VOA慢速英语2010年-Agriculture Report - Pretty Flowers Le

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Not all research begins with a plan. Some studies begin by accident. Meredith Schafer says that is what happened with her and Cynthia Sagers.

Cynthia Sagers is a biology professor at the University of Arkansas. Meredith Schafer is a graduate student.

They were traveling in the state of North Dakota on a project. They noticed pretty yellow flowers.

They recognized them as canola. Farmers grow canola for seeds to make cooking oil. Canola is also used for animal feed and biofuel.

But the canola plants they saw were not growing in farm fields. They were growing along the road.

The researchers decided¹ to test the plants. They had brought along special testing papers for the project they were working on. They crushed some of the leaves in water and added the test strips.

The results showed that the weedy canola plants contained genetic² changes. If a plant is genetically³ modified, that means its genes⁴ have been changed to produce desired qualities.

This summer, the researchers from Arkansas went back to North Dakota. This time they went on a road trip to find canola. They traveled more than five thousand kilometers.

They stopped about every eight kilometers to count plants and take samples to test in their vehicle.

What they found, they say, was the first discovery in the United States of wild canola plants with modified genes.

Meredith Schafer presented the findings at a recent meeting of the Ecological⁵ Society of America.

The scientists found canola plants in almost half of the places they investigated. They tested a total of two hundred eighty-eight plants. They found that eighty percent of those plants contained genes from genetically engineered canola.

Some crop plants are modified to resist damage from the chemicals that farmers spray to kill weeds. There are two proteins that can give canola the ability to resist two commonly used herbicides. One protein gives resistance against glyphosate. The other protein gives resistance against glufosinate.

Two of the plants growing in the wild showed resistance to both kinds of weed killers⁶. Professor Sagers says canola varieties with these genetic qualities have not been released on the market. This suggests the result of wild populations reproducing on their own.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can read and listen to all of our programs and get podcasts at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Mario Ritter

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• 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。

2 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

3 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

4 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

5 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.

6 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。