英语听力：探索发现 2013-02-22 猛玛象进城记 Mammoths to Manhattan—11

 At first, the Europeans relied heavily on local food supply by native people. But as they settled in, their farming practices began to shape the landscape of North America.

 

The plow¹ allowed them to farm larger areas of land, helping² to feed the expanding population. 

 

While this new type of agriculture robbed many animals of their habitat, others were to reap the benefits. 

 

Birds such as grackles, cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds exploded in numbers, feeding off the waste remains³ of farming. These pest birds were already common around small native farms in the east. Now large scale farming of crops such as corn, wheat and barley⁴ fuel(s) their numbers to epidemic⁵ proportions. 

 

Despite these pests, North America's agricultural kept on booming, becoming big business. Great sways of a once wild landscape have been turned over to farming. 

1 plow   

n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough

参考例句：

• At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
• We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后，我们将马上耕田。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

5 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。