VOA慢速英語(yǔ):為滿足全球糧食需求科學(xué)家們尋找超級(jí)大豆

所屬教程:Agriculture Report

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[00:00.00]From VOA Leaning English, [00:01.53]this is the Agriculture Report. [00:05.56]The United Nations says the world's population [00:09.87]will increase by 34 percent by the year 2050. [00:16.14]Scientists and others know it will be difficult [00:20.97]to meet the food needs of so many people. [00:25.03]A recent study shows that soybean crops [00:29.76]and computers may help deal with the problem. [00:34.29]The U.N. predicts food production must increase by 70 percent [00:40.94]to meet the needs of a richer population. [00:44.75]The U.N. expects more people will live in cities than in rural areas. [00:50.92]But today there is little too low increase [00:55.55]in the productivity of major crops. [00:58.54]Kenneth Quinn is the president of the World Food Prize Foundation. [01:04.11]He says the need to increase food production [01:08.30]is the greatest difficulty humanity has ever faced. [01:13.43]"There's going to be another 2 billion people [01:15.92]on our planet between now and 2050 [01:20.12]and how are we going to produce enough food for them to eat?" asked Quinn. [01:25.30]Darren Drewry is a scientist at the American Space Agency, NASA. [01:32.95]He led a study of soybeans [01:35.46]which NASA calls the world's most important protein crop. [01:41.41]He says researchers using a computer [01:44.71]were surprised to find that they were able to create a soybean plant [01:51.25]that can be both more productive and use less water. [01:56.89]"We find that there are changes to the architecture [02:00.39]of modern soybean cultivars can be made [02:03.46]to help us improve on many of these goals," said Drewry. [02:08.02]Researchers were able to increase soybean productivity [02:12.80]by 7 percent without using more water. [02:17.06]The computer helped researchers do work [02:20.96]that would have taken many years in the field. [02:24.76][The next step is to test the computer's design. [02:29.17]We spoke to Stephen Long about that. [02:33.18]He is a professor at the University of Illinois, [02:37.40]and one of the writers of the report on the soybean study. [02:41.26]He told us by Skype that researchers used computer program to study [02:47.33]what would happen if they changed the way the plant grows. [02:52.32]"One of the things the modeling predicted [02:54.80]is that there's too much leaf area [02:57.29]so we're actually removing leaves [02:59.77]as the plant's growing to get a lower leaf area. [03:03.06]We're also artificially modifying the angle of the leaves [03:07.11]as well to reflect what the model predicted," said Long. [03:10.47]Professor Long says it is important to find solutions [03:15.59]to the predicted global food shortage before it happens. [03:21.34]He says it will be 20 years before farmers can begin growing [03:27.52]a more productive soybean once they have developed it. [03:32.00]The study on soybeans was published in the journal Global Change Biology. [03:37.74]The National Science Foundation, NASA [03:42.10]and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation paid for the study. [03:47.14]And that's the VOA Learning English Agriculture Report. [03:52.25]I'm Caty Weaver.

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From VOA Leaning English, this is the Agriculture Report.

美國(guó)之音英語(yǔ)教學(xué)，現(xiàn)在是農(nóng)業(yè)報(bào)道。

The United Nations says the world's population will increase by 34 percent by the year 2050. Scientists and others know it will be difficult to meet the food needs of so many people. A recent study shows that soybean crops and computers may help deal with the problem.

聯(lián)合國(guó)表示到2050年，世界人口將增加34%。科學(xué)家們和其他人都明白這將很難滿足那么多人的糧食需求。最近的一項(xiàng)研究表明大豆和電腦可能會(huì)幫忙解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。

The U.N. predicts food production must increase by 70 percent to meet the needs of a richer population. The U.N. expects more people will live in cities than in rural areas. But today there is little too low increase in the productivity of major crops.

聯(lián)合國(guó)預(yù)計(jì)糧食產(chǎn)量必須提高70%以滿足更多人口的需求。聯(lián)合國(guó)預(yù)計(jì)越來(lái)越多人將生活在城市而不是農(nóng)村地區(qū)。但目前主要作物生產(chǎn)力的增長(zhǎng)太低。

Kenneth Quinn is the president of the World Food Prize Foundation. He says the need to increase food production is the greatest difficulty humanity has ever faced.

