VOA慢速英语:Agriculture Report--MadiDrop

Students at the University of Virginia have developed a new way of purifying water. They say it could bring improved water quality to millions of people in the developing world.  They called it MadiDrop. Field testing begins recently in South Africa. The laboratory in which the MadiDrop is made operates like a kitchen.
弗吉尼亚大学的学生开发了一种净化水的新方法。他们说，这种方法可以为发展中国家无数人口提供质量改善的水，该方法被称为MadiDrop，最近在南非进行田间试验。开发MadiDrop的实验室操作起来像个厨房。

Workers add ingredients and mix, weigh, press and bake. What the workers are making is a ceramic disc that contains silver.
工人们添加进各种原料，然后混在一起、称重、按压和烘烤。工人们要做出的是含有银的陶瓷圆片。

When the disc is dropped in water, silver ions are released to purify the water. Ions are atoms that have an electrical charge. Testing at the University of Virginia shows that the disc produces clean, safe water.
把圆片放进水中，银离子就被释放出来净化水，离子是有一个电荷的原子。弗吉尼亚大学的测试表明，这种圆片可以制造出干净安全的用水。

Beeta Ehdaie is a doctoral candidate at UVA.
Beeta Ehdaie是弗吉尼亚大学的博士研究生。

"It's not just about making a really great technology that effectively removes or kills bacteria and pathogens.  It's about making a low cost, simple to use one, tailored to people in developing countries who don't have many resources."
“这并不是什么伟大的将细菌消除或杀死的技术，而是成本很低，很简单的方法，专为发展中国家没什么资源的人们而开发。”

The students are experimenting with different sizes of MadiDrops to match them with different sized water containers.  Why the name "MadiDrop"?
学生们在测试各种型号的MadiDrop，来用于各种型号的水容器。为什么取名MadiDrop呢？

The word "madi" means water in Tshivenda, a language of Limpopo Province in South Africa. There, fifty women run a factory that makes water filters. The university started the factory last summer.
文达语是南非林波波省的一种语言，在文达语中，madi意思是水。在那里，50名妇女开了一家制造滤水器的工厂，这所大学去年夏天建立了这家工厂。

The women mix sawdust and clay to make flower pot shaped filters that they use to purify drinking water. The water flows through the filters is which trap bacteria and solid particles. The factory sells the filters to local families. Manager Certinah Khashane says the work has changed the women's lives.
妇女们将锯屑和粘土混在一起，制造花盆状的滤水器，用来净化饮用水。水流过滤水器时，其中的细菌和固体颗粒被隔离出来。这家工厂将过滤器卖给当地人家。经理Certinah Khashane说，这家工厂改变了妇女们的生活。

"When they get money for those pots, they just buying school uniform for their children."
“她们卖出这些滤水器，就可以给孩子们买校服了。”

But the MadiDrop is smaller and less expensive than the filters. Over the next few months, students will test the MadiDrop in South Africa.
但与滤水器相比，MadiDrop更小更便宜。未来几个月内，学生们将在南非对MadiDrop进行测试。

Maggie Montgomery is a water expert with the World Health Organization. Over Skype, she explained what field testing should show.
Maggie Montgomery是世卫组织的健康专家，她通过Skype解释了田间测试是什么回事。

"Do they find it convenient, does it have a certain taste they don't like to the water, what happens once it becomes exhausted?"
“看看是否方便使用，味道是否和水不同，用废后会怎么样？”If the testing is successful, the South African women will make and sell the MadiDrops. The goal is to expand such factories to other developing countries and improve millions of lives each year.
如果测试成功，南非妇女们将制作并出售MadiDrops。其目标是将这类工厂扩展到其他发展中国家，每年改善数百万人的生活。

Jim Smith is a UVA engineering professor. He leads the project.
Jim Smith是弗吉尼亚大学一名机械学教授，他是该项目的负责人。

"Imagine a magic stone and you take this magic stone and you drop it in your water container.  It purifies the water and makes it safe to drink.  And then imagine that this magic stone only costs a few dollars. That's what a MadiDrop is."
“想象下一块神奇的石头，拿起这块石头投入水容器中。它能净化水，让水安全能饮用。然后想象下这块神奇的石头只卖几美元，这就是MadiDrop。”

Professor Smith says he has received calls from companies that want to make the MadiDrop.
Smith教授说，他接到一些工厂的电话，它们希望能生产MadiDrop。