公路与农作物抢夺地盘

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59 公路与农作物抢夺地盘

DATE=8-27-01
TITLE=DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Cars and Crops
BYLINE=Jill Moss¹
（Start at 1’01” ）This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report.
Experts say cars and crops are competing for land in many parts of the world.  They say this will increase in the future. Until now, most roads have been built over (1)farmland in industrial countries.  However, the Worldwatch (2)Institute says more and more farmland is now being lost in developing countries, where (3)populations are often hungry. 
Croplands are often (4)covered with hard (5)surface (6)cement² because flat, dry areas also make good roads.  However, once the cement has been (7)poured, the land can not be easily redeveloped for crops.  In the United States, more than six-million kilometers of land have been covered by roads.  This is enough to circle the Earth at the (8)equator one-hundred-fifty-seven times.  The United States has more than two-hundred-million (9)vehicles. 
The Worldwatch Institute says the increase in roads in developing countries is just starting to become an issue. It says more than eleven-million new cars are added to the total number of vehicles around the world each year.  Many of these new cars are in developing countries. This means the battle between crops and cars is starting to affect farming areas in countries where hunger is (10)common.  
The Worldwatch Institute says there is not enough land in several developing countries to support (11)transportation systems for cars and to feed the people.  These countries include China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt and Mexico. 
The Worldwatch Institute says it is wrong for developing countries to financially support a car industry with money collected from taxpayers³.  It says this takes money from poor people to support rich people.  Instead, it says countries should build new transportation systems that help the whole population.
Experts say nearly three-thousand-million people are expected to be added to the world’s population during the next fifty years.  The Worldwatch Institute says most of these people will live in developing countries where there is not enough land to feed everyone and still have cars.  It says food (12)security in the future will depend on governments investing⁴ more on trains and bicycle systems and less on roads and car systems.  
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.

 

farmland[`fB:mlAnd]n.农田
institute[ 5institju:t ]n.学会, 学院, 协会vt.创立, 开始, 制定, 开始(调查), 提起(诉讼)
population[ 7pCpju5leiFEn ]n.人口
cover[ 5kQvE ]n.盖子, 封面, 藉口vt.覆盖, 铺, 掩饰, 保护, 掩护, 包括, 包含, 适用vi.覆盖, 涂, 代替
surface[ 5sE:fis ]n.表面, 外表, 水面adj.表面的, 肤浅的
cement[ si5ment ]n.水泥, 接合剂vt.接合, 用水泥涂, 巩固vi.粘牢
pour[ pC:, pCE ]v.灌注, 倾泻, 涌入, 流, 倾盆大雨
equator[ i5kweitE ]n.赤道, 赤道似的圈.圆
vehicle[ 5vi:ikl ]n.交通工具, 车辆, 媒介物, 传达手段
common[ 5kCmEn ]adj.共同的, 公共的, 公有的, 普通的, 庸俗的, 伪劣的n.[复][总]平民, 公有, 普通, 共通
transportation[ 7trAnspC:5teiFEn ]n.运输, 运送
security[ si5kjuEriti ]n.安全

1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• 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。

2 cement   

n.水泥；胶结材料；vt.粘结；巩固

参考例句：

• We need 100 tons of cement at most for this project.这项工程满打满算有一百吨水泥就足够了。
• Let's cement the parts together.咱们来把这些部件粘接在一起吧。

3 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

4 investing   

v.投资，花费( invest的现在分词 )；授予；（把资金）投入；投入（时间、精力等）

参考例句：

• He was timid about investing money. 他不敢投资。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Europe also caught the excitement of investing in American railroads. 欧洲人对投资美国铁路也极感兴趣。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件