Even plants can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or disease. But unlike humans, plants can have their temperature taken from 3,000 feet away- straight up. A decade ago, adapting the infrared scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest problems.

Even better, Paley’s Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded may showing where plants were running “fevers”. Farmers could then spot-spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.

The bad news is that Paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. “This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States,” says George Oerther of Texas A&M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.

译文

植物也会发烧，特别是当它们受到害虫攻击或生病的时候。但是，与人类不同的是植物的体温在3000英尺以外就可以被直接测量出来。十年前，物理学家斯蒂芬帕雷通过采用原用于军事和卫星的红外线扫描技术，提出了一种快速测量农作物体温以确定哪些作物正遭受病虫害的方法。目的是为了让农民精确地确定喷洒杀虫剂的地方而无需把整块地都撒上药，因为那样做毫无疑问要殃及没染上害虫的植物。

更妙的是，帕雷的远程扫描服务公司可以在肉眼还没有发现农作物出现问题时就探测出这些问题。夜间，在飞行高度为3000英尺的飞机上，远红外线扫描仪可以测量植物散发出来的热量。这些数据被转换到一张彩色编码的地图上，显示植物的哪些部位在“发烧”。农民们就可以用比原来少50%到70%的杀虫剂定点喷药。

坏消息是帕雷的公司在仅仅3年后，即1984年就倒闭了。农民们抵制这项新技术，帕雷也很难找到长期的合作者。但随着人们对农用杀虫剂的重新关注及远红外线扫描技术的提高，帕雷希望重操旧业。农业专家们毫不怀疑这项技术的功效。“这项技术可以被应用到美国75%的耕地上”，德克萨斯州A&M 的乔治奥瑟说。刚从美国农业部退休的雷杰克逊认为，远红外线农作物扫描技术在本年代末有望得到应用。但条件是帕雷能找到10年前他没能得到的经济支持。

词汇

派生：adoption n. 收养，采用

例句：The old couple decided to adopt a boy and a girl though they had already two children. 虽然这对老夫妇已经有两个孩子，但是他们决定再收养一个男孩和一个女孩。

例句：She came up with a soloution to the problem of pollution. 她提出了一个办法来解决污染问题。

派生：determination n. 决心

例句：They cannot determine their optimum price and output with neat exactitude. 他们不   能精确无误地知道最优价格和产量。

词组：determine to do sth. 决心做某事；determine on sth. 决定某事

派生：emission n. 发出，发射

例句：A volcano emits smoke, lava and ashes. 火山喷射出烟，岩浆和灰烬。

例句：The plastic blocks infrared rays from sunlight. 这种塑料可以阻挡阳光中的红外线。

词组：infrard lamp 红外线灯具；infrared radiation 红外线辐射

派生：obtainable a. 可获得的，能取到的

例句：If you do not pass College English Test Band 4, you can not obtain the bachelor’s degree. 如果你不通过大学英语四级考试，就不能获得学士学位。

辨析：get, obtain, gain, acquire

      get 概括性最强，包括了以下讨论的每一种情况；obtain 用于正式文体，强调挑选某物，通过艰苦努力得到，意思是获得；gain 指在寻求过程中付出了代价，也可指武力夺取；acquire 是一种逐渐习得的过程，这种过程持续而缓慢。

例句：They sprinkled pesticide to bug the potatoes. 他们喷撒杀虫剂给马铃薯除虫。

派生：precise a. 精确的，准确的；恰好的；周密的 precision n. 周密，准确

例句：Planes fly daily over regular routes with timetable precisely. 飞机每天精确地按时刻表飞行在各条航线上。

例句：Much new knowledge is remote from the immediate interest of the ordinary person. 许多新知识与普通人目前的利益关系甚远。

词组：remote stars 遥远的星群；the remote future 遥远的未来

辨析：remote, distant, far

      remote 不仅表示孤独，还表示时空上的遥远；distant 可以表示特定的分离或确定的距离；far 表示遥远的距离。

派生：resistance n. 抵制，反抗；阻力 resistant a. 有抵抗力的

例句：The city resisted the enemies’ onslaught for a month. 一个月来这座城市抵抗了敌人的猛攻。

例句：I scanned the newspaper when I waite for the subway. 在我等地铁时我匆匆把报纸翻阅了一下。

例句：She missed the target. 她没有击中目标。

      Our missiles are targeted on/at the enemy’s cities. 我们的导弹对准了敌人的城市。

派生：transformer n. 改革者；变压器

例句：A steam engine transforms heat into power. 蒸汽机把热转化成动力。

词组：transform… into… 由……转化……

辨析：change, alter, convert, modify, transform

      chang 是最通俗的词，可以指各方面的改变；alter和modify, convert 都指在外观或用途上作轻微改变；alter 最不正式，convert 次之，modify 最正式，改变程度也以此排列，alter 常用于修改服装；transform 注意它的词根是form 既从形态上进行改变，也从根本上改变。