VOA标准英语2012--Drought Taking Toll on Midwest Corn Producers
时间：2018-12-08 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(七月)
Drought Taking Toll 1 on Midwest Corn Producers
One of those farmers, Alan Bowers 2 Junior, can see and hear the profits from his corn disintegrating 3. The corn stalks on his field near Du Bois Illinois are so dry and brittle 4, they break up just by touching 5 them. None of the stalks are producing usable corn.
Because of the drought, thousands of hectares of his farm are in similar shape.
"It's very devastating," said Bowers. "You drive past it every day. It's out your back door. You get up in the morning, and you think it might be another 13 months before we get a paycheck. The corn and soybean crop is our paycheck."
In mid-July, Bowers made a heart-wrenching decision. Faced with a near total loss of his corn crop, he decided 6 to cut it down.
"We are making what they call corn silage out of this for the animals, for the cows, and if you wait until it's completely dried up it won't even make suitable feed for the animals," Bowers explained. "So we have to do it in a timely fashion before the hot temperatures and winds dry it out even more and turns it completely into you might say dust."
Dust is the consistency 7 of much of Bowers' farmland, exposed to the wind now that the stalks are cut down. Some of the only stalks left standing 8 are for crop insurance adjusters to inspect.
Alan Bowers and his wife Lori are hoping for a modest insurance settlement just so that they can make ends meet until next year.
"We have no boss, and nobody to help us, and it's tough, you have to work together you have to work with a husband a wife and family and together try to work through it," Lori Bowers explained.
The remaining land on the Bowers farm is filled with soybeans, and unless a significant amount of rain falls in the next several weeks, the outlook for production is just as grim.
Lori's husband Alan says if next year is anything like the present, he isn't sure the farm that has been in his family for four generations can survive.
"It will be five times as challenging as what it is this year," Alan Bowers noted 9.
Bowers adds that the only way to prevent losing his farm is to have more of what he and his wife have been praying for this year, rain.
- The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
- The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。
- If Mr Bowers is right, low government-bond yields could lose their appeal and equities could rebound. 如果鲍尔斯先生的预计是对的，那么低收益的国债将会失去吸引力同时股价将会反弹。 来自互联网
- As a poetic version of a disintegrating world, this one pleased him. 作为世界崩溃论在文学上的表现，他非常喜欢这个学说。 来自辞典例句
- Soil animals increase the speed of litter breakdown by disintegrating tissue. 土壤动物通过分解组织，加速落叶层降解的速度。 来自辞典例句
- The pond was covered in a brittle layer of ice.池塘覆盖了一层易碎的冰。
- She gave a brittle laugh.她冷淡地笑了笑。
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
- Your behaviour lacks consistency.你的行为缺乏一贯性。
- We appreciate the consistency and stability in China and in Chinese politics.我们赞赏中国及其政策的连续性和稳定性。