2023年12月六级第1套长篇阅读匹配原文翻译及答案

A) On the hills of central Kenya, almost lime-green with the sparkle of tea bushes in the sunlight, farmers know all about climate change. "The rainy season is no longer predictable," says one. "When it is supposed to rain it doesn't, then it all comes at once." Climate change is an issue that will affect everyone on the planet. For Africans its consequences will be particularly bitter: whereas other regions were able to grow rich by burning coal and oil, Africa will pay much of the human price without having enjoyed the benefits. "Africa only represents 2% of global greenhouse-gas emissions but it is the continent that is expected to suffer the most from climate impacts," says Mafalda Duarte, who runs the World Bank's $8bn Climate Investment Funds.

在肯尼亚中部的山丘上，阳光照耀下的茶树丛闪烁着近乎柠檬绿的光芒，农民们对气候变化了如指掌。"雨季不再可预测，"一位农民说。"该下雨的时候不下雨，然后所有雨水一涌而至。"气候变化是一个将影响地球上每个人的问题。对非洲人来说，其后果将尤为痛苦：其他地区通过燃烧煤炭和石油得以致富，而非洲将在未享受这些益处的情况下付出巨大的人力代价。"非洲仅占全球温室气体排放的2%，但它是预计受气候影响最严重的大陆，"世界银行80亿美元气候投资基金的负责人马法尔达·杜阿尔特说。

B) Although there are huge uncertainties as to the precise impacts of climate change, enough is known to say that global warming represents one of the main threats to Africa's prosperity. Parts of the continent are already warming much more quickly than the average: temperatures in southern Africa have increased by about twice the global rate over the past 50 years. Even if the world were to cut emissions enough to keep global warming below 1.5℃, heat-waves would intensify in Africa and diseases would spread to areas not currently affected. Farming would also be hit hard. About 40% of the land now used to grow maize (玉米) would no longer be suitable for it. Overall, it is estimated that maize yields would fall by 18-22%.

尽管气候变化的确切影响存在巨大不确定性，但已有足够证据表明全球变暖是非洲繁荣面临的主要威胁之一。该大陆的部分地区升温速度已远高于平均水平：过去50年间，南部非洲的气温上升速度约为全球平均水平的两倍。即使全球减排足够将升温控制在1.5℃以下，非洲的热浪仍将加剧，疾病将传播到目前未受影响的地区。农业也将受到严重打击。目前用于种植玉米的土地中约40%将不再适宜种植。总体而言，预计玉米产量将下降18%至22%。

C) Africa is particularly vulnerable, in part because it is already struggling to feed itself and it will have to vastly increase yields and productivity if it is to put food on the plates of a fast-growing population, even without climate change. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation reckons that by 2050 global food production would have to rise by about 70% over its level of 2009 to meet demand from a population that is growing in numbers and appetite. Much of this new demand will be in Africa. Yet the continent already imports about $50bn-worth of food a year and that figure is expected to more than double over the next five years. Self-sufficiency is not Africa's goal, but the fact that it spends more money importing food than it does buying capital goods suggests it has room for improvement.

非洲尤其脆弱，部分原因是它已经在努力养活自己，而即使没有气候变化，它也必须大幅提高产量和生产力，才能满足快速增长人口的食物需求。联合国粮食及农业组织估计，到2050年，全球粮食产量需比2009年水平增长约70%，以满足人口增长和需求增长。大部分新需求将来自非洲。然而，该大陆每年进口价值约500亿美元的食品，且这一数字预计将在未来五年内翻倍以上。自给自足并非非洲的目标，但其进口食品的花费超过购买资本货物的事实表明，它仍有改进空间。

D) Finding out why is not hard. Most farms are tiny, ploughed by hand and reliant on rain. More than half of Africa's people make their living from farming. Although its total harvest has climbed over the past few decades, this is mainly because there are more people farming more land. But in many places there is no spare land to farm. Plots in Rwanda are so small that you could fit 250 of them onto the average American farm. And although output per worker has improved by more than half over the past 30 years in Africa, that is still far behind the 2.5 times improvement in Asia. Yields of maize are generally less than two tonnes per hectare, a fifth the level in America.

找出原因并不难。大多数农场面积小，依靠手工耕作和雨水。超过一半的非洲人口以农业为生。尽管过去几十年总收获量有所上升，但这主要是因为更多人耕种了更多土地。但在许多地方没有闲置土地可耕种。卢旺达的地块小到你可以在一个美国农场里容纳250个这样的地块。尽管过去30年非洲的人均产出增长了超过一半，但仍远落后于亚洲2.5倍的增长。玉米产量通常低于每公顷两吨，仅为美国水平的五分之一。

E) The low productivity of African farmers is reflected in national economic statistics—despite absorbing so much labour, farming generates just 15% of GDP. "They can't even feed their families," says Jennifer Blanke, a vice-president of the African Development Bank in charge of agriculture. "Farm productivity hasn't improved in many parts of Africa for 100 years."

非洲农民的低生产率反映在国民经济统计中——尽管吸收了如此多劳动力，农业仅贡献了15%的GDP。"他们甚至无法养活自己的家庭，"负责农业的非洲开发银行副总裁詹妮弗·布兰克说。"在非洲许多地区，农业生产率在100年来没有改善。"

F) One reason is that in the first few decades of independence, many African governments neglected farming as they focused on industrialising their economies. Others damaged it by pushing down the prices that state monopolies paid for their crops in order to subsidise workers in cities with cheap food. Ghana taxed cocoa (可可粉) exports so heavily that production collapsed by half between the 1960s and 1980s, despite a jump in the global price of cocoa. Yet over the past two decades or so governments and donors have begun to look again at farming as a way of providing jobs for the 13 million young people entering the workforce each year. Much of the focus has been on getting small farmers to use fertiliser and, more important, better seeds. The results can be impressive. Improved varieties of sorghum (高梁), for instance, can produce a crop that is 40% larger than the usual variety. Infrastructure is important. A World Bank irrigation project in Ethiopia helped farmers increase their potato harvest from about 8 tonnes per hectare to 35 tonnes.

