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【整理稿】 Dec. 15, 2009 SE Agriculture Report

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Last week our subject was illegal fishing. Now we report on two cases where fish are both the victims and the offenders.

The first involves two kinds of Asian carp, bighead and silver. They can grow more than a meter long and weigh up to forty-five kilos. They eat huge amounts of plankton that other fish need to survive. Silver carp can also jump high and hit boaters.

Asian carp were brought to the United States in the nineteen seventies as a solution. They were imported to eat algae and other microscopic organisms. They were put to work as cleaners at fish farms along the Mississippi River and in wastewater treatment systems.

But now the fish are moving north toward the Great Lakes. They are making their way up a system built years ago to link the Mississippi to Lake Michigan.

The dangers of an invasion are environmental and economic. The destructive carp could spread within the Great Lakes and threaten fishing and trade.

The Army Corps of Engineers has put an electric fence in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The underwater barrier is meant to shock the carp into turning back. Only one Asian carp was found among many thousands of fish killed with poison while part of the fence was being serviced.

The barrier, however, may not be enough to protect the Great Lakes. There are calls in Congress for emergency action. Officials could close shipping connections between Lake Michigan and the upper Mississippi River system. But there are no decisions yet.

So that is the situation in the Midwest. Farther west, the problem is with common carp. Officials in Utah want to remove around three-fourths of the carp from Utah Lake. The lake, near the city of Provo, is the largest natural body of freshwater in the state.

The state wants to remove millions of carp to protect an endangered species native only to Utah Lake, the June sucker fish. The carp eat plants that the suckers use as hiding places.

Carp were first put into the lake in the eighteen eighties as a food source. Now there are so many, experts say up to twenty metric tons a day could be removed with nets over a period of several years.

But officials are fishing for ideas about what to do with all those fish, which could get pretty smelly. Ideas include using them to fill land or making them into liquid fertilizer or letting people eat them.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Jim Tedder.

生词

carp: n. 鲤鱼
plankton: n. 浮游生物
microscopic: adj. 用显微镜可见的, 精微的
suckerfish: n. 亚口鱼类：任何属于亚口鱼科的多种淡水鱼之一，主要产于北美洲，颚上无牙，嘴通常有厚厚的吸盘，适合通过吸吮进食

Mickey_lee 2009-12-17 05:05

【整理】 AP NEWS 2009-12-12

1. The US claims a top al-Qaeda operative was killed in a drone strike in western Pakistan. Officials aren't saying who the operative is, only that it's not Osama Bin Laden or his top deputy.

2. Pakistan says those five DC area Muslims who were arrested in Pakistan over alleged links to terrorism are likely to be deported. Pakistani police aren't saying how long they expect to hold the men.

3. President Barack Obama is returning home today after picking up his Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. Obama will be back in Europe next week to take part in a global summit on climate change.

4. It's been one year since Bernie Madoff's 50-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme came crashing down. A year after the investment manager's arrest, some victims who lost everything say the nightmare is ongoing.  


WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. drone:  n.
an aircraft that does not have a pilot, but is operated by radio

Mickey_lee 2009-12-17 05:11

【整理】 AP NEWS 2009-12-13

1. The FBI says it has no information linking the five Americans in custody in Pakistan to any terrorist organizations. The statement comes in a note that was sent to members of Congress. A senior state department official says the US expects Pakistan to deport the men.  

2. South Carolina's first lady has filed for divorce, months after her husband publicly confessed an affair with an Argentinian woman. First Lady Jenny Sanford originally said over the summer she was going to reconcile with Governor Mark Sanford even after publication of his email exchanges with his lover.

3. A 16-year-old boy accused of running down a nurse outside a Syracuse, New York hospital has been charged with assault and reckless driving. Police say the teen surrender today, two days after a surveillance video of the hit-and-run was released.

4. Brian Kelly was introduced as a new football coach at Notre Dame on Friday. Kelly led the University of Cincinnati to an undefeated season in 2009, said coaching the Irish has always been his dreaming job.


WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. deport:  v.
to make someone leave a country and return to the country they came from, especially because they do not have a legal right to stay

2. Notre Dame:  n.
此处指美国“圣母大学”

3. Irish:  n.
圣母大学的校运动队取名“爱尔兰战士”(Fighting Irish)，此处的Irish便指代圣母大学校橄榄球队

Mickey_lee 2009-12-17 05:13

【整理】 AP NEWS 2009-12-14

本期内容与AP NEWS 2009-12-09相同

1. The Environmental Protection Agency has taken a major step toward regulating greenhouse gases, saying they are "threat" to the public health. The news comes as the UN's biggest climate change conference is underway in Denmark. Organizers say this may be their last chance to protect the world from global warming.

2. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the insurgency in Afghanistan has grown in the past three years. Admiral Mike Mullen says sending 3,000 more US troops is an attempt to slow that momentum. Mullen spoke to about 1,000 Marines at Camp Lejeune.

3. The largest street protests in months have been seen on the streets of the Iranian capital today. Security forces and militiamen clashed with thousands of protesters outside Tehran University.

