FDA: Human, Animal Waste Threatens Produce

    The biggest food safety risk for fresh fruits and vegetables as they are grown, picked or processed comes from human and animal waste, the US Food and Drug Administration （FDA）¹ said Friday.
　　More than 9, 000 Americans die each year from food-borne diseases and some scientists believe fresh produce is the biggest carrier of contamination.²
　　The FDA issued a set of draft guidelines for U. S. and foreign growers to carefully monitor worker hygiene, water quality, manure management and transportation.³
　　This 34-page draft guidelines urged growers to give workers lessons on basic hygiene such as using soap to wash their hands, covering wounds that could come into contact with produce⁴, and using only clean toilets.
　　The FDA guidelines identified “the major source of contamination ”for fresh produce as human or animal feces.
　　“We think just proper controls and proper attention to detail would make a big difference in food safety,” ⁵ said and FDA official, “It is our belief that these guidelines would not be very costly.” ⁶
　　But grower groups disagreed with the FDA"s assessment. “Most food-borne disease outbreaks that happen further down the distribution line are due to contamination because people preparing food are not properly washing their hands, ”said Stacey Zawal, an official with United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association. “That is not necessarily true for growers and packers.”⁷
　　Some US  grower organizations have expressed concern that the agency is interfering with on-farm practices. ⁸ Others object to the FDA"s proposal to have growers formally document the picking, handling and transportation of produce so that health officials could quickly recall foods if necessary.⁹
　　Consumer groups criticized the FDA guidelines as of little use because they will not carry the force of law.¹⁰ But stricter regulations could evolve as researchers find new technology or methods to kill harmful bacteria or parasites, the FDA said.
　　The FDA recommendations are due to be made final by the FDA later this year for use by US and foreign growers. The matter of encouraging foreign growers to adopt the guidelines remains somewhat tricky¹¹ but FDA officials say it is vital because of the huge amount of imported produce.

词汇：

contamination/ kənˌtæmɪ"neɪʃən/n. 弄脏，污染，玷污 

guideline / ˈgaɪdlaɪn/n.指导方针，准则，标准
manure/ məˈnjʊə/n. 肥料，粪肥

document / "dɒkjʊmənt/vt.用文件证明；为……提供文件
feces / "fi:si:z/n.粪便，排泄物 

recall/ rɪˈkɔ:l/vt. 收回，撤销；记得，回想起
parasite / "pærəsaɪt/n.寄生生物；寄生虫 

 tricky / ˈtrɪki/adj.需慎重对待的，难对付的，微妙的，难以捉摸的；诡计多端的，狡猾的

An FDA official said that putting the guidelines into practice____

A:would be too costly to be effective B:would not cost any money C:would not be very expensive D:would needs lots of money

Britain’s undeclared general election campaign has already seen the politicians trading numbers as boxers trade punches. There is nothing new in such statistical slanging matches(相互谩骂)What is new is an underestimation of worry about what has been happening to official statistics under the Labour government.
One of the most important figures for Gordon Brown when presenting his pre-election budget on March 16th was the current-budget balance. This is the gap between current revenues and current spending. It matters to the chancellor of the exchequer(财政部长) because he is committed to meeting his own "golden rule" of borrowing only to invest, so he has to ensure that the current budget is in balance or surplus over the economic cycle.
Mr. Brown told MPs that he would meet the golden rule for the current cycle with ￡ 6 billion ($11.4 billion) to spare—a respectable-sounding margin, though much less than in the past. However, the margin would have been halved but for an obscure technical change announced in February by the Office for National Statistics to the figures for road maintenance of major highways. The ONS said that the revision was necessary because it had been double-counting this spending within the current budget.
If this were an isolated incident, then it might be disregarded. But it is not the first time that the ONS has made decisions that appear rather convenient for the government. Mr. Brown aims to meet another fiscal rule, namely to keep public net debt below 40% of GDP, again over the economic cycle. At present he is meeting it but his comfort room would be reduced if the S 21 billion borrowings of Network Rail were included as part of public debt. They are not thanks to a controversial decision by the ONS to classify the rail-infrastructure corporation within the private sector, even though the National Audit Office, Parliament’s watchdog, said its borrowings were in fact government liabilities.
This makes it particularly worrying that the official figures can show one thing, whereas the public experiences another. One of the highest-profile targets for the NHS is that no patient should spend more than four hours in a hospital accident and emergency department. Government figures show that by mid-2004, the target was being met for 9696 of patients. But according to a survey of 55,000 patients by the Healthcare Commission, an independent body, only 77% of patients said they stayed no more than four hours in A&E.
One way to help restore public confidence in official statistics would be to make the ONS independent, as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have suggested. Another would be for the National Audit Office to assess how the government has been performing against targets, as the Public Administration Committee has recommended.
It can be inferred from the first paragraph that

A:the British politicians are often compared to boxers by the people. B:it is a common practice that the government plays with figures. C:people often overestimate the credibility of official statistics. D:the Labor government usually underestimate its official figures.

