托福閱讀材料之環(huán)保發(fā)電

　　In the northwestern United States, the city of Seattle requires its residents to separate food waste from the rest of their trash. The food gets recycled into compost for lawns, gardens and, soon, into electricity.

　　美國西北地區(qū)的西雅圖市要求居民把殘羹剩飯等食品垃圾跟其他垃圾分開。食品垃圾回收發(fā)酵以后，用來給草坪和花園施肥，而且不久以后，還可以用來發(fā)電。

　　Every day, at Cedar Grove Composting north of Seattle, truck after truck pulls into this huge warehouse to dump loads of food and yard waste.

　　在西雅圖北面的杉木林積肥場，每天都有卡車一輛接著一輛開進這個巨大的倉庫，傾卸滿載的食物垃圾和庭院廢棄物。

　　"There's a nice mix of green waste and material. We actually have different seasons here in the tipping building," says Susan Thoman, business development director for Cedar Grove. "There's pumpkin season, that's the first of November after Halloween. We have Christmas tree season, which is obviously the first part of January after the holidays."

　　杉木林積肥場的業(yè)務發(fā)展部主任蘇珊.托曼說：“綠色廢物和材料很好的混合在一起。實際上在這個垃圾場有不同的季節(jié)。有南瓜季節(jié)，那是萬圣節(jié)后的11月1號。有圣誕樹季節(jié)，明擺著那是節(jié)日之后的1月上旬。”

　　According to Thoman, food waste and yard waste are currently all dumped in a pile together. Then they're mixed with microbes, ground up, and poured in long, covered rows to biodegrade for a month.

　　托曼說，現(xiàn)在食品垃圾和庭院廢棄物都堆放在一起。然后，這些廢物里攙進微生物，碾碎，再注入一個長形的有蓋子的池子里漚上一個月。

　　The people who work at Cedar Grove talk about compost the way chefs talk about food. Thoman digs her hands into a rich, dark pile of the finished product.

　　在杉木林積肥場工作的人談論起積肥來就像廚師談論菜肴一樣。托曼把手伸進一堆漚好的肥潤烏黑的產(chǎn)品當中。

　　"This is what it's all about, though, here. This is what those wonderful things we divert from the landfill turn into."

　　她說：“這才是它全部的意義所在。這是我們變廢為寶搞出來的東西。”

　　Alternative energy

　　Now Cedar Grove has a new recipe in mind for its food waste. Before turning banana peels and bread crusts into compost, the company wants to use them to create alternative energy.

　　目前，杉木林積肥場正在考慮一個新的處理食物垃圾的方案。在把香蕉皮和面包屑放進積肥堆之前，公司要用它們來創(chuàng)造替代能源。

　　Food waste would be separated and sprinkled with bacteria to help the food begin to break down. Then it would be poured into a closed container called an anaerobic digester, where the decomposing food would start releasing large amounts of methane.

　　處理過程是這樣的：先把食物垃圾分離出來，添加細菌，幫助食物垃圾分解。然后，注入一個叫作真空消化器的封閉容器，分解的食物垃圾在這里面開始釋放大量的沼氣。

　　Instead of letting that methane escape into the atmosphere, where it could contribute to global warming, Cedar Grove would suck it up and store it. Then they could burn it, to power and heat the compost facility.

　　如果這些沼氣進入大氣層，將會加劇全球變暖現(xiàn)象。杉木林積肥場將把這些沼氣收集儲存起來。然后，他們可以把沼氣當成燃料，給積肥場供電供暖。

　　Lawrence Klein, technology and development planner for Cedar Grove, says they could also convert the gas from the food waste to compressed natural gas, to fuel their trucks.

　　勞倫斯·克萊恩是杉木林積肥場的技術和發(fā)展規(guī)劃師。他說，他們也可以把食物垃圾產(chǎn)生的沼氣轉(zhuǎn)換成壓縮天然氣，給他們的卡車當燃料。

　　"I mean, it's a beautiful image," says Klein. "It's taking a waste product and then driving down the highway with it. I'm excited about it."

　　“我是說，這是個美麗的前景。利用廢物制成產(chǎn)品，然后用它來駕駛汽車跑在公路上。我為此而激動。”

　　以上就是今天的托福閱讀材料，大家可以在練習托福閱讀材料的同時，積累一些相關詞匯及句型，以便考試的時候更好地把握文意，奪得托福閱讀的高分。