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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
We talked last week about growing beets1. Today we have advice about growing another root vegetable, carrots. Carrots are easy to raise and easy to harvest. They taste good. And they contain a lot of carotene, which the body makes into vitamin2 A.
When people think of carrots, they usually picture in their mind a vegetable that is long, thin and orange. But carrots come in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange.
For example, Paris Market carrots are about five centimeters around. Imperator carrots are thin and about twenty-five centimeters long. And Belgian White carrots are, as their name suggests, white.
For the best results, carrots should be grown in sandy soil that does not hold water for a long time. The soil also should have no rocks.
To prepare your garden for carrots, dig3 up the soil, loosen4 it and turn it over. Then, mix in some plant material or animal fertilizer5.
Weather, soil conditions and age will affect the way carrots taste. Experts say warm days, cool nights and a medium soil temperature are the best conditions for growing carrots that taste great.
Carrots need time to develop their full sugar content. This gives them their taste. If they are harvested too early, they will not have enough sugar. But carrots loose their sweetness if you wait too long to pull them from the ground.
The best way to judge if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color, the better the taste.
Many people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow and harvest carrots the same way as during the summer months.
If the ground does freeze in your part of the world, simply cover your carrot garden with a thick layer of leaves or straw6. This will prevent the ground from freezing. You can remove the ground cover and harvest the carrots as they are needed.
Carrots are one of the world's most popular vegetables. They can be cooked and prepared many different ways. Or, once they are washed, they can be eaten just as they come out of the ground.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For more agricultural7 advice, go to voaspecialenglish.com for transcripts8, MP3s and podcasts of our reports. And our e-mail address is [email protected]. I'm Jim Tedder9.
1 beets | |
甜菜( beet的名词复数 ); 甜菜根; (因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而)脸红 | |
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2 vitamin | |
n.维他命,维生素 | |
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3 dig | |
v.挖(洞,沟等);掘 | |
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4 loosen | |
vt.放松,松开,解除(便秘等),放宽;vi.变松,松弛 | |
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5 fertilizer | |
n.肥料,化肥 | |
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6 straw | |
n.稻草,麦杆,吸管;adj.用稻草做的,用来作稻草的,麦杆色的,无价值的,象稻草人的,非正式民意测验所发现的 | |
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7 agricultural | |
adj.农业的;农艺的 | |
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8 transcripts | |
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本 | |
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9 tedder | |
n.(干草)翻晒者,翻晒机 | |
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