Special English 又叫“慢速英语”，是VOA 专为全世界非英语国家初学英语的听众安排的一种简易、规范的英语广播节目。该节目创始于50年代末期，是VOA 的专家们研究如何与世界各地的英语学习者进行交际的产物。它正式开播于1959年10月。当时只面向欧洲和中东，但由于这个节目适合许多国家英语学习者的需要，所以它的广播对象不久就扩大到世界其他地区，并很快在全世界范围内产生了广泛的影响。现在这个节目对欧洲、非洲和拉丁美洲每晚广播一次，对加勒比地区每晚广播一次（星期天除外），对东南亚广播次数最多，每天上午两次，晚上三次。
　　30多年来，VOA 为了办好Special English节目，进行了大量的调查研究工作，对播音速度、内容及用词范围都作了具体规定，基本上达到了既能为英语学习者提供信息，又不损害英语本身风格的目的，使之成为VOA 独具特色，拥有最大量听众的节目。
　

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2008.06.24

Adding Up Crop Losses From Midwest Floods

By Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss / Broadcast date: Tuesday, June 24, 2008

　　This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

　　Farmers in parts of the American Midwest face a difficult recovery after the worst flooding in fifteen years. Storms that flooded rivers and drowned crops have been blamed for at least twenty-fourth deaths since late May.

In Missouri, a farm under flood waters
from the Mississippi River last week　　The floods displaced tens of thousands of people in several states across America's agricultural heartland. There are concerns that crop losses could push already-high food prices even higher.

　　Fertile lands in some states could be mistaken for lakes. The mighty Mississippi River broke through or flowed over the tops of dirt levees in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.

　　The floods hit hardest in Iowa, the leading corn state and also the top soybean producer last year. Thirty-eight centimeters of rain fell on some cropland over a two-week period. Governor Chet Culver has declared most counties as disaster areas. Iowa officials have said that crop damage in that state could reach three billion dollars.

　　The United States Department of Agriculture is expected to announce estimates of crop losses in the coming days. The department is being urged to let farmers plant corn on land set aside for conservation.

　　Some farmers may replant corn. Others may replace corn with soybeans. What farmers do now depends partly on the extent of damage to the land. Floodwaters in some areas may contain industrial waste or other harmful substances.

　　What the weather does during the rest of the growing season will also be important.

　　Rain delays have left soybean planting behind the five-year average in twelve of eighteen major soybean-producing states. Other crops including wheat, rice and oats have also suffered.

　　In Burlington, Iowa, as many as fifty trains normally pass through the city every day, mostly carrying coal or passengers. But Burlington is quiet now until water is off the rails and workers can inspect for damage. City Manager Doug Worden says Burlington took steps to prevent severe property damage after the record floods of fifteen years ago.

　　While the Midwest deals with recent flooding, the nation's top agricultural state, California, faces increasingly dry conditions. On June fourth, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought, the first such action since nineteen ninety-one. The order followed two years of below-average rainfall and other limitations on water supplies. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss.