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VOA Special English Agriculture Report
Organic farming avoids the use of chemical pesticides（农药） and manmade fertilizers. Supporters say organic farming is better for the environment than conventional（传统的) methods. But studies have shown that organic farming generally produces less food per hectare.
That lower yield means feeding the world organically would require more land. But good farmland is limited. And scientists say deforestation from the clearing of land for agriculture is already a problem for climate change.

In a new study, researchers wanted to measure the difference between conventional and organic yields(（产量）. So they combined the results of sixty-six earlier studies. They found that some organic farms can yield almost as much as conventional farms. But most cannot.
Verena Seufert at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, was the lead author of the study in the journal Nature.

VERENA SEUFERT: "Conventional yields are typically higher than organic yields. But with certain management practices, certain environmental conditions, and certain crop species, this yield difference can be quite small."
On average, organic farms produced twenty-five percent less compared to conventional farms. But yields of organic fruits and other perennial （多年生的）crops nearly equaled the yields from conventional ones. So did the yields of legumes（豆类） such as soybeans. Legumes produce some of their own nitrogen fertilizer（氮肥）.

However, organic vegetables and cereal crops like maize and wheat had a lot lower yields compared to conventionally grown crops.
Ms. Seufert says the soil on organic farms holds water better, and that can reduce the yield difference. Also, organic farmers can improve their yields by making sure their crops get enough fertilizer. But increasing the nitrogen is harder to do organically, using just animal waste and crop rotations.

Organic farmers rotate food crops with plants that fertilize the soil. But while these "cover," or fertilizer, crops are growing, food crops have to be grown on other land. And if farmers use manure , they have to feed the animals that produce it, and that requiresgrazingland or crop land.
The United Nations predicts that world demand for food will grow seventy percent by the middle of the century. John Reganold is a soil scientist at Washington State University. He says no one should dismiss organic agriculture as part of the solution.

JOHN REGANOLD: "I think when people see these studies, their first reaction is, 'Well, my goodness, organic farming can't feed the world.' Guess what? Conventional farming cannot sustainably feed the world."
Mr. Reganold -- who was not part of the study -- says farming is increasingly a combination of organic and conventional methods.
JOHN REGANOLD: "And it's really going to be a blend of these, I think, more diverse systems that are going to save us."

每天一篇VOA,练习听力，其实VOA的题材都不错，虽然没有很多关于财经新闻的，但内容很不错，很前沿很有思想

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关键词：voa Conventional Increasingly Agriculture environment 关注

organic farming.zip (1.84 MB) 本附件包括：

• 0503a.mp3

2012-5-9 21:07:54 上传

美国在农业食品安全方面的理念，很值得我们学习

VOA Special English Education Report

Graduate schools in the United States are reporting a nine percent increase in applications from international students this year. The increase is the same as two years ago. Last year's gain was eleven percent.
China, Mexico and Brazil showed the biggest increases in applications to enter master's and doctoral programs this fall.

Engineering is the top area of study for international students and had the biggest increase in applications. Gains in business and physical and earth sciences were close behind. Life sciences showed no growth in the latest survey by the Council of Graduate Schools.
The survey includes the top five countries and regions that send graduate students to the United States, plus Mexico and Brazil. The top five are China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Canada.

Applications from China climbed eighteen percent this year. That was down from last year. India's number increased just two percent.
Applications from South Korea and Taiwan decreased by one to two percent.

Applications from Africa were down five percent, while the Middle East and Europe showed growth.
Council President Debra Stewart says final results will not be available until the summer.

DEBRA STEWART: "Remember, applications do not necessarily convert to enrollment . So about forty-seven percent of all international applications to U.S. graduate schools actually come from students from China. But the share of the applicant pool that actually ends up enrolling in U.S. graduate programs is a bit lower though their application numbers were considerably higher."
Ms. Stewart says last fall, for example, twenty-nine percent of all international graduate students were from China.

This year is the seventh year of big increases in applications from China, where Ms. Stewart points out that more and more students are finishing college.
DEBRA STEWART: "There are just a huge number of talented students, the number growing ever year, because of the tremendous growth in the undergraduate population in China. Now, China has felt the recession like the rest of the world has felt the recession. So it certainly is possible that these very exceptionally strong numbers could be a reflection of recession experiences in China, as well."

