农耕及由此引起的土壤侵蚀一直在消耗着表土资源。在19世纪年代，中西部地区肥沃的黑土层还有近二英尺厚，而今天的厚度则只有八英寸了，而且每隔十年就有一寸被刮农业部的一项调查显示，如果按目前这个速度侵蚀下去，那么年后美国中西部地区的玉米和大豆产量将下降30。So far, farmers have been able to compensate for the loss of fertile topsoil by applying more chemical fertilizer

12、s to their fields; however, while this practice has increased crop yields, it has been devastating for ecology. Agriculture has become one of the biggest polluters of the nations precious water supply. Rivers, lakes, and underground reserves of water are being filled in and poisoned by soil and chem

13、icals carried by drainage from eroding fields. Furthermore, fertilizers only replenish the soil; they do not prevent its loss.迄今为止，农民只能靠向田地里施用更多的化肥来弥补肥沃表层土被侵蚀所造成的损失。尽管这种作法提高了粮食产量，但对生态却是场大灾难。农业已成为宝贵的水资源的最大污染源之一。从受侵蚀的田地里的排水系统中排出的水夹杂着泥土和化学物质（化肥），这些水正在流入并污染着河流、湖泊及地下水资源。另外化肥只能补充土壤中的养分，却不能防止其流失。Clearly so

14、mething else has to be done in order to avoid an eventual ecological disaster. Conservationists insist that the solution to the problem lies in new and better farming techniques. Concerned farmers are building terraces on hilly fields, rotating their crops, and using new plowing methods to cut soil

15、losses significantly. Substantial progress has been made, but soil erosion is far from being under control.很明显，为了避免最终出现的生态灾难，应该采取别的措施。自然资源保护论者坚持认为出路在于推出更新更好的农业技术。为了大幅度地减少土壤损失，农民正在山坡地上修梯田，轮种庄稼并采用新的耕作方法。这一切都取得了重大成就，但土壤侵蚀问题仍远未得到控制。The problems and innovations of the agricultural industry in the Midwest

16、 are not restricted to growing crops. Livestock raising, which is big business in the certral region of the United States, is also undergoing many changes. Recent developments in technology have enabled farmers to raise not only healthier animals, but more animals as well. By employing the techniques of super-ovulation, artificial insemination, and embryo transfer, farmers can more than triple th