【揽瓜阁俱乐部每日任务】Day1 2020.05.11

妥妥

  揽瓜阁俱乐部

  Day1 2020.05.11

【社会科学-经济】

The honey trap：China’s beekeepers feel the sting of covid-19

（542字 精读 必做篇）

ZHANG YALI remembers the pains of living in the Chinese countryside when she was growing up. On the mountainside in rural Shanxi, the northern province where her family lived, snakes and scorpions lurked. If they did not bite, the mosquitos certainly would. But the Zhangs could not move their isolated home to the safety of a village, because only the mountain was free of pesticides. What worried the Zhangs more than the odd sting were chemicals that might kill their bees.

Pesticides have long plagued China’s honey-making industry, which is by far the world’s largest. This year, however, covid-19 has been a bigger headache for the country’s 250,000 beekeepers, who produce around one-quarter of the global supply. Many of them are itinerant, moving their colonies around the country on lorries in search of pollen and nectar. For many days, restrictions imposed to curb the epidemic made this difficult.

The average honey bee flies for more than 1,500km in her lifetime. Many of China’s beekeepers travel about twice that distance in a season, criss-crossing the western and southern plains. But late in January local governments began to limit people’s movements. Many keepers who had taken advantage of the cold weather, when bees huddle in their hives, to leave their colonies and visit relatives, found themselves stuck. They were unable to return to take their bees on the road. Those united with their hives could not set off either. Many of the insects died of starvation. “In previous years, our relatives would go south for spring flowers and rapeseed. But no one can go this year,” says Ms Zhang.

In mid-February the central government announced measures to make it easier for agricultural workers and goods to move around. But there are still obstacles of various kinds, including frequent health checks. Woe betide the beekeeper required to self-quarantine—that can mean separation from bees. Even those who manage to go about their business normally will struggle to make up their losses. Margins are thin at the best of times. Wang Baorong, a beekeeper in Yunnan, normally makes about 1,000 yuan ($140) a month, about average for a rural household in the poor southern province. “Beekeepers have to rely on heaven to eat,” he says.

Some may be able to supplement their income by turning to a growth industry for owners of bees: pollinating farmers’ crops. In parts of China wild bee populations have been falling because of pesticide use, climate change and diseases such as deformed-wing virus, forcing farmers to pollinate by hand. It is a labour-intensive process and results in lower yields. (Around one-third of China’s pear trees are pollinated in this way.) But Ms Zhang says that regions where demand for these services is highest, such as Xinjiang in the far west and Inner Mongolia in the far north, are too far away to make it worthwhile for her family to travel there.

The economy is slowly recovering. Travel is getting easier. But for itinerant beekeepers it is too late to catch the early blooms of spring. Ms Zhang grumbles that life even before covid-19 was “mediocre”—not helped by her father’s poor health. “We must practise the spirit of the bees, live and learn, keep busy and grow old,” she says.

Source: The Economist

【社会科学-经济】

Singapore Seeks to Increase Local Food Production with Rooftop Farming

（280字 3分5秒 精听 必做篇）

先做精听再核对原文哦~


Singapore has announced new measures designed to quickly increase local food production, including rooftop farming.

Officials in the city-state recently set a goal to meet 30 percent of Singapore's nutritional needs with locally produced food by 2030.

The plan includes $21 million in government money to support local production of eggs, vegetables and fish "in the shortest possible time."

The plans were announced as the worldwide spread of COVID-19 has caused shortages of many products, including food in some areas. Restrictions on population movements around the world have weakened supply chains and raised concerns about worsening shortages and price increases.

Currently, densely populated Singapore produces only about 10 percent of its own food needs. Only 1 percent of Singapore's 724 square kilometers is currently used for agriculture. And production costs there are higher than the rest of Southeast Asia.

Singapore's Food Agency says its goal is to raise local food production levels to make up for climate change and population growth that could threaten worldwide food supplies.

"The current COVID-19 situation underscores the importance of local food production, as part of Singapore's strategies to ensure food security," the Food Agency said in a statement.

Singapore officials have repeatedly told citizens that the city-state has enough food to get through the COVID-19 crisis. But they have decided to speed up the process of increasing local production to begin within the next six months.

This plan includes efforts to identify alternative farming spaces, such as industrial areas and empty building spaces. It also calls for adding new technologies to improve farming methods.

Officials said one part of the project aims to establish rooftop farms on public housing parking areas beginning in May.

Source: VOA

【社会科学-经济】

Fewer and fewer Japanese want to see the world

（333字 精读 选做篇）

No fewer than 191 countries admit Japanese visitors without a visa. That is twice as many as wave through Kuwaitis, for example, and five times the number that let in Nepalese without hesitation. By that measure, Japan’s chrysanthemum-decorated passport is the most welcomed in the world. Yet only 24% of Japanese possess one—about half the proportion of Americans who have a passport. Why do so few Japanese take advantage of their freedom to wander the globe?

On paper, Japanese are venturing abroad more often. They went on roughly 20m overseas trips in 2019, up from 19m in 2018. But that figure is inflated by people travelling for work and by frequent flyers. The share of people who hold a passport has been slowly falling, from 27% in 2005. Morishita Masami, who chaired a government committee to promote outbound travel, estimates that at least two-thirds of Japanese are lukewarm about the idea of leaving the country. Several factors deter them: miserly annual leave, concerns about safety, the inferiority of foreign food and, most of all, a crippling fear of the embarrassment of not being understood. Sluggish wage growth and a weak yen have made travel less affordable. Even pensioners, who have plenty of free time and disposable income, are travelling less.

In the 1980s and 1990s Japanese were keen to explore the world. Students backpacked for weeks with their copies of  Chikyu no arukikata   (“How to walk the Earth”), a popular travel guide. A strong yen made foreign jaunts affordable. But interest has been dwindling since the late 1990s. They are “just one of many” leisure options, Ms Morishita explains.

The number of Japanese studying abroad has also fallen, from 82,945 at its peak in 2004 to 55,969 in 2016. The shrinking population of young people is partly to blame. Also, “It costs about ¥4m ($36,000) a year to study abroad,” notes Nakamura Tetsu of Tamagawa University, a prohibitive sum for most. Meanwhile, Japan’s labour crunch makes foreign study less useful. “You don’t need an education abroad to get a good job,” says Suematsu Kazuko of Tohoku University. A survey in 2019 found that 53% of Japanese students are not interested in studying abroad, the highest ratio among the seven countries covered.

Source: The Economist

【笔记格式要求】

精读笔记格式要求：

1.总结文章中心大意

2.总结分论点或每段段落大意

3.摘抄印象深刻或者觉得优美的句子

4.总结文章中的生词

5.记录阅读时间、总结时间、总时间

精听笔记格式要求：

1.逐句听写整篇文章

2.对照原文修改听写稿，标记出错原因

3.总结文章中心大意

4.总结精听过程中的生词

5.记录听写时间、总结时间、总时间

这里也给大家两点学习小建议哦~

精读：如遇到读不懂的复杂句，建议找出句子主干，分析句子成分，也可以尝试翻译句子来帮助理解~

精听：建议每句不要反复纠结听，如果听 5 遍都没听出来，那就跳过，等完成后再回听总结原因，时间宝贵，不要过于执着哦~

妥妥

【活动介绍】

揽瓜阁俱乐部，自「language」一词谐音而来，是一个为帮助大家提升英语语言能力而建立的学习小团队。在这里，我们将定时发布涵盖各类话题的外刊语料，供大家练习精听、精读。同时还设置了严格的打卡机制，督促大家克服懒惰坚持学习。

同时我们也招募volunteer协助维护团队，确保学习活动顺利开展~大家一起营造积极向上的学习氛围~

想要提升英语能力的小伙伴，快快添加微信（theTOEFL）报名加入吧，让妥妥带你观尽天下新鲜事，览遍四海热议瓜～

龙驾马

先发个阅读的笔记，听力的随后跟上

5月11日 阅读任务

The honey trap：China’s beekeepers feel the sting of covid-19

中心大意：

养蜂人除了要面对原有的农药问题，还要面对疫情的冲击，像蜜蜂一样勤劳地生活。

每段段落大意：

第1段 蜂农张女士为了确保蜜蜂不受农药等化学物质影响，而选择生活条件较为恶劣的山腰上居住，以从事养蜂事业。
第2段  除了农药，新冠病毒的流行也在影响养蜂业
第3段  养蜂人需要携带蜜蜂迁徙来追赶各地的花期，但一月下旬开始的人员流动限制使得养蜂人无处可去。
第4段  2月中旬开始政府对人员流动逐步开放，但养蜂人仍需面临一些隔离与检查，甚至与蜜蜂分离。
第5段  一些养蜂人开始转移业务——向农民提供授粉服务。
第6段  经济正在缓缓复苏，但养蜂人已经错过了今年春季的花期。张女士表示，面对困境，养蜂人更应该学习蜜蜂的勤劳精神。


句子摘抄：

What worried the Zhangs more than the odd sting were chemicals that might kill their bees.

Many of China’s beekeepers travel about twice that distance in a season, criss-crossing the western and southern plains.

We must practise the spirit of the bees, live and learn, keep busy and grow old.


生词摘抄：

scorpion n. 蝎子
lurk n.潜伏
itinerant n. 巡回者；行商
grumble v. 抱怨

阅读时间 10分钟
总结时间12 分钟  
总时间 22分钟

5月11日 听力任务

Singapore Seeks to Increase Local Food Production with Rooftop Farming

听写原文：




中心大意：

面对COVID 19 疫情，新加坡食品管理部门采取了包括在建筑物楼顶进行食物栽培等各种措施，来确保这个城市国家的视频供应。

听错了的单词：

within（写成了with）
weaken（听成了weekend）
还有 Southeast Asia，Food Agency等词首字母没有大写。
听写时间：23分钟

总结时间：18分钟

总时间：41分钟

yunjuan

虫力大 day1

CD用户1455103

SumeragiHuang Day 01

妥妥

龙驾马 发表于 2020-5-11 09:15
先发个阅读的笔记，听力的随后跟上

5月11日 阅读任务

同意！               

妥妥

yunjuan 发表于 2020-5-11 09:36
虫力大 day1

Mark一下！               

BenjaminRen

20200511打卡

MJB_HK

20200511打卡

lucin

2020.5.11  揽瓜阁 Day1

精读一

The honey trap：China’s beekeepers feel the sting of covid-19

1.中心大意

The covid-19 had a big influence in the honey-making industry.

[size=14.0000pt]2.总结分论点或每段段落大意

1) ZHANGYALI choose to live in rural rather than move to the safety of a village because she think the chemicals might kill their bees.

2) In the past, pesticides have long plagued China’s honey-making industry, but because of the imposed restrictions, covid-19 has been a bigger headache for the country’s  beekeepers this year.

3) In January local governments began to limit people’s movements. That many keepers stuck causes the insects died of starvation.

4) Even the government announced measures, the keepers also face many problems such as health checks and self-quarantine.

5) Some may be able to supplement their income by turning to a growth industry for owners of bees: pollinating farmers’ crops. But some regions are too far to make it worthwhile.

6) Even the economy is slowly recovering, for keepers it is too late. The keepers must practice the spirit of the bees.

[size=14.0000pt]3.摘抄印象深刻或者觉得优美的句子

This year, however, covid-19 has been a bigger headache for the country’s 250,000 beekeepers

4.总结文章中的生词

Itinerant 流动的   curb限制    betide降临于

grumble抱怨

[size=14.0000pt]5.记录阅读时间4min、总结时间30min、总时间40min.

精听一

Singapore Seeks to Increase Local Food Production with Rooftop Farming

Singapore has announced new measures designed to quickly increase local food production, including Rooftop Farming.

Officials in the city state recently set a goal to meet 30precent of Singapore’s nutritional needs with locally produce food by 2030.

The plan includes 21million dollars in government money to support local production of eggs, vegetables and fish in the shortest possible time.

The plans were announced as the world wide spread of COVID-19 has caused shortages of many products, including food in some areas.

Restrictions on population movements around the world have weekend supply chains and raised concerns about worsening shortages and price increase.

Currently, densely populated Singapore produces only about 10precent of its own food needs. Only 1precent of Singapore724 square kilometers is currently used for agriculture. And productions costs there are higher than the rest of Southeast Asia.

Singapore food agency says its goal is too raise local food production levels to make up for climate change and population growth that could threaten worldwide food supplies.

The current COVID-19 situation underscores the importance of local food production, as part of Singapore’s strategies to ensure food security.

The food agency said in a statement.

Singapore officials lave repeatedly told citizens that city states have enough food to get through the COVID-19 crisis. But they have to decides to speed up the process of increasing the local production to begin within the next six month.

This plan includes efforts to identify farming spaces, such as industrial areas and empty building methods. It’s also calls for adding new technologies to improve farming methods.

Offices said one part of the project aims to establish Rooftop farms on public housing parking areas beginning in May.

大意：针对疫情，新加坡宣布了粮食方面的种种措施及其重要性。

听写时间35min,总结时间10min,总时间50min