Britain’s undeclared general election campaign has already seen the politicians trading numbers as boxers trade punches. There is nothing new in such statistical slanging matches (相互谩骂). What is new is an underestimation of worry about what has been happening to official statistics under the Labour government.
One of the most important figures for Gordon Brown when presenting his pre-election budget on March 16th was the current-budget balance. This is the gap between current revenues and current spending. It matters to the chancellor of the exchequer(财政部长) because he is committed to meeting his own "golden rule" of borrowing only to invest, so he has to ensure that the current budget is in balance or surplus over the economic cycle.
Mr. Brown told MPs that he would meet the golden rule for the current cycle with & 6 billion ( $11.4 billion) to spare--a respectable-sounding margin, though much less than in the past. However, the margin would have been halved but for an obscure technical change announced in February by the Office for National Statistics to the figures for road maintenance of major highways. The ONS said that the revision was necessary because it had been double-counting this spending within the current budget.
If this were an isolated incident, then it might be disregarded. But it is not the first time that the ONS has made decisions that appear rather convenient for the government. Mr. Brown aims to meet another fiscal rule, namely to keep pubic net debt below 40% of GDP, again over the economic cycle. At present he is meeting it but his comfort room would be reduced if the & 21 billion borrowings of Network Rail were included as part of public debt. They are not thanks to a controversial decision by the ONS to classify the rail-infrastructure corporation within the private sector, even though the National Audit Office, Parliament’s watchdog, said its borrowings were in fact government liabilities.
This makes it particularly worrying that the official figures can show one thing, whereas the public experiences another. One of the highest-profile targets for the NHS is that no patient should spend more than four hours in a hospital accident and emergency department. Government figures show that by mid-2004, the target was being met for 96% of patients. But according to a survey of 55,000 patients by the Healthcare Commission, an independent body, only 77% of patients said they stayed no more than four hours in A&E.
One way to help restore public confidence in official statistics would be to make the ONS independent, as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have suggested. Another would be for the National Audit Office to assess how the government has been performing against targets, as the Public Administration Committee has recommended.
It can be inferred from the first paragraph that

A:the British politicians are often compared to boxers by the people. B:it is a common practice that the government plays with figures. C:people often overestimate the credibility of official statistics. D:the Labor government usually underestimate its official figures.

Britain’s undeclared general election campaign has already seen the politicians trading numbers as boxers trade punches. There is nothing new in such statistical slanging matches(相互谩骂)What is new is an underestimation of worry about what has been happening to official statistics under the Labour government.
One of the most important figures for Gordon Brown when presenting his pre-election budget on March 16th was the current-budget balance. This is the gap between current revenues and current spending. It matters to the chancellor of the exchequer(财政部长) because he is committed to meeting his own "golden rule" of borrowing only to invest, so he has to ensure that the current budget is in balance or surplus over the economic cycle.
Mr. Brown told MPs that he would meet the golden rule for the current cycle with ￡ 6 billion ($11.4 billion) to spare—a respectable-sounding margin, though much less than in the past. However, the margin would have been halved but for an obscure technical change announced in February by the Office for National Statistics to the figures for road maintenance of major highways. The ONS said that the revision was necessary because it had been double-counting this spending within the current budget.
If this were an isolated incident, then it might be disregarded. But it is not the first time that the ONS has made decisions that appear rather convenient for the government. Mr. Brown aims to meet another fiscal rule, namely to keep public net debt below 40% of GDP, again over the economic cycle. At present he is meeting it but his comfort room would be reduced if the S 21 billion borrowings of Network Rail were included as part of public debt. They are not thanks to a controversial decision by the ONS to classify the rail-infrastructure corporation within the private sector, even though the National Audit Office, Parliament’s watchdog, said its borrowings were in fact government liabilities.
This makes it particularly worrying that the official figures can show one thing, whereas the public experiences another. One of the highest-profile targets for the NHS is that no patient should spend more than four hours in a hospital accident and emergency department. Government figures show that by mid-2004, the target was being met for 9696 of patients. But according to a survey of 55,000 patients by the Healthcare Commission, an independent body, only 77% of patients said they stayed no more than four hours in A&E.
One way to help restore public confidence in official statistics would be to make the ONS independent, as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have suggested. Another would be for the National Audit Office to assess how the government has been performing against targets, as the Public Administration Committee has recommended.

A:the British politicians are often compared to boxers by the people. B:it is a common practice that the government plays with figures. C:people often overestimate the credibility of official statistics. D:the Labor government usually underestimate its official figures.

