VOA慢速英语:Mangrove Trees Fight Poverty in Eritrean Village

Last Friday was the anniversary of the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The surprise attack killed 2,400 Americans and pushed the United States into World War Two. The following year, the government ordered more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry into 10 camps to live during the war.
上周五是1941年12月7日日本偷袭夏威夷美国海军基地珍珠港的周年纪念日。偷袭杀死了2400名美国人，并将美国卷入第二次世界大战。接下来的一年，美国政府命令超过11万拥有日本血统者在战争期间迁入10个营地生活。

Gordon Sato was born in Los Angeles and was a teenager at the beginning of the war. He and his Japanese-American family were forced to live in the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California. He learned to make corn grow in the dry, dusty soil.
Gordon Sato出生于洛杉矶，战争开始时，他还是一名少年。他和他的日裔家庭被迫迁往加利福尼亚州的Manzanar战争拆迁中心。他学会了在这片干燥、尘土飞扬的土地上种植玉米。

He later became a cell biologist. He earned many honors for his research. But he never forgot his experience in the camp.
他后来成为细胞生物学家。他在研究上获得了许多荣誉。但他从来没有忘记自己在营地的那段经历。

In 1985 he went to Eritrea for the first time. He wanted to see what he could do to help the people in their struggle for independence from Ethiopia.
1985年，他第一次去厄立特里亚。他想去看看自己能帮助这些争取从埃塞俄比亚独立出来的人们做些什么。

He noticed that camels were eating the leaves of mangrove trees growing along the coast. He planted more mangroves so they could be used to feed livestock. But at first all the new trees died.
他注意到，骆驼吃着沿岸生长的红树林的树叶。他种了更多红树，这样就能用它们喂养牲口。但在一开始，所有新种的树都死了。

Then Gordon Sato observed that mangrove trees only grew naturally where there was fresh water some of the time. The fresh water provided minerals that salt water lacked.
随后Gordon Sato察到，红树只能在偶尔有淡水的地方自然生长。这些淡水能够提供海水无法提供的矿物质。

"I went to the area where I planted trees before and they all died, and planted a few thousand more by providing nitrogen, phosphorous and iron. They all grew beautifully and they’ve been growing for over 10 years. They are huge trees now."
“我去到之前种下树又死了的那些地方，又通过提供氮、磷和铁的方法新种了几千棵树。这些树都长得很漂亮，它们已经生长超过十年。现在它们都成了大树。”

Gordon Sato found a way to provide these minerals by putting nitrogen, phosphorous and iron into small plastic bags at the base of each tree. Each plastic bag had a tiny hole that was very carefully sized.
Gordon Sato通过将氮、磷和铁放入每棵树根部的小塑料袋，找到了提供矿物质的办法。每个塑料袋都有一个量身定做的小孔。

The women in the village of Hargigo started to feed the leaves of the mangroves to their sheep and goats. But the animals were not producing enough milk for their babies.
Hargigo村的妇女开始用红树林的叶子喂绵羊和山羊。但是，这些动物无法给幼崽提供足够的乳汁。

Gordon Sato asked the villagers to grind the remains of fish they had eaten and spread this fish paste on the leaves. This provided protein for the sheep and goats so they could produce more milk.
Gordon Sato让村民将吃剩的鱼磨碎撒到树叶上。这样就为绵羊和山羊提供了蛋白质，它们就能产更多奶水。

Gordon Sato called his work in Eritrea the Manzanar Project to honor the memory of the Japanese-Americans in the relocation camp.
Gordon Sato将他在厄立特里亚的工作项目称为Manzanar，以纪念拆迁营的日裔美国人。

Today there are more than one million mangrove trees around the village.
现今，这个村庄周围有1百多万棵红树。

Gordon Sato has also started a large garden in Mauritania to grow more mangrove trees.
Gordon Sato还在毛里塔尼亚开办了一个大型庄园来种植更多红树。

December 17th will be his 85th birthday, and he is always looking for new projects and new ways to pay for them.
12月17日是他85岁生日，而他也一直在寻找新项目和新方法来为此筹钱。

"You don’t have to be brilliant to do useful work. All you have to have is moderate intelligence and determination, and you can make a contribution to this world."
“你无需卓越非凡才能做有益的工作，你所需要的只是适度的智慧和决心。这样你就能够为这个世界做贡献。”