GCT综合英语第7单元课文翻译.doc

仅做参考好好学习，天天向上Unit 7Part BGlobal Food Insecurity全球粮食匮乏A particular problem directly related to continuing population growth is growing global food insecurity. For a variety of reasons the demand for food by the consumer has begun to outrun the capacity to provide. Where all attention was previously focused on population growth as the sole source of demand on available food stocks, today an equally important source of demand has become apparent and that is affluence. As per capita income increases, purchasing power climbs and with it a demand for higher quality foods , especially foods of animal origin such as meat, eggs, milk, and milk products. Eating meat can be considered an inefficient way of utilizing grain. In the United States it takes three pounds of grain to produce a pound of poultry; 5 : 1 is the ratio for pork, and 10:1 for beef. In the end, Americans eat eighty percent of all the grain they consume indirectly, first using it for feed and then consuming the meat. On the basis of these data, Americans consume the equivalent of one ton of grain a year while inhabitants of poorer countries consume one fifth as much. Outside our borders, other nations with growing economies but without comparable agriculture have also increased their appetites for animal protein. Hence, sixty percent of North American agricultural sales has been to nations whose people are already rather well fed. At this time, the approximately one billion people of the developed world feed enough grain to their livestock and poultry to provide minimal nutritional requirements to another 2 billion people. Over the last twenty years, the rich minority of the world has doubled its meat consumption. This is, however, not due to eating twice as much meat per capita, although there has been some rise here. Rather, there are twice as many people with the money to buy a higher quality protein-rich diet. The net result is that while world population has been growing at 1. 6 percent and agricultural production at 2. 5 percent, world demand for food has been increasing at 3 percent per year. 人口的持续增长带来了与此直接相关的与日俱增的全球粮食匮乏的特殊问题。众多的原因导致了消费者对粮食的需求已经超出了能够提供的能力。之前所有的注意力都放在人口数量增加上，以为其对食物储备供应的唯一来源，而现在一个同等重要的来源已经变得明显，那就是充足的储备。随着人均收入的增加，消费能力的提升，人们提出了高品质食物的要求，特别是动物制品的来源，如肉类、鸡蛋、牛奶及奶制品等。吃肉被认为是谷物的无效利用。在美国，花三磅重的谷物才能喂养出一磅重的家禽，即3：1的比例，猪肉的比例是5：1，牛肉是10：1。最终，美国人间接吃了80%的谷物，包括直接吃的谷物和用来喂养动物的。在这些数据的基础之上，美国人一年消费一吨的谷物，而那些较穷国家的居民最多达到五分之一。我们边境周围的其它国家在经济增长和农业增长不相匹配时仍然增大对动物蛋白的胃口。因此，北美农业60%都是提供给那些生活水平已经很好的国家。同时，近10亿发达国家的人们喂养足够的谷物给家禽和牲畜为了提供极少的营养需求给另外20亿人口。在过去的二十年里，少数的富人已经加倍了肉的消费。这就意味着，不是人均吃了两倍的肉，尽管也有一些增加，而是有两倍多的人用钱买了更高品质的高蛋白饮食而已。网络调查表明，当世界人口增长到1.6%而农业产量在2.5%的时候，世界对食物的需求就会每年增长3%。 It is to our advantage and the world s as well that the United States grain harvests in the years 1975 1977 have resulted in bumper yields. Overflowing granaries and low grain prices are the mark of this high productivity. But the great increases in food production have not occurred where populations are growing the fastest. Gains in production require modern energy intensive methods combining irrigation, pesticides herbicides, fertilizers, genetics, and mechanization. One reason, among several, why poor countries have lagged behind in food production is because their farmers have not had access to appropriate technologies, such as sufficient fertilizers, irrigation, improved seeds, pesticides, storage facilities, and transportation. The