4. And the AP got a close look at the Enterprise - Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson's newest passenger spaceship. It's one of a plan to build five commercial spaceships and launch vehicles for the price tag of more than 400 million dollars.


WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. Joint Chiefs of Staff
the leaders of the four main parts of the US military forces, the Army, the Navy, the Airforce, and the Marines. Their job is to advise the US President on important military matters.

2. insurgency:  n.
An insurgency is a violent attempt to oppose a country's government carried out by citizens of that country. (FORMAL)

3. militiaman:  n. 民兵

Mickey_lee 2009-12-17 05:15

【整理】 AP NEWS 2009-12-15

1. President Obama is giving himself a good, solid B+ grade for his first year in office. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the president claimed progress on economic and international fronts. But he says health care reforms and getting more Americans back to work remains undone.

2. Tiger Woods' agent says he is disappointed by Accenture's announcement that the company will end its six-year relationship with the golfer. The global consulting firm announced Sunday that Woods is no longer the right representative after the circumstances of the last two weeks. Woods who admitted infidelity announced last week he is taking a break from golf to work on his marriage.

3. Crews are expected to continue searching this morning for two climbers missing on Oregon's Mount Hood. The search was called off last night because of bad weather. The climbers set off Friday, and were due back in the afternoon but failed to return. The body of a third hiker from the group was found over the weekend.

4. Toyota says it will start selling plug-in hybrid vehicles to consumers in 2011 at an affordable price. About 600 of the vehicles will be introduced in Japan, the US and Europe starting this month.


WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. plug-in:  adj.
able to be connected to the electricity supply, or to another piece of electrical equipment


AP NEWS 2009-12-16 内容同本期重复

jinhua49 2009-12-17 08:27

Dec. 16, 2009 SE Health Report

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Last week, researchers in the United States reported curing nine adults with sickle cell disease. Ten patients in all were treated in a study with donated bone marrow. The healthy marrow causes new blood cells to form.

Sickle cell disease, also called sickle cell anemia, is a genetic condition that deforms red blood cells. They become sticky and harden into the shape of the letter C, like a sickle, a hand tool with a curved blade.

The deformed cells block blood vessels and cut off the flow of oxygen to tissue in the body. People with sickle cell disease can suffer severe pain, bacterial infections and the death of tissue.

In other studies, bone marrow transplants cured severe sickle cell disease in almost two hundred children. Doctors first used chemicals to destroy the children's own marrow, then replaced it with healthy marrow.

However, doctors have considered this treatment too risky for adults with the disease. Their major organs are already too damaged to have all their bone marrow destroyed.

So for the ten patients in the study, doctors used a low amount of radiation to destroy only some of their marrow. Then the patients received healthy marrow. There was enough space in the bone for the healthy marrow to start producing new red blood cells.

The researchers say all ten patients remain alive two and a half years after the treatment, and the disease has disappeared in nine of them.

Marrow is a soft, spongy tissue inside bones. Doctors can collect it with a needle. But people who donate marrow must first have tests to make sure they are a good match for the patient.

The New England Journal of Medicine published the study. John Tisdale at the National Institutes of Health was the lead investigator. He says other uses for the treatment are also likely to be found.

Black people in Africa are the huge majority of those with sickle cell disease. About two hundred thousand cases are found in African children every year. About eighty thousand people have it in the United States.

A study published in September in the Lancet said antibacterial vaccines could save the lives of children with sickle cell in Africa. The study pointed out that many children die before they are even identified as having the disease. They die from bacterial infections for which there are new vaccines. But these vaccines are costly and available mainly in wealthy countries.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

生词和词组

sickle cell disease (also called sickle cell anemia): 镰状细胞贫血病, 镰刀形红细胞贫血病
bone marrow：n. 骨髓
bone marrow transplant: 骨髓移植
blade: n. 刀刃，刀片
deformed: adj. 不成形的，残废的，不健康的
blood vessel: 血管
spongy: adj. 像海绵的，柔软、多孔而有弹性的

ming198787 2009-12-17 09:39

【整理】 2009-12-16 SE News 1530

It is 15:30 Universal Time. I'm Steve Ember in Washington.            

[1] Pakistani officials say a suspected car bomb has killed at least 20 people in central Pakistan. Sixty others were injured. Officials say the explosion struck at a market in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan. Investigators say several buildings have been badly damaged. They fear that many people may be trapped under the wreckage. The attack is the latest in a series of bombings that have killed more than 500 people in Pakistan since October. Officials say militants are reacting to an army offensive against the Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal area.            

[2] Afghan police say a suicide bomb attack near the home of a former vice president in Kabul has killed at least eight people. Forty others were wounded. Officials say the attacker appeared to be targeting former Vice President Ahmad Zia Massoud. Mr. Massoud survived the attack. Two of his guards were killed. Mr. Massoud is the brother of Taliban opponent and famed guerrilla fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud. Al-Qaeda killed Ahmad Shah Massoud on September 9th, 2001.         
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