听力原文:
Farming in Africa
非洲农业
Miracle grow
奇迹般地生长
After many wasted years, African agriculture is improving quickly. Here is how to keep that trend going
在多年的蹉跎之后，非洲的农业开始了迅猛的增长。本文要介绍的就是如何保持这种强劲的趋势
SOMETIMES it seems as though Adam’s curse, which promises mankind a harvest of thorns and thistles, applies only to African farmers. The southern part of the continent is in the teeth of a drought, which has been blamed on El Nino. The weather has been even worse in northern Ethiopia, where crops are shrivelling and cows are dying. But droughts, unlike biblical curses, end eventually. El Nino does not change the fundamental, remarkable fact about farming in sub-Saharan Africa: it is rapidly getting better.
重点词汇：
1 thorn 荆棘
2 thistle 蓟，蒺藜
3 in the teeth of 对抗，不顾; 顶着，迎着（强风）
4 drough 干旱（时期），旱季; 旱灾;
5 El Nino 厄尔尼诺
6 shrivel 枯萎，干枯，皱缩
7 biblical 有关《圣经》的；《圣经》中的 Of the Bible; in the Bible.
8 sub-Saharan 撒哈拉沙漠以南（非洲地区）的
听力原文:
The post-war green revolution that transformed Asia seemed to have bypassed Africa. But between 2000 and 2014 grain production tripled in countries as far-flung as Ethiopia, Mali and Zambia. Rwanda did even better (see article). Farming remains precarious in a continent with variable weather and little irrigated land. But when disaster hits, farmers nowadays have a bigger cushion. African countries are on the whole more peaceful and better run than they were. Farmers are no longer forced into disastrous socialist collectives or banned from selling their crops in open markets. Border tariffs are lower and export bans rarer. As a result, innovation is accelerating. Africa has seen an explosion of seed companies producing clever hybrids, which can endure drought and resist disease. Perhaps the best proof of the importance of good government comes from Zimbabwe. It has an awful one, and productivity has crashed.
重点词汇：
1 Post war 战后的,(尤指）第二次世界大战以后的
2 green revolution 绿色革命（尤指发展中国家为增加粮食产量而采用新品种和新耕种方法的举措）
3 bypass 绕过避开
4 far-flung 分布广的；广泛的
5 grain 粮食，谷物
6 precarious 不稳定的，不确定的；不保险的；危险的
7 irrigate 灌溉
8 cushion 起保护(或缓冲)作用的事物
9 tariff 关税
10 hybrid 杂种动物；杂交植物；杂种
11 crash 碰撞; 使发出巨响; 暴跌; 睡觉
听力原文:
The progress that has been made elsewhere is wonderful, but not enough. African farms remain far less productive than Asian ones: Chinese farmers harvest more than three times as much grain per hectare. Climate change is expected to make conditions harder. Yet agriculture is essential for firing economic growth across the African continent. More people still live in the countryside than in cities and many of Africa’s cities are not all that dynamic. Asia has a tight grip on labour-intensive manufacturing, although there is certainly space for more food-processing factories in Africa—so, for example, it could export cocoa powder instead of cocoa beans.
重点词汇：
1 labour-intensive manufacturing 劳动密集型产业
2 hectare 公顷
听力原文:
Turning an agricultural uptick into a lasting boom will demand more reforms. One priority for Africa’s governments is to dismantle the remaining barriers to innovation in farming. It still takes years to approve new hybrid seeds in some countries. With a few exceptions, such as South Africa, the continent is holding the line against genetically modified crops. This is mad. GM is particularly helpful in making plants resistant to pests—a terrible scourge. The region’s governments should also take greater advantage of mobile technology. Many try to subsidise fertiliser for poor farmers, only for the stuff to be stolen before it reaches the intended recipient. They should be sending money or vouchers directly to mobile wallets.
重点词汇：
1 uptick 小幅增加
2 dismantle 废除，取消
2 exception 一般情况以外的人（或事物）；例外
3 pest 害虫
4 genetic 基因的；遗传学的
5 scourge 祸害；祸根；灾害
6 subsidise 给…津贴或补贴，资助或补助
7 fertiliser 肥料，化肥;
8 recipient 受方；接受者
9 voucher 代币券；票券
听力原文:
Africa’s cities are swelling, and the people who live in them crave meat and processed food. That is a huge opportunity for local farmers, but it will be missed if transport does not become far cheaper and easier. At the moment, the rule of thumb is that it costs three times as much to move goods one mile along an African road as it does to move them along an Asian one—and that is before the police shake you down. As a result, fertiliser is expensive and much food is wasted on the way to market. More investment in upgrading shoddy rural roads would be good. Better still would be an assault on the trucking cartels that keep prices high.
重点词汇：
1 swell (使)膨胀;(使)扩大;(使)增加
2 crave 渴望；热望
3 rule of thumb 实用的估算方法，经验工作法（常依据经验而非准确测量）
4 shake sb/sth down 勒索；敲诈 彻底搜查（某人、某地）
5 shoddy 做工粗糙的；粗制滥造的；劣质的
6 cartel 企业联盟（通过统一价格、防止竞争来增加共同利润
听力原文:

It would help a lot if farmers—particularly women—had clearer rights over land. Proper titles would encourage them to make long-term investments, like terracing and tree-planting, and allow them to use land as collateral for loans. Getting there is tricky. Many countries have long traditions of communal land management and a complicated web of customary farming rights. Charging in and handing out freeholds can actually strip people of rights. But a sensible first step, which a few countries are trying, is to register farmers’ entitlements so their land cannot be pinched. The rest of the world can help, too. Although some egregious subsidies have been trimmed, the rich world’s taxpayers still spend vast sums propping up their own farmers. America heavily subsidises peanuts and cotton—two things that Africa can grow well. Why shell out to make Africans poorer?

重点词汇：

1 terracing 梯田;阶地
2 collateral 抵押物；担保品
3 tricky 难办的；难对付的
4 communal land 公地 集体土地
5 freehold 永久产权 strip sb of sth 剥夺；褫夺
6 pinch 偷摸；行窃
7 egregious 极糟的；极坏的 extremely bad
8 trim 修剪；修整
9 prop 支撑
10 peanut 花生
11 shell out 为…花费一大笔钱

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