美国文化的翻译

III. Agriculture:

The United States is blessed with fertile soil, and a good climate for its agriculture. About one-fifth of the land area is farmed. Some 394 million acres are harvested cropland, and about 890 million are permanent pastureland.

美国拥有丰富的肥沃土壤，并有好的农业气候。其国土面积的五分之一左右是养殖，约3.94亿英亩用于农田，约8.9亿英亩是永久性的牧场。

Most of the important crop-growing areas in the United States are in the central plain region between the Appalachians and the Rockies. Others are in the Atlantic coast plain and the great basins west of the Rockies.

最主要的作物生长区域位于美国的阿巴拉契亚山脉和落基山脉中心的平原上，剩下的在大西洋沿岸平原和西部的落基山脉的大盆地。

The staple crops are corn and wheat, with oats, barley, rice and cotton, ranking next in importance. The wide Corn Belt south of the Great Lakes accounts for about 30% of the total cultivated area. Iowa in this region is the leading corn state, followed by Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. The other principle agricultural products of this region are wheat, cattle, and dairy goods. The wheat-land is mostly in the prairie region, and the state of Kansas leads the whole country in the production of wheat, followed by North Dakota, and Oklahoma. Rice is grown in the Gulf plains in the Gulf Plains in the South. Cotton and tobacco are the economic crops in the South. Others cash crops are beets, sugarcane and fruit such as oranges, lemons and pineapples grown in Florida, the Pacific coast strip and Hawaii. The stock raising areas are scattered in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes and in the Corn Belt, on the eastern slopes of the Rocky range. Cattle and pigs are the most important livestock and sheep are raised on the ranches in the west highland. Fishing, trapping, timbering and oil extracting have become the main industries in Alaska. America agriculture makes up about 0.7% of the GDP, with the products of wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton, beef,port, Poultry, dairy products, fish, forest products, and fishing.

最主要的作物是玉米、小麦、燕麦、大米、棉，这是按照重要性的排列，广阔上的玉米种植带位于南部大湖，大约占总种植区域的30%。爱荷华州是主产玉米的州，接着是伊利诺伊州、印第安纳州和俄亥俄州，这些州的其它主要农产品是小麦、牛乳业品。小麦产地主要在草原地区，堪萨斯州是美国小麦的主产地，接下来是达科的北部与南部，以及俄克拉何马州；大米的产地在墨西哥湾平原的南部；棉与烟草是南部的经济作物；其它的经济作物例如：甜菜、甘蔗、橙子、柠檬以及菠萝等水果生长在佛罗里达州、太平洋沿岸地带和夏威夷州；畜牧业增长的区域分散在附近的大湖区域和作物带区域；牧场在东部的山坡上，牛和猪是最主要的家畜，羊被饲养在西部高地的牧场里，捕鱼业、以及采油业是阿拉斯加州的主要工业，美国的农业收入占GDP的0.7%，主要产物有：小麦、玉米等其它的农作物、水果、蔬菜、牛、羊、家畜、牛奶、林产品和鱼产品等。

America agriculture is highly mechanized and operated on large scale. Both farming and raising stock have become an industry. America agriculture is, by any standards, big business. Indeed, the term,“agribusiness” has been coined to reflect the large-scale nature of agricultural enterprise in the modern US economy. The farm population has decreased in the past few decades. In 1987,there were slightly more than 2 million farms in the United States—down by about 7% from the number just 5 years earlier. Although family farms are not disappearing, as some people fear, smaller farms are disappearing. People who farm small pieces of land find they cannot invest in the modern equipment they need to make the farms pay. According to the Department of Agriculture, the number of small farms—those with under 50 000 dollars in annual sales—dropped by 120 000 between 1982 and 1987.There are only no more than 8 million people who still live on farms today. Many farm owners, especially owners of small farms, do not work on the farm full-time. About 45% of farmers actually have other occupations. Nevertheless, there has been a tremendous increase in production. Both Americans and foreign consumers benefit from the American farmers’ low-cost output. About one-third of the cropland in the United States is planted in crops destined for export to Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

美国大规模的农业是机械化的操作，农业与畜牧业已经形成了工业化，美国的农业给一个标准，就是大的商业化模式。的确这样，对于现代化美国的经济，农商企业已经反映在了大规模的农业企业中，传统的农业在过去的十年中不断减少，到1987年，在过去的5年内减少了200万户农场占大约7%的比例，尽管家庭农场没有消失。一些人会担心小农场会消失，如果谁种植小农场，会发现最后的收入支付不起现代化的农业设备。通过农业部的数据，小的农场的收入为在1982年与1987年之间从120000美元下降到50000美元。在今天，大约有不到800万的人有农场，许多的农场拥有着，特别是小农户，并没有占用他们所有的时间在农业工作中，大约45%的农民有其他的工作，然而，美国农业产量依然有着巨大的增长。美国与其它国家的消费者的利益从美国农民的低成本输出而来，大约美国三分之一的农作物出口到欧洲国家、亚洲国家、非洲国家以及拉丁美洲。

The readiness of many farmers to adopt new technology has been one of the strengths of American agriculture. Computers are but the latest in a long time innovations that have helped American farmers to cut costs and improve productivity.

许多农民采用新技术的意愿一直是美国农业的优势之一。电脑的作用是很长一段时间的创新，帮助美国农民削减成本和提高生产力的最新产品。

While the high productivity of American agriculture has kept food prices low for consumers, farmers have been perhaps too successful. crop surpluses and low prices have made it hard for many farmers to make a profit.

准备就绪的农民采用新的农业技术已经使得美国的农业得到大的提升，农民或许变得更成功了，但是产物过剩和低廉的价格很难使农民获得有一个好的利润。

The American farmers is not is own master in everything. He often owns money on his land, his house and his machines. He has to borrow heavily from the bank each spring to buy seeds, fertilizer, oil etc., and even has to go into debt to see his family through the year with clothes and food. After he has sold his grain and paid his debts at the end of the year. he usually has not much left because the cost of the products farmers buy—tractors, fertilizers, pesticides—has risen faster than the prices they receive for their crops and high rates of loan interests have added

to the farmers’ burden. A slight fall in the price of gain may bring him ruin.

美国农民并不是在任何事情上都是自己的主人，他们经常在土地、房子、以及机器购买中欠债，他们需要在春季的时候向银行借钱，买种子、废料和燃油等。甚至为了给他们的家庭买衣服与食物而欠债，在年底，当他们卖掉作物还完债之后，又将没有足够的钱去买拖拉机、废料、杀虫剂等，这些需要品价格的增长速度远大于农作物的价格，使得农民的经济负担加重，农作物的格缓慢下降会给他们带来灾难。

Critics accuse both corporate and family farmers of damaging the environment. American farmers have multiplied their use of artificial fertilizers and chemicals designed to kill weeds and inspect pests and to protect against crop diseases. Such family aids have played an indispensable role in increasing crop output, but they have caused problems of air and water pollution. Toxic farm chemicals, some linked to cancer and other disease, have at times found their way into the nation’s water, food and air, although constant vigilance by government officials at the state and federal levels is taken to protect these resources.

批评家指责企业和农民工在损坏环境，美国农民工为了保护他们的农作物使用了大量的工业肥料以及化学药品去杀害地中的害虫，为了农作物的增产一些农业救援措施扮演者不可缺少的角色，但是引起了空气、水的污染，以及有毒的化学物的产生，这些有毒物质引起癌症与疾病的传播。尽管政府官员和联邦早已警觉并重视资源的保护，但是已经在水、食物、空气中发现了这些物质。