【习惯性GRE】1006G阅读--速度【VOA】2-2

lghscuUID: 2552043

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方法名称：一分钟VOA快速阅读
工具准备：秒表，电脑
方法使用：
0 从“以下开始计时”开始掐秒表
1以最快的速度完成浏览、扫描，争取60s解决战斗
2 不回视，不停顿，不过多思考，一口气跑到终点
3 详细记录每一篇阅读时间(每一次共五篇)，请不要自欺欺人
4 根据时间不断调整阅读速度，力求60s以内完成
5 坚持完成本期所有阅读
【习惯性GRE】1006G阅读--速度【VOA】汇总贴
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Solar-Powered Pumps Aid African Farmers
By June Simms
2010-1-10
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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
A new study in West Africa shows how farm irrigation systems powered by the sun can produce more food and money for villagers. The study in Benin found that solar-powered pumps are effective in supplying water, especially during the long dry season.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the world with the least food security. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than one billion of the world's people faced hunger last year. Around two hundred sixty-five million of them live south of the Sahara Desert. Lack of rainfall is one of their main causes of food shortages.
Jennifer Burney from Stanford University in California led the study. The research team helped build three solar-powered drip irrigation systems in northern Benin.
Between thirty and thirty-five women used each system to pump water from the ground or a stream. Each woman was responsible for farming her own one hundred twenty square meters of land. They also farmed other land collectively.
The solar-powered irrigation systems produced an average of nearly two metric tons of vegetables per month. During the first year, the women kept a monthly average of almost nine kilograms of vegetables for home use.
They sold the surplus produce at local markets. The earnings greatly increased their ability to buy food during the dry season which can last six to nine months.
People in the two villages with the systems were able to eat three to five more servings of vegetables per day. But making the surplus available at markets also had a wider effect.
The study compared the villages with two others where women farmed with traditional methods like carrying water in buckets. The amount of vegetables eaten in those villages also increased, though not as much.
The researchers note that only four percent of the cropland in sub-Saharan Africa is irrigated. Using solar power to pump water has higher costs at first. But the study says it can be more economical in the long term than using fuels like gasoline, diesel or kerosene. And solar power is  environmentally friendly.
The study appears this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. You can post comments and learn about other issues in the developing world at 51voa.com. I'm Steve Ember.
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A Rolling History of Americans on the Move
By Jill Moss
2010-1-10
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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, travel back in time to explore the history of transportation in the United States.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
In eighteen-hundred, Americans elected Thomas Jefferson as their third president. Jefferson had a wish. He wanted to discover a waterway that crossed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. He wanted to build a system of trade that connected people throughout the country. At that time the United States did not stretch all the way across the continent.
Jefferson proposed that a group of explorers travel across North America in search of such a waterway. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the exploration west from eighteen-oh-three to eighteen-oh-six. They discovered that the Rocky Mountains divided the land. They also found no coast-to-coast waterway.
So Jefferson decided that a different transportation system would best connect American communities. This system involved roads, rivers and railroads. It also included the digging of waterways.
VOICE TWO:
By the middle of the eighteen-hundreds, dirt roads had been built in parts of the nation. The use of river steamboats increased. Boats also traveled along man-made canals which strengthened local economies.
The American railroad system began. Many people did not believe train technology would work. In time, railroads became the most popular form of land transportation in the United States.
In nineteenth-century American culture, railroads were more than just a way to travel. Trains also found their way into the works of writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman.
VOICE ONE:
In eighteen-seventy-six, the United States celebrated its one-hundredth birthday. By now, there were new ways to move people and goods between farms, towns and cities. The flow of business changed. Lives improved.
Within those first one-hundred years, transportation links had helped form a new national economy.
(MUSIC: "I've Been Working on the Railroad")
VOICE TWO:
Workers finished the first coast-to-coast railroad in eighteen-sixty-nine. Towns and cities could develop farther away from major waterways and the coasts. But, to develop economically, many small communities had to build links to the railroads.
Railroads helped many industries, including agriculture. Farmers had a new way to send wheat and grain to ports. From there, ships could carry the goods around the world.
Trains had special container cars with ice to keep meat, milk and other goods cold for long distances on their way to market.
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People could now get fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Locally grown crops could be sold nationally. Farmers often hired immigrant workers from Asia and Mexico to plant, harvest and pack these foods.
VOICE ONE:
By the early nineteen-hundreds, American cities had grown. So, too, had public transportation. The electric streetcar became a common form of transportation. These trolleys ran on metal tracks built into streets.
Soon, however, people began to drive their own cars. Nelson Jackson and his friend, Sewall Crocker, were honored as the first to cross the United States in an automobile. Their trip in nineteen-oh-three lasted sixty-three days. And it was difficult. Mainly that was because few good roads for driving existed.
But the two men, and their dog Bud, also had trouble with their car and with the weather. Yet, they proved that long-distance travel across the United States was possible. The trip also helped fuel interest in the American automobile industry.
VOICE TWO:
By nineteen-thirty, more than half the families in America owned an automobile. For many, a car became a need, not simply an expensive toy. To deal with the changes, lawmakers had to pass new traffic laws and rebuild roads.
Cars also needed businesses to service them. Gas stations, tire stores and repair centers began to appear.
Many people took to the road for personal travel or to find work. The open highway came to represent independence and freedom. During the nineteen-twenties and thirties, the most traveled road in the United States was Route Sixty-Six. It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California. It was considered the "people's highway."
VOICE ONE:
The writer John Steinbeck called Route Sixty-Six the "Mother Road" in his book "The Grapes of Wrath." Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties. They came from the middle of the country. They moved West in search of work and a better life.
In nineteen-forty-six, Nat King Cole came out with this song, called "Route Sixty-Six."
(MUSIC: "Route 66")
VOICE TWO:
World War Two ended in nineteen-forty-five. Soldiers came home and started families. Businesses started to move out to the edges of cities where suburbs were developing. Most families in these growing communities had cars, bicycles or motorcycles to get around. Buses also became popular.
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The movement of businesses and people away from city centers led to the economic weakening of many downtown areas. City leaders reacted with transportation projects designed to support downtown development.
Underground train systems also became popular in the nineteen-fifties. Some people had enough money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane.
VOICE ONE:
But for most automobile drivers, long-distance travel remained somewhat difficult. There was no state-to-state highway system. In nineteen-fifty-six Congress passed a law called the Federal-Aid Highway Act. Engineers designed a sixty-five-thousand kilometer system of roads. They designed highways to reach every city with a population over one-hundred-thousand.
The major work on the Interstate Highway System was completed around nineteen-ninety. It cost more than one-hundred-thousand-million dollars. It has done more than simply make a trip to see family in another state easier. It has also led to the rise of the container trucking industry.
(MUSIC: "Truckin")
VOICE TWO:
The American transportation system started with horses and boats. It now includes everything from container trucks to airplanes to motorcycles. Yet, in some ways, the system has been a victim of its own success.
Many places struggle with traffic problems as more and more cars fill the roads. And a lot of people do not just drive cars anymore. They drive big sport utility vehicles and minivans and personal trucks.
For others, hybrid cars are the answer. Hybrids use both gas and electricity. They save fuel and reduce pollution. But pollution is not the only environmental concern with transportation. Ease of travel means development can spread farther and farther. And that means the loss of natural areas.
Yet, every day, Americans depend on their transportation system to keep them, and the largest economy in the world, on the move.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. has a transportation exhibition that explores the connection to the economic, social and cultural development of the United States. And you can experience it all on the Internet at americanhistory-dot-s-i-dot-e-d-u. Again, the address is americanhistory-dot-s-i-dot-e-d-u. (americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition)
VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA.
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Keeping Plants and Trees Warm When Temperatures Drop
By Jerilyn Watson
2010-1-11
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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Florida, in the southeastern United States, is called the Sunshine State. It grows more oranges than anyplace except Brazil. But Arctic air has damaged some Florida oranges and strawberries in recent days, and killed fish at tropical fish farms.
The unusually long period of cold weather has shown how even warm climates can sometimes freeze over. But protecting plants and trees in the garden may not be too difficult if you follow a few suggestions.
Sudden cold can be the biggest threat, especially after a warm period. Plants have not had a chance to harden their defenses. Those that are actively growing or flowering are at high risk.
Try to choose plants that live best with cold weather, and planting areas that face west and south. Being near other growth may also provide warmth.
Most frost damage takes place at night. Ice crystals form on the leaf surface. They pull moisture from the leaves and keep plant tissues from getting water.
Cold weather is most likely to damage or kill plants that do not have enough moisture. So keep the garden watered. Moist soil absorbs more heat than loose, dry soil covered with mulch or vegetation.
University of Arizona extension experts say covering plants and small trees with cloth or paper can help prevent frost damage. A one-hundred watt light bulb designed for outdoor use can also provide warmth. Some people place Christmas lights on young trees for warmth. The bulbs should hang below the leaves to let the heat rise into the tree.
Cold is especially dangerous to citrus trees. Agricultural specialists at the University of California suggest putting paper or cloth around the trunk and central branches of young citrus trees.
In Florida, as temperatures fell to record lows, citrus growers sprayed water on their trees to help prevent freeze damage.
Jim Bottcher is a master gardener with the University of Florida extension. He explains that as the water freezes, it produces heat, and the ice forms a protective blanket around the tree. If you spray a tree, keep the water away from nearby power lines. Heavy ice can form and break them.  
You can also wrap a tree in palm tree frond leaves, cornstalks or fiberglass. Adding plastic film works well in rain and snow. But experts say plastic alone does not help much.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. More gardening and agricultural advice is at 51voa.com. I'm Bob Doughty.
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How Earth Is Cracked Like a Giant Eggshell

