VOA科学技术2024--Arctic Vault Gets More Seeds

Arctic Vault¹ Gets More Seeds

　　The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is on an island halfway² between Europe and the North Pole. It contains frozen seeds of food crops from around the world.

　　The vault opened in 2008 to help keep crops safe from extinction³.

　　This week, the vault received seeds from the largest number of new contributors ever. Contributors give seeds from their collections of seeds, called seed banks.

　　Twenty-three seed banks took part, nine of them for the first time. The new contributors came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria and Zambia.

　　Crop Trust is a non-profit group that operates the vault along with Norwegian officials. Crop Trust said the boxes of seeds arrived on Tuesday. They contained crop seeds such as beans, barley⁴, cowpea, maize⁵, rice, millet⁶ and sorghum⁷.

　　Stefan Schmitz is Executive Director of Crop Trust. He said that keeping the seeds frozen in the Arctic helps guarantee food security for the future.

　　The vault is set in permafrost caves. The seeds are kept at temperatures around -18 degrees Celsius⁸.

　　Between 2015 and 2019, the vault helped rebuild seed collections that were damaged during the war in Syria.

　　Crop Trust said many of the seeds given on Tuesday were the result of a worldwide 10-year biodiversity project known as BOLD. The project aims to support global food and nutrition security, the trust added.

　　Norway's ministry⁹ of agriculture and food said 111 seed banks in 77 countries now have crop seeds in Svalbard.

　　The Crop Trust website says the vault currently has over 1 million seed samples. It also says the vault has room to hold 4.5 million varieties of crops.

　　Words in This Story

　　vault -n. A secure room to where valuable things can be kept safely.

　　extinction -n. the death and end of existence of all the remaining members of a species

　　contributor -n. a person or organization supplying money, goods, work, and the like.

　　guarantee -v. to make sure something will happen or be the case

　　biodiversity -n. the existence of a large variety of species

　　global -adj. describing the entire world

1 vault   

n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室

参考例句：

• The vault of this cathedral is very high.这座天主教堂的拱顶非常高。
• The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。

2 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

3 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

4 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

5 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

6 millet   

n.小米，谷子

参考例句：

• Millet is cultivated in the middle or lower reaches of the Yellow River.在黄河中下游地区，人们种植谷子。
• The high quality millet flour was obtained through wet milling.采用湿磨法获得了高品质的小米粉。

7 sorghum   

n.高粱属的植物，高粱糖浆，甜得发腻的东西

参考例句：

• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
• They made sorghum into pig feed.他们把高粱做成了猪饲料。

8 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

9 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。