Kenneth Quinn是世界糧食基金會(huì)會(huì)長(zhǎng)。他表示提高糧食產(chǎn)量是人類有史以來(lái)面臨的最大挑戰(zhàn)。

"There's going to be another 2 billion people on our planet between now and 2050 and how are we going to produce enough food for them to eat?" asked Quinn.

Quinn提出疑問(wèn)“從現(xiàn)在到2050年人口將增加20億，我們?cè)趺礊樗麄兩a(chǎn)足夠的食物?”

Darren Drewry is a scientist at the American Space Agency, NASA. He led a study of soybeans which NASA calls the world's most important protein crop. He says researchers using a computer were surprised to find that they were able to create a soybean plant that can be both more productive and use less water.

Darren Drewry是美國(guó)宇航局的一位科學(xué)家。他領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了一項(xiàng)大豆研究，美國(guó)宇航局稱大豆是世界上最重要的蛋白質(zhì)作物。他說(shuō)，使用電腦的研究人員驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們能夠開發(fā)一種生產(chǎn)率更高，更節(jié)水的大豆作物。

"We find that there are changes to the architecture of modern soybean cultivars can be made to help us improve on many of these goals," said Drewry.

Drewry說(shuō)“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)現(xiàn)代大豆的結(jié)構(gòu)可以做很多改變，以幫助我們?yōu)閷?shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)提高很多可能性”。

Researchers were able to increase soybean productivity by 7 percent without using more water. The computer helped researchers do work that would have taken many years in the field. The next step is to test the computer's design.

研究人員能夠在無(wú)需更多水的前提下，將大豆生產(chǎn)率提高7%。計(jì)算機(jī)幫助研究人員完成了很多在地里需要很多年才能完成的工作。下一步的工作是檢測(cè)這項(xiàng)計(jì)算機(jī)設(shè)計(jì)。

We spoke to Stephen Long about that. He is a professor at the University of Illinois, and one of the writers of the report on the soybean study. He told us by Skype that researchers used computer program to study what would happen if they changed the way the plant grows.

關(guān)于這個(gè)問(wèn)題我們與Stephen Long進(jìn)行了探討。他是伊利諾伊大學(xué)的一位教授，也是這項(xiàng)大豆研究報(bào)告的作者之一。他通過(guò)Skype告訴我們，研究人員通過(guò)電腦程序研究如果改變植物生長(zhǎng)結(jié)構(gòu)的話，會(huì)發(fā)生什么。

"One of the things the modeling predicted is that there's too much leaf area so we're actually removing leaves as the plant's growing to get a lower leaf area. We're also artificially modifying the angle of the leaves as well to reflect what the model predicted," said Long.

Long說(shuō)“電腦模型的預(yù)測(cè)之一是葉子太多，因此我們?cè)谧魑锷L(zhǎng)時(shí)去除了一些葉子以減少葉子面積。我們還根據(jù)電腦模型的預(yù)測(cè)，人為地改變了葉子的角度。”

Professor Long says it is important to find solutions to the predicted global food shortage before it happens. He says it will be 20 years before farmers can begin growing a more productive soybean once they have developed it.

Long 教授表示必須在全球糧食短缺的預(yù)言實(shí)現(xiàn)之前找到解決辦法。另外一旦他們開發(fā)出來(lái)，農(nóng)民開始種植這種更具產(chǎn)量的大豆仍需20年時(shí)間。

The study on soybeans was published in the journal Global Change Biology. The National Science Foundation, NASA and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation paid for the study.

對(duì)大豆的研究發(fā)表在《全球變化生物學(xué)》雜志上。美國(guó)國(guó)家科學(xué)基金會(huì),美國(guó)宇航局和比爾和梅林達(dá)•蓋茨基金會(huì)資助了該項(xiàng)研究。

Scientists Seek Super Soybean to Meet the World's Food Needs