A cheap, portable dehydrator system

by Emily Matchar

Roadside food drying is still practiced in much of the world. Farmers and food vendors use the heat and flatness of the street to dry everything from grain crops like corn and wheat to seafood to fruit. But this method leaves food vulnerable to contamination(污染) from mold, air pollutants(污染物), insects and more. Globally, more than a third of food is lost to post-harvest contamination.

roadside /n. 路邊(由road和side組成)

practice / v. 經(jīng)常做

vendor /  n. 賣家

flatness / n. 平坦(由flat加后綴-ness變成名詞)

grain /n. 谷物

wheat / n. 小麥

seafood / n. 海鮮(由sea和food組成)

vulnerable /  adj. 易受傷害的

mold / n. 霉菌

globally / adv. 在全世界(由global加后綴-ly變成副詞)

post- 前綴，意思是“在…之后”

harvest /  n. 收獲

An agricultural scientist at Purdue University aims to change that. Klein Ileleji has developed two technologies for drying food quickly and hygienically(衛(wèi)生地). The first is the Dehytray, a food dehydration tray with a protective cover that concentrates solar energy for faster drying times. The second is the Dehymeleon, a solar dryer that can hold 10 Dehytrays, and that can store extra solar energy for use as a power generator at night.

agricultural / adj. 農(nóng)業(yè)的(由agriculture加后綴-al變成形容詞)

dehydration / n. 干燥

tray /n. 托盤

protective /adj. 保護性的(由protect加后綴-ive變成形容詞)

concentrate / v. 聚集、使集中

solar / adj. 太陽的

dryer / n. 干燥器、烘干機(由dry加上表示人或物的后綴-er)

store /v. 儲存

generator /  n. 發(fā)電機

"We found in 2010 that one of the biggest challenges faced by farmers was aflatoxin(黃曲霉素) in their grains, and the primary cause of that was improperly dried grains," Ileleji says.

face / v. 面對

primary / adj. 主要的

cause /n. 原因、起因

improperly / adv. 不正確地、不恰當?shù)?由properly加上表示否定的前綴im-)

Aflatoxins, produced by molds growing on crops like corn and peanuts, can kill if eaten in high levels. And low-level exposure over time can cause cancer and other illnesses. Higher income countries screen for aflatoxins but local growers in lower income countries don't have that luxury.

level / n. 數(shù)量、濃度

exposure /  n. (無防護的)接觸(有害物質)

over time 隨著時間的推移

cause / v. 造成、導致

income /n. 收入

screen / v. 篩查、檢查

grower /  n. 種植者(由grow加上表示人的后綴-er)

luxury /  n. 奢侈

The Dehytray, about 90 centimeters long, can be used in the sun with protective covers, or stacked inside a dehydrator for larger-scale drying. Farmers can use them to dry nearly any food, from fruit to grain to seeds. Because of the way they concentrate sunlight, the trays dry crops far more quickly than open sun, shaving up to a day off dehydration times.

centimeter / n. 厘米

stack / v. 堆疊

dehydrator / n. 干燥機

scale / n. 規(guī)模

seed /n. 種子

shave off 減少(某個數(shù)量)

It's key that the dehydrators run on free natural energy, since many developing world farmers don't have reliable access to electricity. "If it takes energy and takes resources that folks don't have to use or to burn, they're not going to use it," says Gretchen Mosher, a professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State University.★ "And it will just become one of those projects that the Western people come in and develop and then it sits there after they leave."

key /adj. 關鍵的

run / v. 運作

reliable / adj. 可靠的

access / n. 使用權、使用機會

resource / n. 資源

biosystem / n. 生物系統(tǒng)(由system加上表示生物的前綴bio-)

★ 這句話要在have和to之間斷句，that folks don't have是定語從句，修飾之前的resources，而to use or to burn是兩個不定式并列，表示目的

project /  n. 項目

Ileleji's dehydrators have been "really thoughtfully designed in terms of who's going to use this and why, and that's what makes it innovative," Mosher says.

thoughtfully / adv. 考慮周到地(由thoughtful加后綴-ly變成副詞)

in terms of 就…而言

innovative / adj. 創(chuàng)新的

The needs of the poor in developing nations are often overlooked by companies, Ileleji says. In most countries it's easy to purchase a luxury car (presuming you have the cash), but difficult – until now – to purchase a simple device like the Dehytray.

nation /n.

overlook / v. 忽視

purchase /v. 購買

presume / v. 假定、假設

device /n. 設備、裝置

"How is it you can buy a Mercedes-Benz but you can't purchase a solar dryer " Ileleji asks. "Technologies that are needed by people at the bottom of the pyramid are not available."

Mercedes-Benz 指奔馳汽車

pyramid / n. 金字塔

英文原文節(jié)選自Smithsonia