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Rice is low-fat and high in energy, and you can mix it with just about anything to make a wide variety of tasty nutritious1 dishes. Ask anyone from any country in the world to tell you their favourite rice recipe and you will get a wide selection, ranging from sushi in Japan to risottos in northern Italy.
Rice is closely connected to the culture of many societies. Hindu and Buddhist2 religions use rice as a religious offering. Burmese folklore3 uses rice as a central part of their creation story; the gods gave the first people of Burma rice seeds and directed them to Burma, where the rice would grow well. A Chinese proverb says that ‘precious things are not pearls and jade4 but the five grains, of which rice is the finest.’ Chinese myth tells how, after severe floods, there was nothing to eat and the people were starving. One day they saw a dog coming across the fields, and hanging onto the dog’s tail were bunches of long yellow seeds. The seeds grew into rice and the people survived.
The origins of rice are uncertain, because rice has been grown for so many thousands of years. In several Asian languages, the words for food and rice, or for rice and agriculture, are the same, one of the facts that points to Asia as the origin of rice. It is certain, however, that rice cultivation5 is one of the most important developments in history, for rice has fed more people over a longer period of time than any other crop.
The demand for rice is growing steadily6, with consumption stretching beyond the traditional rice growing areas in Asia. You can find rice fields in Europe, Latin America and Australia. However, Asia is still the biggest rice producer, accounting7 for 90% of the world’s production and consumption of rice.
Rice is a staple8 food for many countries. In parts of Africa and Asia, many poorer urban families get over half their daily calories from rice. As the world population increases, can rice keep up? To meet growing demands, rice production has to be raised by at least 70% over the next three decades. The area devoted9 to rice cultivation cannot grow, so much international research is being done to find ways of growing rice on less land.
Rice needs a good water supply to grow. Water is wasted daily all over the world and estimates suggest that most Asian countries will have severe water problems by 2025. It takes 5000 litres of water to grow a kilo of rice, yet many rice growing areas in Asia and Africa are drought-prone. Scientists need to develop varieties of rice that can withstand sudden heavy rains and compete with weeds.
Worryingly, rice production is affected10 by global climate changes. Global warming is caused by toxic11 gas emissions12 in developed countries. The rise in global temperature cuts rice-growing time, and ultra violet light radiation from the sun reduces tolerance13 to disease. Methane14 gas, one of the culprits of global warming, is, ironically, a by-product15 of wet lowland rice cultivation. Methane-producing bacteria thrive in wet rice fields and the plants themselves send the gas into the atmosphere. Water management could reduce methane emissions, but practical methods that do not reduce rice yields still have to be found.
点击收听单词发音
1 nutritious | |
adj.有营养的,营养价值高的 | |
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2 Buddhist | |
adj./n.佛教的,佛教徒 | |
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3 folklore | |
n.民间信仰,民间传说,民俗 | |
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4 jade | |
n.玉石;碧玉;翡翠 | |
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5 cultivation | |
n.耕作,培养,栽培(法),养成 | |
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6 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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7 accounting | |
n.会计,会计学,借贷对照表 | |
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8 staple | |
n.主要产物,常用品,主要要素,原料,订书钉,钩环;adj.主要的,重要的;vt.分类 | |
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9 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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10 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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11 toxic | |
adj.有毒的,因中毒引起的 | |
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12 emissions | |
排放物( emission的名词复数 ); 散发物(尤指气体) | |
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13 tolerance | |
n.宽容;容忍,忍受;耐药力;公差 | |
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14 methane | |
n.甲烷,沼气 | |
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15 by-product | |
n.副产品,附带产生的结果 | |
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