VOA慢速英语20060328a

AGRICULTURE REPORT - For Eating or Looking: Wild About CherriesBy Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Tuesday, March 28, 2006

I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

There is something hard to resist about cherries. The small red fruit is a popular seasonal¹ food around the world. In northern areas, cherry trees are just beginning to produce flowers.


Washington's famous cherry blossoms²

The cherry is a member of the same family of plants as the rose. It is closely related to the plum. Like cherry trees, plum trees also flower in early spring.

Cherries are thought to be native to western Asia. There are two major kinds of cherries harvested in the world: sweet and sour.

Sour cherries are not eaten fresh because they contain little sugar. Instead, they are processed to make prepared foods like jellies³ and pies and to make alcoholic⁴ drinks. The United States is a major producer of sour cherries. Among the states, Michigan is the top producer.

Russia, Poland and Turkey are other important cherry-producing nations.

Sweet cherries contain much more sugar than their sour relatives and are usually eaten fresh. Washington state is the biggest American producer, followed by California and Oregon.

The United States, Iran and Turkey are major producers of sweet cherries. In the United States, production fell by twenty percent last year after a record harvest in two thousand four.

Fresh cherries do not store well. They must reach market as soon as possible. So they cost more than many other kinds of fresh fruit.

Farmers produce different kinds of cherries through the process of grafting⁵. They take cuttings from existing trees and join them to related trees, known as root stock. The cuttings, called scions⁶ [SY-uhnz], grow into the root stock, so the two kinds of trees grow as one.

Cherry trees are also valued for their springtime blossoms.

Cherry blossoms are popular in many parts of Asia and Europe. But Washington, D.C., has some of the most famous cherry trees in the world. Japan gave the United States three thousand cherry trees in nineteen twelve as a gift of friendship. There were twelve different kinds of cherry trees, but most were a kind called Yoshino.

Years later Japan gave another gift of three thousand eight hundred trees. In the early nineteen eighties, the United States provided Japan with cuttings from the Yoshino trees in Washington. These cuttings helped replace Japanese trees lost in a flood.

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

2 blossoms   

n.（尤指果树的）花( blossom的名词复数 )；花丛，花簇v.（植物）开花( blossom的第三人称单数 )；发展；长成；变得更加健康（或自信、成功）

参考例句：

• It was springtime and the slopes were ablaze with almond blossoms. 时当春季，怒放的扁桃花使那片山坡鲜红似火。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The spring comes and peach blossoms [flowers] are all open. 春天了，桃花都开了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 jellies   

n.凝胶剂；胶状物( jelly的名词复数 )；（双腿或双膝）（由于紧张或恐惧而）感到软弱；（海滩和海上穿的）轻便塑料鞋

参考例句：

• Mother puts up a keeping [store] of preserved fruits and jellies every year. 母亲每年都要贮存蜜饯和果冻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• All the strawberry jellies had been eaten. 草莓冻都吃光了。 来自辞典例句

4 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

5 grafting   

嫁接法，移植法

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。
• Burns can often be cured by grafting on skin from another part of the same body. 烧伤常常可以用移植身体其它部位的皮肤来治愈。

6 scions   

n.接穗，幼枝( scion的名词复数 )；（尤指富家）子孙

参考例句：

• Eldritch giants are powerful scions of arcane lore. 邪术巨人是神秘奥术知识的强大传承者。 来自互联网
• Grafting can join scions with desirable qualities to root stock that is strong and resistsand insects. 嫁接能够将理想质量的接穗嫁接到强有力抗病虫害的砧木上。 来自互联网