George Ofosu from Ghana is working toward a doctorate in political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He says he was attracted to UCLA's coursework, libraries and other resources, including financial aid he would not have had at home.
GEORGE OSOFU: "It was an ideal opportunity for me to go through the system and get admission here. One, get the training and, two, get some funding to pursue the studies. So I think, yeah, the experience here is really phenomenal ."

international students.zip (1.84 MB) 本附件包括：

• international students.mp3

2012-5-10 09:45:55 上传

1、Gains in business and physical and earth sciences were close behind.
此处close做副词，“紧密的，紧紧的”，close behind表示“紧随其后”，而不是“closly behind"

VOA Special English Agriculture Report

A new American intelligence report says water-related problems will likely increase tensions around the world in the next ten years. These problems include water shortages, poor water quality and floods.
The report says the problems will increase the risk of instability and the failure of governments. However, countries are seen as unlikely to go to war over water. The report says water tensions have historically led to more water-sharing agreements than violent conflicts.

But beyond ten years, it warns that some governments could use water as a weapon to pressure others. And water could also be used to "further terrorist objectives."
The report is called an Intelligence Community Assessment on Global Water Security. It looks at possible effects of water problems on United States national security interests over the next thirty years. It says the areas that will be most affected by water problems are North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the report last Thursday on World Water Day. The National Intelligence Council wrote the report based on a National Intelligence Estimate she requested a year ago.
HILLARY CLINTON: "Reliable access to water is essential for feeding the hungry, running the industries that promote jobs, generating the energy that fuels national growth, and certainly it is central when we think about how climate change will affect future generations."
The report says water-related problems could distract countries from working with the United States on important policy goals. But it also predicts an increased demand for American aid and expert help to solve those problems. That demand could create "opportunities for leadership" and influence.

The report says, "Water shortages, poor water quality, and floods by themselves are unlikely to result in state failure." But these could combine with poverty, social tensions, environmental problems, poor leadership and weak governments to produce social disorder . And that combination could cause state failure.
The report predicts that from now through twenty forty, "water shortages and pollution probably will harm the economic performance of important trading partners." During the next ten years, it says, the loss of groundwater supplies in some agricultural areas will create a risk to national and global food markets. These shortages will be a result of poor management.

Agriculture uses about seventy percent of the world's freshwater. The report says technology that reduces the amount of water needed to grow crops will offer the best defense against shortages.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. You can learn more about the world's water problems at 51voa.com. I'm Jim Tedder.

water-related problem.zip (1.83 MB) 本附件包括：

• water-related problem.mp3

2012-5-11 16:54:45 上传

能直接点击附件能收听就好了，免去下载的麻烦！不过我感觉听着很吃力，语速有些快啊

Jet fuel prices were about 1/7 of the expenses of the typical airline just a decade ago, consuming less of the budget than pay for pilots and other workers.
But International Air Transport Association Spokesman Perry Flint says that has changed drastically and fuel cost now exceeds salaries.

“Today jet fuel is certainly the largest expense on the industry wide basis. We calculate that represents about 34% of an airline’s operating expenses.”
Experts at the Airline Trade Group say high fuel costs have already caused them to cut forecast for the industry’s expected annual profit by half a billion dollars to just 3 billion dollars.
Profits could fall further if a political or military conflict causes cruel oil prices to rise sharply and hit $ 150 a barrel. Flint says that could push the whole industry into significant losses.

So what will happen to oil prices over the next few months? Rayola Dougher is a senior economic advisor for the American Petroleum Institute which represents oil companies.
“That’s really difficult to know. You know if I knew what was going to do, I would be the wealthiest woman on the planet.”
She says prices rose because of worries that unrest could hurt production in nations that export oil cutting oil supply.

“We are into great deal of uncertainty moving forward, especially with instability in the Middle East. We don’t know how that’s going to play out. We don’t know what will happen with the sanctions with Iran?”
Recently, demand and prices are down because some major economies are growing more slowly or even shrinking. Dougher says demand may be cut further as high U.S gasoline prices prompt Americans to conserve fuel by getting smaller cars and driving less.