2005年NPR美国国家公共电台十一月-Dating Web Site Plants Seeds of Love

Anchor: a lot of farm work. Tractors have satellite guided systems, harvest machines are faster and more efficient, and with automated¹ machinery², cows can almost milk themselves. But the isolation³ of farm work will never go away. Long hours and long distances can put a dent⁴ in a farmer's social life. When you have to rise before dawn, dinner and movie is a bit impractical⁵.
Enter Jerry Miller⁶, an advertising⁷ and PR man from Ohio; he created a website called "farmersonly.com". It all started, Miller says, when he met a woman on an alpaca farm.

Miller: She got a divorce and when I was talking to her, she said, 'I'm really afraid that I'm never gonna meet anybody new.' And I said, 'What are you talking about? You are such a great person. You'll meet someone.' And she goes, 'How can you meet somebody working on a farm all day.' And I said, 'Well, you might have a point here, it's a little… the dating pool's a little sparse⁸ out here.' She called me and said she tried online dating, and was contacted by a bunch of guys, from the ci(ties)…you know, bigger cities. She said city folks just don't get it.

Anchor: What didn't they get?

Miller: They just don't understand the life style. You know, they say, 'well, what do you, you work Monday through Friday, why won't we meet Saturday.' She goes, 'that's, are you kidding? That's one of my busiest days.' Or 'when we meet at seven tonight?' 'Well, the sun doesn't go down until eight tonight. You know.'

Anchor: Well, if I listen to you tell the story, it sounds that farmers don't have even enough time to date each other.

Miller: That's very true. It's funny because one of the last posts that gave me a chuckle⁹, this one, a lady said, 'I really need a date, but I can't date during harvest season.'

Anchor: So call me after October.

Miller: Yeah, right.

Anchor: Who's using this site? Are they all farmers?

Miller: No, I say, see, I started off, you know, I put it together for farmers, and talking to a rural pe(ople)…you know, rural living in and out the country, you know, surrounded by farm land, and small towns. I found they had the same problem. I wanted only people that can relate to the farmer life style.

Anchor: How many people use this site?

Miller: Well, I launched it in May and it took about 2 to 3 months to get the first 200 people on. I had one person come on from Texas and then finally somebody from Indiana and then somebody from California and so on. Then it started growing at a nice pace, but just this last month, it had a couple of thousand people come on, and now that it had media stories that have been out this week. I've had so many people come to the site that actually crashed the site the last day.

Anchor: I had hard times (Oh.) logging on myself.

Miller: I found out that the story about the site went all over the AP wire. Think there are over two to three thousands radio stations, talking about it just yesterday. I did an Interview on Fox, Good Morning American was at my office yesterday, CBS is coming here in a couple of hours. We are now getting calls from all around the world. They want to interview me in England Tonight. And we don't even go to England, he kidding he (is) a member from Europe.

Anchor: Have you made any matches?

Miller: I know there is quite a few people that have been matched up already and already dropped off the site, which was amazing, that’s actually when there was only a few hundred people on.

Anchor: So you started the site, you made a promise to that farmer that was looking for a date. Did you find someone for her? Has she found a mate?

Miller: Not yet. Actually I just talked to her the other night and I said, 'have you found anybody yet?' she goes, 'I haven't even had time to go on the site.' Are you kidding me? She said 'it was, last time I was on there, only a couple hundreds people on there and I didn't see anybody.' I said, 'Well, now there's thousands of people on there.' She said, 'Wow, I'd better get back on there.'

Anchor: Jerry Miller is founder¹⁰ of internet dating site for farmers called "farmersonly.com". He spoke¹¹ to us from Beachwood, Ohio. Thanks so much for talking to us.

Miller: You are welcome.

1 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

2 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

3 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

4 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

5 impractical   

adj.不现实的，不实用的，不切实际的

参考例句：

• He was hopelessly impractical when it came to planning new projects.一到规划新项目，他就完全没有了实际操作的能力。
• An entirely rigid system is impractical.一套完全死板的体制是不实际的。

6 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

7 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

8 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

9 chuckle   

vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑

参考例句：

• He shook his head with a soft chuckle.他轻轻地笑着摇了摇头。
• I couldn't suppress a soft chuckle at the thought of it.想到这个，我忍不住轻轻地笑起来。

10 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• 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。