worlds poor are thus driven to world food markets to supplement their needs. However, they must compete there with richer nations whose own increased demands have forced the price of grain upward. Caught in the price-squeeze of competition in which rising food prices outstrip purchasing power, the poor countries can buy less and less with their precious dollars. So today, we have the producer nations with surpluses to sell, the affluent consumer nations who have money to buy, and the low income consumer countries that cant effectively compete in the world food markets. World hunger is sustained by scarcity promoted by the economic system of rich countries. According to some estimates, world agriculture could produce enough to feed up to 30 billion people. What appears to be a food shortage may, in fact, be an uneven worldwide distribution of economic power. These differentials represent an evergrowing number of hungry people. The result is famine in some parts of the world, most notably on the Indian subcontinent and some countries of Africa, Latin American, and South America, and an over-abundance of food in a number of others.对我们及整个世界有利的是美国在1975-1977年富饶的田地丰收了大量谷物。谷物满溢出来的粮仓和超低的谷物价格是高产量的标志。但是，食物产量的增加赶不上人口疯狂的增加。谷物的生产需要现代化的精力加强的方法加上灌溉、杀虫、除草、施肥、基因及机械化。为什么贫穷国家在食物产量上要落后的众多原因之一是其农民没有获得适合技术的捷径，如有效的肥料和灌溉、加强的种子和杀虫剂、贮存的设备及便捷的运输。这些使得贫穷国家不得不到世界食品市场去满足他们的需求，但是，在那里他们必须与富裕国家竞争。富裕国家内部人口增长的需求已经将谷物价格抬高了，深陷压价竞争中，疯长的价格已经远超出了我们的购买能力，结果是贫穷国家只能用他们珍贵的美元买到越来越少的东西。所以，今天我们是有剩余谷物可以售卖的出产国家，富裕的消费国家用钱来买，而低收入的消费国家就不能在世界食品市场中进行有效的竞争。缺乏富裕国家经济制度的推动，世界上挨饿的人是持续不变的。据估计，世界农业能够生产足够的粮食满足300亿人口的需求。表面上的食物短缺事实上是因为世界范围内不一致的经济力量的贡献导致。导致世界上一些地区，特别是在印度、非洲的一些国家、拉丁美洲以及南美的饥荒是因为许多其它国家的食物过量。But along with this there is also a less visible crisis emerging, the silent crisis of malnutrition, which is denying close to an estimated billion human beings the basic right to realize their full genetic potential, their full humanity . It is believed that twenty percent of all the people in developing countries 350 to 450 million people are undernourished due to insufficient caloric intake; kwashiorkor, a disease brought on by insufficient protein but adequate calories, is found in 1 to 10 percent of preschool age children in less-developed countries; marasmus, a protein plus calorie malnutrition disease, has a frequency of 1.2 to 8 percent in preschool age children in low income countries. The effects of malnutrition are far-reaching. During infancy, brain size can be reduced and a permanent deficiency in intelligence can result. Physical size and vigor is diminished. Life span may be shortened. Certain nutritional deficiencies can cause specific diseases, such as blindness caused by lack of vitamin A or anemia by a shortage of iron.与此同时，还有几乎看不见的危机在发生，悄无声息的营养不良危机，这是对大约上亿人类“基本实现完全遗传的蛋白质和全部人权”的最接近的否认。据报道，20%的发展中国家人口中有3.5亿-4.5亿人由于不充足的卡路里的摄取出于营养不良。夸休克尔症，即恶性营养不良是由不充足的蛋白质及过度卡路里导致的，在不够发达的国家有1%-10%的学龄前儿童患有此症。消瘦，蛋白质和卡路里营养不良疾病，在低收入国家有1.2%-8%的学龄前儿童患有此症。营养不良带来的影响是长远的，婴儿期，大脑的大小会被减少并会导致永久性的智力的缺乏，大脑的物理大小和精力被减少，寿命也会被缩短。某种营养物质的缺乏也会导致具体的疾病，如缺乏维生素A会导致夜盲症，缺铁会导致贫血 If nothing will work but food, what is the potential for increasing the world food supply? Optimists assert that the earth can easily support a population several times larger than the present one. The future-oriented Hudson Institute calculates that, based on present technology alone, there is enough arable land and, food, and resources to support 15 to 20 billion people with an average per capita income of $ 20, 000. According to some estimates, the number of people who could be fed can be increased tenfold by taking the following measures:如果“没有食物什么都无法运转”，那么增加世界食物供应的潜在力量是什么呢？