VOA常速英语2018--松露价格将因气候变化问题而持续飙升

Products made with truffles are already expensive. For people who love them, these prized lumps of smelly fungus¹ can turn a plate of pasta into a sublime² taste experience.

用松露制作的产品十分昂贵。对于喜欢松露的人来说，松露这种珍贵且有气味的真菌可以让普通的面食变得无比美味。

They live underground, require specially³ trained dogs or pigs to find them and have a very specific growing cycle. For this winter truffle, the critical period for it is other summer months. And the truffle starts to form at the end of winter, beginning of spring, and then it grows very slowly over summer months and it’s growing and swelling⁴. And then it matures when you come into the next winter and that’s when we harvest and need them.

松露在地下生长，需要经过特殊训练的狗狗或者猪才能找到。而且松露的生长周期十分特别。对于冬生松露，其关键生长期是在夏天。松露是在冬末春初的时候开始形成，夏天的时候生长得很慢，会越长越大。下一个冬天的时候，松露就成熟了，然后就可以丰收了。

Thomas is the author of a new study that predicts that is climate change heats up, truffles will be in trouble. Under the climate change, what we see actually in years when it’s very warm and very dry that stops those truffle bodies from growing and swelling. So you don’t get production. So under these climate change models, we’re gonna see a lot less soil moisture, a lot less precipitation and higher temperatures. Not just a little trouble, the new study predicts that in many truffle habitats, the tasty fungi⁵ could just disappear.

托马斯是一项研究的发起人。该研究随着气候变化持续升温，松露的生长会有问题。在气候变化的情况下，近年来，气候温暖干燥，阻碍了松露的生长和扩张。土壤的水分减少，降雨量减少，温度也更高了。这可不是小麻烦，因为这项新研究预测认为：在很多松露的生长地里，美味的菌类可能会消失殆尽。

We’d look to two climate change models, we look to the most likely one and then we looked at one which is a nicer scenario⁶. It’s less warming and it’s less drying.

我们会观测2个气候变化的模型，然后关注更有可能的那一个，然后关注环境更适宜的那个模型。其温度不会那么高，也不会那么干燥。

And between the two scenarios⁷, though, we’re still looking at a decline in production of between 78 and a hundred percent of the yield of that territory.

在2个模型的情境下，我们也会关注到该地区产量也下降了78%-100%。

So it’s a massive drop. And there’s no way to make up for that shortfall, so if you think truffles are expensive now, just wait.

这个下滑比例很高。而且目前没有办法补足缺口，所以如果有人认为松露现在很贵，那就等等再买吧。

And we see in drought years and years when we have very high temperatures, there’s less supply and the prices just increase.

我们可以看到，无论是旱年还是高温年，松露的供应量都会减少，价格都会飙升。

So that’s that’s going to continue to happen. I’m sure they’re gonna get very very expensive going forward. In drought years, truffle prices can reach up to $2,500 a kilogram and Thomas says to expect prices to rise to at least that level.

这种情况还会继续下去。而且我也很确信，价格会越来越高。旱年的时候，松露的价格高达2500美元/千克。托马斯预计价格至少会上升到这个水平。

1 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

2 sublime   

adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的

参考例句：

• We should take some time to enjoy the sublime beauty of nature.我们应该花些时间去欣赏大自然的壮丽景象。
• Olympic games play as an important arena to exhibit the sublime idea.奥运会，就是展示此崇高理念的重要舞台。

3 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

4 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

5 fungi   

n.真菌，霉菌

参考例句：

• Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
• The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。

6 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

7 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