2011年考研英语特训：看阅读背单词(8)

　　Even plants can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or disease. But unlike humans, plants can have their temperature taken from 3,000 feet away- straight up. A decade ago, adapting the infraredscanningtechnology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up witha quick way to take the temperature of crops to determinewhich ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers preciselytargetpesticide spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest problems.

　　Even better, Paley’s Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded may showing where plants were running “fevers”. Farmers could then spot-spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.

　　The bad news is that Paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. “This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States,” says George Oerther of Texas A&M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.

　　译文

　　植物也会发烧，特别是当它们受到害虫攻击或生病的时候。但是，与人类不同的是植物的体温在3000英尺以外就可以被直接测量出来。十年前，物理学家斯蒂芬帕雷通过采用原用于军事和卫星的红外线扫描技术，提出了一种快速测量农作物体温以确定哪些作物正遭受病虫害的方法。目的是为了让农民精确地确定喷洒杀虫剂的地方而无需把整块地都撒上药，因为那样做毫无疑问要殃及没染上害虫的植物。

　　更妙的是，帕雷的远程扫描服务公司可以在肉眼还没有发现农作物出现问题时就探测出这些问题。夜间，在飞行高度为3000英尺的飞机上，远红外线扫描仪可以测量植物散发出来的热量。这些数据被转换到一张彩色编码的地图上，显示植物的哪些部位在“发烧”。农民们就可以用比原来少50%到70%的杀虫剂定点喷药。

　　坏消息是帕雷的公司在仅仅3年后，即1984年就倒闭了。农民们抵制这项新技术，帕雷也很难找到长期的合作者。但随着人们对农用杀虫剂的重新关注及远红外线扫描技术的提高，帕雷希望重操旧业。农业专家们毫不怀疑这项技术的功效。“这项技术可以被应用到美国75%的耕地上”，德克萨斯州A&M 的乔治奥瑟说。刚从美国农业部退休的雷杰克逊认为，远红外线农作物扫描技术在本年代末有望得到应用。但条件是帕雷能找到10年前他没能得到的经济支持。