Text 4

A:the British politicians are often compared to boxers by the people. B:it is a common practice that the government plays with figures. C:people often overestimate the credibility of official statistics. D:the Labor government usually underestimate its official figures.

Britain’s undeclared general election campaign has already seen the politicians trading numbers as boxers trade punches. There is nothing new in such statistical slanging matches(相互谩骂)What is new is an underestimation of worry about what has been happening to official statistics under the Labour government.
One of the most important figures for Gordon Brown when presenting his pre-election budget on March 16th was the current-budget balance. This is the gap between current revenues and current spending. It matters to the chancellor of the exchequer(财政部长) because he is committed to meeting his own "golden rule" of borrowing only to invest, so he has to ensure that the current budget is in balance or surplus over the economic cycle.
Mr. Brown told MPs that he would meet the golden rule for the current cycle with ￡ 6 billion ($11.4 billion) to spare—a respectable-sounding margin, though much less than in the past. However, the margin would have been halved but for an obscure technical change announced in February by the Office for National Statistics to the figures for road maintenance of major highways. The ONS said that the revision was necessary because it had been double-counting this spending within the current budget.
If this were an isolated incident, then it might be disregarded. But it is not the first time that the ONS has made decisions that appear rather convenient for the government. Mr. Brown aims to meet another fiscal rule, namely to keep public net debt below 40% of GDP, again over the economic cycle. At present he is meeting it but his comfort room would be reduced if the S 21 billion borrowings of Network Rail were included as part of public debt. They are not thanks to a controversial decision by the ONS to classify the rail-infrastructure corporation within the private sector, even though the National Audit Office, Parliament’s watchdog, said its borrowings were in fact government liabilities.
This makes it particularly worrying that the official figures can show one thing, whereas the public experiences another. One of the highest-profile targets for the NHS is that no patient should spend more than four hours in a hospital accident and emergency department. Government figures show that by mid-2004, the target was being met for 9696 of patients. But according to a survey of 55,000 patients by the Healthcare Commission, an independent body, only 77% of patients said they stayed no more than four hours in A&E.
One way to help restore public confidence in official statistics would be to make the ONS independent, as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have suggested. Another would be for the National Audit Office to assess how the government has been performing against targets, as the Public Administration Committee has recommended.

A:the British politicians are often compared to boxers by the people B:it is a common practice that the government plays with figures C:people often overestimate the credibility of official statistics D:the Labor government usually underestimate its official figures

Britain’s undeclared general election campaign has already seen the politicians trading numbers as boxers trade punches. There is nothing new in such statistical slanging matches(相互谩骂)What is new is an underestimation of worry about what has been happening to official statistics under the Labour government.
One of the most important figures for Gordon Brown when presenting his pre-election budget on March 16th was the current-budget balance. This is the gap between current revenues and current spending. It matters to the chancellor of the exchequer(财政部长) because he is committed to meeting his own "golden rule" of borrowing only to invest, so he has to ensure that the current budget is in balance or surplus over the economic cycle.
Mr. Brown told MPs that he would meet the golden rule for the current cycle with ￡ 6 billion ($11.4 billion) to spare—a respectable-sounding margin, though much less than in the past. However, the margin would have been halved but for an obscure technical change announced in February by the Office for National Statistics to the figures for road maintenance of major highways. The ONS said that the revision was necessary because it had been double-counting this spending within the current budget.
If this were an isolated incident, then it might be disregarded. But it is not the first time that the ONS has made decisions that appear rather convenient for the government. Mr. Brown aims to meet another fiscal rule, namely to keep public net debt below 40% of GDP, again over the economic cycle. At present he is meeting it but his comfort room would be reduced if the S 21 billion borrowings of Network Rail were included as part of public debt. They are not thanks to a controversial decision by the ONS to classify the rail-infrastructure corporation within the private sector, even though the National Audit Office, Parliament’s watchdog, said its borrowings were in fact government liabilities.
This makes it particularly worrying that the official figures can show one thing, whereas the public experiences another. One of the highest-profile targets for the NHS is that no patient should spend more than four hours in a hospital accident and emergency department. Government figures show that by mid-2004, the target was being met for 9696 of patients. But according to a survey of 55,000 patients by the Healthcare Commission, an independent body, only 77% of patients said they stayed no more than four hours in A&E.
One way to help restore public confidence in official statistics would be to make the ONS independent, as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have suggested. Another would be for the National Audit Office to assess how the government has been performing against targets, as the Public Administration Committee has recommended.

A:the British politicians are often compared to boxers by the people B:it is a common practice that the government plays with figures C:people often overestimate the credibility of official statistics D:the Labor government usually underestimate its official figures