VOA常速英语:Entrepreneur Helps World's Poor While Turning a Profit

短语讲解：

1. As part of that class, he went to Ethiopia to look for irrigation solutions for small farms.

look for寻找
例句：Some birds are looking for food.
有些鸟在寻找食物。

2. It didn’t take him long to come up with an answer.

come up with想出, 提出
例句：I hope you can come up with a better plan than this.
我希望你们能提出一个比这个更好的计划。

3. “What many people don’t realize is that over 50 percent of our fresh water is used for agriculture," he says.

be used for用来做…
例句：Needles are used for sewing.
针是用来缝衣服的。

4. “Most small-plot farmers don’t have high-pressure pumps so our system runs off of gravity pressure" says Frykman.

run off 使流出
例句：He ran off a bucket of water from the barrel.
他从大木桶中放出一桶水。

5. We can actually run it off of just an elevated tank of water, so it scales down to their needs.

scale down按比例缩减[小],按比例减少[降低]
例句：The company has begun to scale down its operations in Asia.
这家公司已开始减少在亚洲的业务。

6. She says it’s clear that the irrigation system is having an impact on farmers and the demand for it growing rapidly.

have an impact on对…有影响;对…起作用,产生效果
例句：This book have a far-reaching impact on readers.
这本书对读者产生了长远影响。

7. “We’ve seen, with our farmers in China, income increase around 50 percent which makes a dramatic difference in their lifestyle," says Huber, "and their ability to pursue other employment opportunities, send their kids to school, get proper health care and we’ve seen some very big impacts there and there’s so many people in China who need this technology.”

make a difference有影响，有关系
例句：What you have told me may make a difference to my own position. 
你告诉我的一切，可能影响我自己的看法。 

8. According to Huber, Driptech’s system gives small farmers in India a steady income stream because they no longer have to depend on the monsoons for water and can grow year-round, even during the dry season

depend on 依赖, 依靠
例句：All living things depend on the sun for their growth.
万物靠太阳生长。

9. But Frykman believes his company’s greatest success lies in the number of individual farmers whose lives have been improved.

lie in在于
例句：Your problem lies in lacking efficient methods.
你的问题在于缺少有效的方法。