VOA标准英语2010年-Voracious Bug Paved Way for Southern T

（单词翻译）

A statue on Main Street in Enterprise, Alabama, features a woman holding a large, black boll weevil above her head.

While many U.S. cities have suffered because of the recession, one town in the southern state of Alabama, has fared surprisingly well. The town of Enterprise has applied¹ a turn-of-the-century economic lesson, learned from an agricultural pest.

Like many American small towns, Enterprise, Alabama has a monument in the middle of Main Street. But it's not a statue of a Civil War general, or a local lawmaker. It's a statue of a woman with white robes and long hair.

Her arms are thrust high into the sky, and she holds aloft a giant black bug².

It's a boll weevil.

Ironic³ tribute

Almost a century ago, this small, voracious⁴ beetle⁵ migrated north from Central America, eating its way through U.S. cotton fields. Swarms⁶ of boll weevils destroyed two-thirds of the cotton crop in this region.

But soon after, the town built a monument to honor the bug. Local historian Scott Smith points out the irony⁷.

"How a pest that really caused so much economic hardship, oddly contributed to great changes in agriculture and to the prosperity of this region."

When boll weevils destroyed the cotton harvest in 1915, it was devastating⁸. Until then, cotton had been the region's largest crop.  But the infestation⁹ actually gave local farmers an opportunity to try something new. They planted a different crop the boll weevil couldn't harm: peanuts.

 
VOA - A. Boiko-Weyrauch
After boll weevils destroyed the cotton crop, Enterprise soon produced more peanuts than any other region in US.

Thriving new industry

Today, a few blocks up from the Boll Weevil Statue, conveyor belts carry rivers of peanuts to be cracked and ground at the Sessions Company. Chairman Mo Sessions' great-grandfather was the first person to make peanuts profitable in Enterprise.

"He heard that peanuts were an alternative to cotton," Sessions explains. "And so he procured¹⁰ some peanut seed and planted peanuts in the summer of 1916. So ever since then our family has been in the peanut business."

By 1919, the region produced more peanuts than any other in the U.S. - bringing in millions of dollars to the local economy. But farmers had learned the hard way they couldn't rely on just one crop, so they planted more corn, peaches, and figs¹¹.

 VOA - A. Boiko-Weyrauch
After the boll weevil destroyed the cotton crop, farmers diversified¹², deciding never to rely on just one crop.

More diversity

As the decades went by, other non-agricultural industries came to Enterprise, including the U.S. Army.

Every day helicopters from an army post right outside town fly overhead. Fort Rucker is the center for the Army's helicopter training school. Some people call the place 'Mother Rucker' because so many aviators¹³ cycle through its gates.

Deputy Garrison¹⁴ Commander, Justin Mitchell, says that traffic means income for the surrounding communities. "Military folks move every two years generally, two to three years, and so that turnover¹⁵ and that constant influx¹⁶ of buying houses, buying cars, buying clothes for schools, is just a huge impact to the Enterprise community."

Fort Rucker employs 14,000 civilians¹⁷ and contractors¹⁸. Soldiers in military fatigues¹⁹ are a common sight on the streets of Enterprise, shopping at local businesses and restaurants. Mitchell says Fort Rucker contributes one billion dollars a year to the region.

 
VOA - A. Boiko-Weyrauch
Enterprise has one of the strongest economies in Alabama.

A strong economy

Phil Thomas, president of the Enterprise Chamber²⁰ of Commerce, notes proudly that for the past two years, his town has had one of the strongest economies in Alabama.

"Everyone's unemployment rates have gone up in the past year, year and a half. Relatively²¹ speaking, ours have been very low. We have remained the third lowest unemployment rate in Alabama for six to nine months now."

Thomas says Enterprise learned to be strong from the Boll Weevil. The pest taught the town the value of a diverse economy.

"Agriculture, the military, the business community, industry, and service jobs all take about 20 percent of our economy, so it's really good for us because if one sector²² is a little bit slow or has a downturn, the other sectors²³ can pull it out."

Today, the boll weevil has been eradicated²⁴ from the fields of the southern United State. But the insect still holds an honored place in Enterprise: in the monument on Main Street; in the hearts of the residents of Enterprise; and, in its own way, in the local economy.