VOA慢速英语:American Company Helps Small Farmers Make Money

短语讲解：

1. But now, instead of raising crops, he is raising the earnings of local farmers.

instead of （用…） 代替…， （是…）而不是…
例句：A spirit lamp burns spirits instead of oil.
酒精灯里点的不是油而是酒精。

2. Faison seems at ease with life on a farm.

at ease 安逸，自由自在; 自然
例句：He is at ease about the matter.
他对这事很放心。

3. Slowly, he began to learn about the economic issues farmers face.

learn about 获得，学得; 得知有关…的消息
例句：He took a course to learn about car maintenance.
他学习了汽车保养的课程。

4. And they’re working very hard, but they’re not able to drive the income from farming to sort of make it economically viable.

be able to 能够; 能，会
例句：They may be able to help with childcare so that you can have a break
他们可以帮忙照料孩子，这样你就可以歇一歇了。

5. And so, since we spend so little on food, we expect food to be inexpensive, which means in order to make a living doing it, you have to have really, really big volumes.

in order to 为了…
例句：He did not come here in order to attend the meeting.
他来这里决不是要参加会议的。

6. And so having big volumes of, of, of anything can be very expensive in terms of having enough cattle, having enough hogs or having enough infrastructure to support having those animals.

in terms of 根据; 用…的话
例句：In terms of cash outlay, the sum is peanuts.
从花费来看,这笔钱乃区区小数。