Seventeenth-Century Dutch Agriculture
P1:
Agriculture and fishing formed the primary sector of the economy in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Dutch agriculture was modernized and commercialized new crops and agricultural techniques raised levels of production so that they were in line with market demands, and cheap grain was imported annually from the Baltic region in large quantities. According to estimates, about 120,000 tons of imported grain fed about 600,000 people: that is about a third of the Dutch population. Importing the grain, which would have been expensive and time-consuming for the Dutch to have produced themselves, kept the price of grain low and thus stimulated individual demand for other foodstuffs and consumer goods.
難詞解析：
Commercialize v. 使商業(yè)化
in line with 與...保持一致
Time-consuming adj. 耗費(fèi)時(shí)間的
難句解析：
Importing the grain, [which would have been expensive and time consuming for the Dutch to have produced themselves], kept the price of grain low and thus stimulated individual demand for other foodstuffs and consumer goods.
句子的主干信息是Importing the grain kept the price low and thus stimulated demand。 Which引導(dǎo)的部分用來(lái)修飾前文的grain，而demand of 之后的部分是對(duì)demand的具體說(shuō)明。句子中還有很重要的一點(diǎn)就是would have been expensive 表達(dá)的意思現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)不expensive。
翻譯為[荷蘭人自己生產(chǎn)這些糧食昂貴又費(fèi)時(shí)]，進(jìn)口糧食使得現(xiàn)在糧食的價(jià)格保持在低位，因而刺激了個(gè)人對(duì)其他食物和消費(fèi)品的需求。
P2：
Apart from this, being able to give up labor-intensive grain production freed both the land and the workforce for more productive agricultural divisions. The peasants specialized in livestock husbandry and dairy farming as well as in cultivating industrial crops and fodder crops: flax, madder, and rape were grown, as were tobacco, hops, and turnips. These products were bought mostly by urban businesses. There was also a demand among urban consumers for dairy products such as butter and cheese, which, in the sixteenth century, had become more expensive than grain. The high prices encouraged the peasants to improve their animal husbandry techniques; for example, they began feeding their animals indoors in order to raise the milk yield of their cows.
難詞解析：
labor-intensive adj. 勞動(dòng)密集型
apart from 除...之外
free v. 解放
livestock n. 家禽
husbandry n. 農(nóng)業(yè)
yield n. 產(chǎn)量
encourage sb to do sth 鼓勵(lì)某人做某事，可表示因果
難句解析：
Apart from this, being able to give up labor-intensive grain production freed both the land and the workforce for more productive agricultural divisions.
apart from=除了……之外，being able to do做主語(yǔ)，free在這里用做動(dòng)詞。
翻譯為除了這些，放棄這種勞動(dòng)密集型的糧食生產(chǎn)解放了土地和勞動(dòng)力使之能夠分散參與到更多的農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)中。
P3：
In addition to dairy farming and cultivating industrial crops, a third sector of the Dutch economy reflected the way in which agriculture was being modernized-horticulture. In the sixteenth century, fruit and vegetables were to be found only in gardens belonging to wealthy people. This changed in the early part of the seventeenth century when horticulture became accepted as an agricultural sector. Whole villages began to cultivate fruit and vegetables. The produce was then transported by water to markets in the cities, where the consumption of fruit and vegetables was no longer restricted to the wealthy.
難詞解析：
Horticulture n. 園藝學(xué)
belong to 屬于
consumption n. 消費(fèi)，消耗
難句解析：
In addition to dairy farming and cultivating industrial crops, a third sector of the Dutch economy reflected the way in which agriculture was being modernized-horticulture.
In addition to=除了……之外，a third sector of=……的三分之一
翻譯為除了乳品業(yè)和工業(yè)作物的種植，荷蘭經(jīng)濟(jì)的三分之一反映在現(xiàn)代化的園藝上。
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P1：
_____和_____是十七世紀(jì)荷蘭經(jīng)濟(jì)的主要成分。
P2：
荷蘭農(nóng)業(yè)從_____轉(zhuǎn)向更高產(chǎn)的領(lǐng)域。.
P3:
農(nóng)業(yè)轉(zhuǎn)向的第三個(gè)領(lǐng)域_____。
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參考答案：
P1 agriculture，fishing
P2 labor-intensive
P3 horticulture