乐观主义者声称地球能够轻易地支持比现在人口数量多七倍以上的人口。有未来导向的胡德森研究学院表明，仅仅建立在现在技术之上，我们有足够的耕地、食物和资源可供150-200亿人均收入为2万美元的人生存。根据一些预估，可养活的人口数量能够增加十倍如果采用以下措施：(1) Bring marginal or hitherto unused agricultural land into production. One-half to one-third of the total cultivate land is left fallow or used as meadow-land; chemical fertilizers, irrigation in some areas, drainage control in others, could bring this land into production. Reasonable estimates suggest the possibility of about a fifty percent increase in usefully cultivatable areas, worldwide.把不重要的或者到目前为止未使用的农业用地投入生产。二分之一或者三分之一的可耕地被用作休耕地或者草场；把化学肥料和灌溉用在一些地上，把排水控制在其它地里可以使这些地投入生产。合理的评估暗示世界范围内大约有50%的有用的可耕地能够使用。(2) Shifting from nonessential to essential agricultural production. About ten percent of the agricultural land is used to grow nonfood crops such as cotton, tobacco, rubber, coffee, etc.从不重要的到重要的农产品的转换。大约10%的农业用地被用于生产非食物作物，如棉花、烟草、橡胶、咖啡等等。(3) Simplifying diets from animal to plant protein; e.g., the wealthy minority of the world feeds as much grain to animals as the rest of the world eats; feedlots accentuate the problem, requiring ten times more grain and seven times more high-protein feed than range cattle.将饮食从动物蛋白到植物蛋白简单化。如：少数富裕国家摄取的谷物相当于整个世界其它国家加起来那么多；饲养场强调这个问题，需要十倍多的谷物和七倍多的高蛋白来饲养超出平均值的牛羊群。 (4) Better insect and pest control. Ten to twenty percent of all crops are destroyed in the field or in storage by pests of various kinds.更好地控制昆虫和害虫。10%-20%的谷物在田地里或者储存时都被各种各样的虫类毁坏了。 (5) Increased agricultural technology. Irrigation, pesticides, fertilizers, applied genetics, and mechanization increase yields in most areas of the world. Agricultural technology is thought to be the major way to increase production (both India and China faced famine in 1973, but China did not fear famine, for the past twenty years water control programs have had top priority there; 35 giant reservoirs have been built, rivers have been broadened, and thousands of wells have been dug. China, with 25 percent of the worlds people, owns about eight percent of the worlds arable land , yet significant hunger has been eliminated from the country. India, on the other hand, has tapped less than three percent of its water resources.增强农业技术。灌溉、杀虫、施肥、运用遗传学和机械化在世界大多数地区。农业技术被认为是最主要的提高产量的办法。1973年，印度和中国都遇到饥荒，但是中国不惧怕饥荒，在过去的20年里水利工程已经放到了优先的地位；35个巨大的贮水池已经被建立，河流被拓宽，成千上万的水渠被挖出。拥有世界25%人口的中国仅有世界耕地的8%，但是，饥荒已经彻底地从这片大地上消失了。印度，相反却只利用了其3%的水利资源。Part CPassage OneThe food we eat seems to have profound effects on our health. Although science has made enormous steps in making food more fit to eat, it has, at the same time, made many food unfit to eat . Some research has shown that perhaps eighty percent of all human illnesses are related to diet and forty percent of cancer is related to the diet as well, especially cancer of colon. Different cultures are more prone to contract certain illness because of the food that is characteristic in these cultures. That food is related to illness is not a new discovery. In 1945, government researchers realized that nitrates and nitrites, commonly used to preserve color in meats and other food additives, caused cancer. Yet, these carcinogenic additives remain in our food, and it becomes more difficult all the time to know which things on the packaging