2005年NPR美国国家公共电台十一月-Bringing Holiday Trees to Market

Anchor: (The) commercial Christmas Tree harvest has already peaked, a third of the Christmas trees sold in the United States are grown in the pacific northwest, Tom Banse reports on the challenges tree farmers face this year.

Anchor: The holidays might bring warm thoughts of twinkling boughs¹ and fragrant² smells, but at the evergreen³ source it's more like a noisy battle zone. This helicopter is lifting Christmas trees off of hills in southwest Washington state that trucks can't get to, a lot of large growers use choppers to move trees fast, and includes Mark Steelhammer, a tree farmer with a tough name to suit a tough business.

Mark Steelhammer: Yeah, helicopters are around 600 dollars an hour plus, but they move a lot of trees, probably a thousand trees an hour at least.

Anchor: The heavy lifting is not the hardest part, at least not this year, Steelhammer's nervous about shipping⁴ prices and truck availability.

Mark Steelhammer: With the hurricanes back there, it's, it's good they, when that happened, it probably happened that early and not just a month or so ago, but they are still using a lot of trucks, of course, to bring supplies in for that, so we are competing with that.

Anchor: There is the daily battle to get fresh trees to market and then there is a larger war to recapture market share from artificial trees. Steelhammer's president elect of the National Christmas Tree Association, he says tree growers are stepping up the offensive against fake trees by donating money to a special marketing⁵ fund.

Mark Steelhammer: I have a real hard problem with thinking about tradition with young kids especialy going to a store and getting a boxed up plastic one that came in from China, you know, and anyway I like that real, real branches, real needles, and real smell, you know.

Anchor: He says artificial trees present a serious threat. They now grace(用来装饰) about one in three households, the fake tree doesn't cost much more, it might even come with lights built in. Local growers have another challenge, a swelling⁶ inventory⁷ of Christmas trees, Steelhammer says a surplus developed because many tree famers responded to the recent decade of good prices by planting more seedlings⁸, now wholesale⁹ prices are sinking anywhere from 5 to 30 percent.

Mark Steelhammer: Prices've come down a little, but we'll still make some money, those that've watched their operating expenses etc over the years and not gone out, gone too crazy on big new equipment stuff, or, we'll do fine, you know.

Anchor: Soft prices for wholesalers probably won't translate it into a deal for you, that's because the increased cost of trucking, offsets¹⁰ the lower price retailers¹¹ pay to acquire trees.

Anchor: Rochester Washington tree grower, John Tilman figures that he will be all right too as long as he keeps up his frenzy¹² pays. He works pretty much non-stop from early November to the second weekend December cutting, baling and shipping Christmas trees.

"...and we cut them at the last moment. It's like the, the truck's cutting, uh, coming tomorrow."

Anchor: A truck that will take these noble firs to Fresno. Earlier, his crew filled a refrigerated container destined¹³ for Hong Kong. Tilman praises noble fir for looking fresh at Christmas even when cut early in November.

"The main thing is just always have a fresh cut in bottoms and put it in the water, stand(To cause to stand; place upright. ) it, keep it in water out of the direct sun. The retailers we hope don't store them on asphalt, things like that. Ur...especially the nobles and nobles stay good and fresh for quite a while."

Anchor: Tilman says some loads destined across countries stop at an ice factory to get a frosting of crushed ice (which) keeps the needles moist and doesn't melt. And with that Tillman begs off to repair a bulky bailer¹⁴.

"I've got actually one of the hardest work, so..."

"Yeah, ok."

Anchor: So little time and 27,000 trees to harvest, for NPR News, I'm Tom Banse.

1 boughs   

大树枝( bough的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The green boughs glittered with all their pearls of dew. 绿枝上闪烁着露珠的光彩。
• A breeze sighed in the higher boughs. 微风在高高的树枝上叹息着。

2 fragrant   

adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的

参考例句：

• The Fragrant Hills are exceptionally beautiful in late autumn.深秋的香山格外美丽。
• The air was fragrant with lavender.空气中弥漫薰衣草香。

3 evergreen   

n.常青树；adj.四季常青的

参考例句：

• Some trees are evergreen;they are called evergreen.有的树是常青的，被叫做常青树。
• There is a small evergreen shrub on the hillside.山腰上有一小块常绿灌木丛。

4 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

5 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

6 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

7 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

8 seedlings   

n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ninety-five per cent of the new seedlings have survived. 新栽的树苗95%都已成活。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• In such wet weather we must prevent the seedlings from rotting. 这样的阴雨天要防止烂秧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

10 offsets   

n.开端( offset的名词复数 )；出发v.抵消( offset的第三人称单数 )；补偿；（为了比较的目的而）把…并列（或并置）；为（管道等）装支管

参考例句：

• The following paragraphs deal with intra-source offsets and the so-called \"bubble\" concept. 下面讨论污染源内部的补偿和所谓的“泡泡”概念。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The preceding paragraphs were concerned with inter-source offsets. 前文牵涉到污染源之间的补偿。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

11 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

12 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

13 destined   

adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的

参考例句：

• It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
• The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。

14 bailer   

汲出积水的人，水斗； 水瓢； 水勺

参考例句：

• In high speed offset printing, unstable performance of bailer adverse effect on the quality of presswork. 在高速胶印生产中，水斗液的性能不稳定对印刷品的质量产生不良影响。