必克四級拓展：VOA慢速

From VOA Leaning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
這里是美國之音慢速英語農業報道。

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.
聯合國表示，到2050年，全球人口將增長34%。科學家和其他人士都知道，要滿足這么多人的糧食需求非常困難。最近的一項研究表明，大豆作物和計算機也許可以幫助解決這個問題。

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.
聯合國預計糧食產量必須提高70%以滿足更多人口的需求。聯合國預計越來越多人將生活在城市而不是農村地區。但目前主要作物生產力的增長太低。

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.
肯尼斯?奎因（Kenneth Quinn）是世界糧食獎基金會會長。他說，提升糧食產量的這一需求是人類有史以來面臨的最大挑戰。

"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.
奎因說：“從現在到2050年期間地球上會新增20億人口，我們要如何養活這些人口？”

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.
達倫?德魯里（Darren Drewry）是美國宇航局的一位科學家。他領導了一項大豆研究，美國宇航局稱大豆是世界上最重要的蛋白質作物。他說，使用電腦的研究人員驚奇地發現，他們能夠開發一種生產率更高，更節水的大豆作物。

"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.
德魯里說：“我們發現，現代大豆品種的體系結構能夠改造，以幫助我們改善很多目標需求?！?/span>

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.
研究人員能夠在無需更多水的前提下，將大豆生產率提高7%。計算機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這項計算機設計。

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.
我們就此采訪了史蒂芬?隆恩（Stephen Long）。他是伊利諾伊大學的一位教授，也是這項大豆研究報告的作者之一。他通過Skype告訴我們，研究人員使用電腦程序研究了如果他們改變了這種作物的生長方式會發生什么變化。

"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.
隆恩說：“電腦模型的預測之一是葉子太多，因此我們在作物生長時去除了一些葉子以減少葉子面積。我們還根據電腦模型的預測，人為地改變了葉子的角度?！?/span>

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.
隆恩教授表示，在預計的全球糧食短缺發生前找到解決辦法非常重要。他說，一旦他們開發出來，農民開始種植這種生產力更高的大豆至少還需20年。

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.
這項關于大豆的研究發表在《全球變化生物學》雜志上。美國國家科學基金會、美國宇航局以及比爾和梅琳達?蓋茨基金會為這項研究提供了資金。

And that's the VOA Learning English Agriculture Report. I'm Caty Weaver.
以上就是本期美國之音慢速英語農業報道的全部內容，我是卡蒂?韋弗（Caty Weaver）。

See more information, you can visit us

英語口語測試  http://www.rjcnn.com/daily/
 
在線學英語口語 http://www.rjcnn.com/english-plaza.jsp