labels of processed food are helpful or harmful. The additives which we eat are not all so direct. Farmers often give penicillin to cows and poultry, and because of this, penicillin has been found in the milk of treated cows. Sometimes similar drugs are administered to animals not for medicinal purposes, but for financial reasons. The farmers are simply trying to fatten the animals, in order to obtain a higher price on the market. Although the food and Drug Administration (FDA) has tried repeatedly to control these procedures, the practices continue.我们吃的食物似乎与我们的健康有着深深的影响。尽管科学已经做出巨大进步去制造更适合吃的食物，但在同时，也导致了食物不适合食物。一些研究表明，大约80%的人类疾病与饮食有关，40%的癌症也与饮食相关，特别是结肠癌。不同的文化更易于染上某种疾病，因为食物也带有文化特征。食物导致疾病不是一个新的发现。在1945年，政府研究表明，硝酸盐被普遍用于保证肉类和其它食物颜色鲜艳的添加剂导致癌症。但是，这些致癌的添加剂仍然在我们的食物里，这就使我们更难得知包装上写的食物究竟对我们有用还是有害。同时，我们摄入的添加剂不一定是直接的。农民经常给牛群或者家禽注射青霉素，并且这些青霉素已经在牛奶中发现了，有时相似的药被用于动物身上却并非出于医疗的目的，而是商业利益。为了获得市场上的高价，农民用一些药物很快地让动物长肥。尽管食物药物监管部门一直在控制此类事情的发生，事实上却屡禁不止。1. How has science done to mankind?A. Because of science ,disease caused by contaminated food has been virtually eradicated.B. It has caused a lack of information concerning the value of food.C. As a result of scientific intervention, some potentially harmful substances have been added to our food.D. The scientists have preserved the color of meats but not of vegetables.2. What are nitrates used for?A. They preserve flavor in packaged foods.B. They preserve the color of meats.C. They are the objects of research.D. They cause the animals to become fatter.3. What dose FDA mean?A. Food Direct Additives. B. Final Difficult Analysis.B. Food and Drug Administration. D. Federal Dairy Additives.4. The word “carcinogenic” means most nearly the same as _.A. trouble-making B. color-retainingC. money-making D. cancer-causing5. Which of the following statements is not true? A. Drugs are always given to animals for medical reasons. B. Some of the additives in our food are added to the food itself and some are given to the living animals. C. Researchers have known about the potential hazards of food additives for a long time. D. Food may cause forty of cancer in the world.Passage TwoJapanese researchers say they successfully bred pigs with vegetable genes. Japanese consumers are divided on the safety of this and other genetically modified foodsJapanese scientists say the combination of animal and vegetable may create meat with lower fat content. They inserted spinach genes into fertilized pig eggs and implanted them in the womb of a substitute mother. She gave birth to healthy piglets with modified genes.Akira Iritani is a professor of development biology at Kinki University in western Japan and the research team leader. We used spinach because of its image as a healthy food and the fact that it is easy to extract high amounts of a gene called FAD-2 from spinach, Mr. Iritani said.The gene changes about a fifth of the pig s saturated fatty acids into healthier linoleic acids, so that their meat has less dietary fat than normal pork. In an age when many people are concerned about heart disease and other diet-related illness, such meat could have broad appeal.But in Japan, as in Europe, many consumers fear that genetically modified foods are unsafe. Namiko Ono represents a Tokyo group that opposes GM foods, and says the new meat raises both safety and ethical problems. While we are familiar with vegetables that are genetically changed, in this case we