原因之一是，在独立后的最初几十年里，许多非洲政府忽视农业，专注于经济工业化。其他国家则通过压低国家垄断企业支付给农民的作物价格来损害农业，以用廉价食品补贴城市工人。加纳对可可出口征收重税，导致在1960年代至1980年代间产量下降了一半，尽管全球可可价格飙升。然而，在过去二十年左右，政府和捐助者开始重新审视农业，将其作为每年为1300万进入劳动力市场的年轻人提供就业的一种方式。大部分重点放在让小农使用化肥，更重要的是使用更好的种子。结果可能令人印象深刻。例如，改良的高粱品种产量可比常规品种高40%。基础设施很重要。世界银行在埃塞俄比亚的灌溉项目帮助农民将土豆产量从每公顷约8吨提高到35吨。

G) Better techniques help, too. Small coffee farmers in Kenya are able to increase their incomes by 40% by following a few simple guidelines on caring for their bushes, such as trimming all but three of their stems. Many of their neighbours do not follow the advice, because it seems counter-intuitive. More stems ought to lead to more coffee beans, they say. Yet after seeing those following the advice get bigger harvests for a season or two, many others start doing the same.

更好的技术也有帮助。肯尼亚的小咖啡农通过遵循一些简单的护理指南，如修剪掉除三根主茎外的所有枝条，能够将收入提高40%。许多邻居没有遵循建议，因为这看起来违反直觉。他们说，更多的茎应该导致更多的咖啡豆。然而，在看到遵循建议的人在一两个季节后获得更大收成后，许多其他人开始效仿。

H) One way of spreading knowledge is to link farms to big buyers of their harvests. When Diageo, a British drinks giant, built a brewery in western Kenya, it wanted to use local crops to make a beer cheap enough to compete with illicit home brew. It organised farmers into groups, improved supply chains for them to get seeds and fertiliser and then agreed to buy their grain. It now provides a market to about 17,000 farmers. Across the region it has doubled its use of local raw material to about 80% over five years, says John O'Keeffe, who runs its Africa business.

传播知识的一种方式是将农场与他们的收获的大买家联系起来。当英国饮料巨头帝亚吉欧在肯尼亚西部建造一家啤酒厂时，它希望使用当地作物生产价格足够低廉的啤酒，以与非法自酿啤酒竞争。它组织农民成立团体，改善供应链以便他们获得种子和化肥，然后同意购买他们的粮食。它现在为约17,000名农民提供市场。其非洲业务负责人约翰·奥基夫表示，过去五年，该地区本地原材料的使用量已翻倍至约80%。

I) An even more important change is the move from traditional farming to building businesses that can profitably bring technology and investment to small farmers. Taita Ngetich, a young Kenyan, was studying engineering when he wanted to earn a little money on the side. He scraped together 20,000 Kenyan shillings (about $200) to plant tomatoes. Everything went wrong. The crop was attacked by pests. "Then there was a massive flood that swallowed all our capital," he says. Mr Ngetich persevered by looking into buying a greenhouse to protect his plants from bugs and rain. The cheapest ones cost more than $2,500 each, so he designed his own for half the price. Soon neighbouring farmers started placing orders with him, and now his firm, Illuminum Greenhouses, has sold more than 1,400 greenhouses that provide livelihoods to about 6,000 people. The business does not stop there; he also supplies fertiliser, high-quality seedlings and smart sensors that increase yields.

一个更重要的变化是从传统农业转向建立能够盈利地将技术和投资带给小农的企业。年轻的肯尼亚人泰塔·恩盖蒂奇在学习工程时想赚点外快。他凑了20,000肯尼亚先令（约200美元）来种植西红柿。一切都出了问题。作物遭到害虫袭击。"然后一场大洪水吞噬了我们所有的资金，"他说。恩盖蒂奇先生坚持研究购买温室以保护植物免受虫害和雨水侵袭。最便宜的温室每间超过2,500美元，所以他设计了自己的，成本减半。很快，附近的农民开始向他下订单，现在他的公司Illuminum Greenhouses已售出超过1,400个温室，为约6,000人提供生计。业务不止于此；他还供应化肥、优质苗木和能提高产量的智能传感器。

J) Illuminum's success shows how technology can help even small farms become more productive. Because such a large share of Africa's population earns a living from agriculture, even small improvements in productivity can lift the incomes of millions of people. But over the longer run small-scale farming can go only so far, especially in the face of climate change and population pressure.

Illuminum的成功展示了技术如何帮助即使小型农场提高生产力。由于非洲如此大比例的人口以农业为生，即使生产率的小幅改善也能提升数百万人的收入。但从长远来看，小规模农业只能走这么远，尤其是在面对气候变化和人口压力时。

K) "If we really want to lift people out of poverty we have to finance projects that will get them an income of at least $100 a month so that they can pay for health care and education," says Mr. Ngetich. "Projects that give them an extra $2 a month from growing beans or maize aren't going to get them there." Getting those big jumps will need better jobs in factories and cities.

"如果我们真的想让人们摆脱贫困，就必须资助能让他们每月至少获得100美元收入的项目，以便他们能支付医疗和教育费用，"恩盖蒂奇先生说。"那些通过种植豆类或玉米每月额外给他们2美元的项目无法实现这一目标。"实现这些大跃升需要工厂和城市中的更好工作。