2011年考研英語特訓：看閱讀背單詞(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.

　　譯文

　　植物也會發燒，特別是當它們受到害蟲攻擊或生病的時候。但是，與人類不同的是植物的體溫在3000英尺以外就可以被直接測量出來。十年前，物理學家斯蒂芬帕雷通過采用原用于軍事和衛星的紅外線掃描技術，提出了一種快速測量農作物體溫以確定哪些作物正遭受病蟲害的方法。目的是為了讓農民精確地確定噴灑殺蟲劑的地方而無需把整塊地都撒上藥，因為那樣做毫無疑問要殃及沒染上害蟲的植物。

　　更妙的是，帕雷的遠程掃描服務公司可以在肉眼還沒有發現農作物出現問題時就探測出這些問題。夜間，在飛行高度為3000英尺的飛機上，遠紅外線掃描儀可以測量植物散發出來的熱量。這些數據被轉換到一張彩色編碼的地圖上，顯示植物的哪些部位在“發燒”。農民們就可以用比原來少50%到70%的殺蟲劑定點噴藥。

　　壞消息是帕雷的公司在僅僅3年后，即1984年就倒閉了。農民們抵制這項新技術，帕雷也很難找到長期的合作者。但隨著人們對農用殺蟲劑的重新關注及遠紅外線掃描技術的提高，帕雷希望重操舊業。農業專家們毫不懷疑這項技術的功效�！斑@項技術可以被應用到美國75%的耕地上”，德克薩斯州A&M 的喬治奧瑟說。剛從美國農業部退休的雷杰克遜認為，遠紅外線農作物掃描技術在本年代末有望得到應用。但條件是帕雷能找到10年前他沒能得到的經濟支持。