By Nancy Steinbach
2010-1-11
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VOICE ONE:
This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Scientists who study the Earth tell us that the continents and ocean floors are always moving. Sometimes, this movement is violent and might result in great destruction. Today, we examine the process that causes earthquakes.  
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:  
The first pictures of Earth taken from space showed a solid ball covered by brown and green landmasses and blue-green oceans. It appeared as if the Earth had always looked that way -- and always would.
Scientists now know, however, that the surface of the Earth is not as permanent as had been thought. Scientists explain that the surface of our planet is always in motion. Continents move about the Earth like huge ships at sea. They float on pieces of the Earth's outer skin, or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from inside the planet. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again.
VOICE TWO:
Only since the nineteen-sixties have scientists begun to understand that the Earth is a great, living structure. Some experts say this new understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific thought. The revolution is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents -- a process called plate tectonics.
Earthquakes are a result of that process. Plate tectonics is the area of science that explains why the surface of the Earth changes and how those changes cause earthquakes.
VOICE ONE:  
Scientists say the surface of the Earth is cracked like a giant eggshell. They call the pieces tectonic plates. As many as twenty of them cover the Earth. The plates float about slowly, sometimes crashing into each other, and sometimes moving away from each other.
When the plates move, the continents move with them. Sometimes the continents are above two plates. The continents split as the plates move.
(MUSIC)
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觉得需要把杨鹏长难句带着啃..块状感不行了..