本篇文章共分 5 段，從水稻在亞洲的分布、水稻的優勢、用水的管理，到以斯里蘭卡為例，說明水稻這個亞洲重要的主食作物所具有的特色。

本篇考題英文原文與對應之中文翻譯整理如下。練習作答解題時若有對語意不清楚之處，請仔細查閱對照，以提升閱讀理解能力。

The Productivity of Wet Rice Farming 水稻種植的生產力

1. 亞洲水稻種植區

   The wet rice fields of Asia are the most productive of all preindustrial intensive agricultural systems. As the term “wet rice” suggests, the method involves flooding the fields for most of the growing season. In some areas the water comes entirely from the natural rainfall of the monsoons, but the water level often is controlled by artificial irrigation. Most wet rice is, therefore, grown on the floodplains of rivers. In parts of Southeast Asia, southern China, and the Himalayan fringes, wet rice is grown on terraced hillsides originally constructed centuries ago.

   亞洲的水稻田是工業化前所有密集型農業系統中產量最高的。正如「水稻」一詞所暗示的那樣，這種方法需要在生長季節的大部分時間淹沒田地。在一些地區，水完全來自季風的自然降雨，但水位通常由人工灌溉控制。因此，大多數水稻是在河流的洪泛區種植的。在東南亞部分地區、中國南部和喜馬拉雅山邊緣地區，水稻種植在幾個世紀前建造的梯田山坡上。

2. 水稻種植的優勢

   Perhaps the most remarkable feature of wet rice cultivation is the capability of a plot to yield a harvest year in and year out, with little or no need to be left uncultivated for extended periods in order to recover its fertility. Indeed, where the seasonal availability of water is adequate, the same plot may yield two and even three harvests in a single year, being under almost continuous cultivation. This capability has been attributed to four factors. the protection from erosion the water gives the soil, the high water table of the rivers’ floodplains that reduces the leaching of nutrients from the soil, the replacement of soil nutrients by the silt carried in the rivers' flooding, and nitrogen fixation (the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into forms usable by plants) from the blue-green algae that live in the floodwater. The chief benefit of wet rice—its ability to grow in the same field year after year—is then related to the practice of flooding the fields and allowing the water to remain throughout most of the maturation period.

   也許水稻種植最顯著的特點是，一塊地能夠年復一年地收穫，幾乎不需要為了恢復其肥力而長時間不耕種。事實上，在季節性供水充足的情況下，同一地塊在一年中可以有兩次甚至三次收穫，幾乎是連續耕種。這種能力歸功於四個因素。水對土壤的侵蝕保護，河流氾濫區的高地下水位減少了土壤養分的流失，河流氾濫中攜帶的淤泥對土壤養分的替代，以及生活在洪水中的藍綠藻的固氮作用（將大氣中的氮轉化為植物可利用的形式）。水稻的主要好處—它能夠年復一年地在同一塊田地裡生長—與淹沒田地並讓水在大部分成熟期保持不變的做法有關。

3. 用水的管理

   Despite the advantages of their methods, wet rice farmers must solve problems relating to the management of water, because the proper supply of water at the proper time is so important for a good yield. It is more efficient if storage ponds or tanks, canals, ditches, and other improvements are held and managed communally, because less labor is required to construct and maintain them than if each family owned its own. Water may be stored in small lakes or ponds or captured and held in tanks until it is used to flood the fields. The water level must be controlled fairly precisely while the rice is growing. If it rises too high, the plants will be unable to photosynthesize and if it falls too low, the benefits of having standing water in the fields will be reduced. Unless the land is naturally flat, the plots, therefore, must be leveled to keep the height of the water constant in different areas of the field. The water level must be controlled by low dikes, usually constructed of earth, which can be easily breached to drain the plot for the harvest.

   儘管他們的方法有很多優點，但水稻農民必須解決與水的管理有關的問題，因為在適當的時間提供適當的水對豐收是非常重要的。如果儲水池或水箱、水渠、溝渠和其他改進措施是共同擁有和管理的，那麼效率會更高，因為建造和維護這些設施所需的勞動力比每個家庭擁有自己的勞動力要少。水可以儲存在小湖或池塘中，或者收集並保存在水箱中，直到用來淹沒田地。在水稻生長過程中，水位必須得到相當精確的控制。如果水位升得太高，植物就無法進行光合作用，如果水位降得太低，田里有積水的好處就會減少。除非土地是自然平坦的，否則就必須平整土地，使田里不同區域的水位保持不變。水位必須由低矮的堤壩控制，堤壩通常由土築成，可以很容易地衝破，以便為收割時排出積水。

4. 公共用水問題

   Managing the supply of the water that is so critical in growing wet rice requires sophisticated organization, especially with respect to cooperative labor patterns and rights of access to both land and water. Each family may work its lands on its own, but who will construct and maintain public irrigation works? Who will decide when dikes, dams, ditches, and tanks need to be repaired, and how will the labor to repair them be coordinated? The water used on the fields of one family is not available to other families. How shall the consumption of water be coordinated? Who will get how much water and when? How, in short, will use rights to water be determined?

   管理對種植水稻至關重要的水供應需要複雜的組織，特別是在合作勞動模式和土地及水的使用權方面。每個家庭可以在自己的土地上耕作，但誰來建造和維護公共灌溉工程？誰來決定何時需要維修堤壩、水壩、溝渠和水箱，以及如何協調維修的勞動？一個家庭的田地上使用的水，其他家庭無法使用。應如何協調水的消耗？誰將得到多少水，何時得到？簡而言之，如何確定水的使用權？

5. 以斯里蘭卡為例

   In one example of organizing the allocation of water to the fields, the Sinhalese of the dry zone of Sri Lanka draw water from a collectively owned rain-fed reservoir constructed of earth. All of the cultivated land of a village is in a single area, below the reservoir. The entire field is laid out into diked plots of equal size. Each plot receives a fixed amount of water from the communal reservoir, though the number of families working a single plot varies. Poor families must share water rights of access to one plot with other families, whereas richer families have access to several plots. Assigning each plot (rather than each family) the same proportion of irrigation water reduces the chance that a given plot will receive insufficient moisture.

   在組織向田地分配水的一個例子中，斯里蘭卡乾旱地區的僧伽羅人從一個集體擁有的土建雨水給水水庫中取水。一個村莊的所有耕地都在水庫下面的一個區域。整個田地被佈置成大小相同的堤壩地塊。每塊地從公共水庫中獲得固定數量的水，儘管在一塊地裡耕作的家庭數量不同。貧窮的家庭必須與其他家庭分享一塊地的用水權，而富裕的家庭則可以使用多塊土地。給每個地塊（而不是每個家庭）分配相同比例的灌溉水，降低了某一地塊得到的水分不足的可能性。