Limited resources 
　　It’s been nearly a week since Canadian pet-food manufacturer Menu Foods Inc. recalled some 60 million cans and pouches of wet food linked to the deaths of at least 15 cats and one dog, yet authorities still can’t explain exactly what went wrong. Some critics and animal lovers are honing in on what they see as lax regulation of the $15 billion pet-food industry in the United States.
　　“There’s almost a void there,” says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association. “There is no real pet-food department of any federal agency.www.examda.com”
　　Technically, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for ensuring that pet foods, like human foods, are safe to eat, truthfully labeled and produced under sanitary conditions. But on Tuesday, FDA officials admitted that the regulation of pet food takes a back seat to its regulatory obligations of other food and drug sectors, and that inspections of pet-food processing plants are done only on a for-cause basis.
　　“There are limited resources,” said David Elder, director of the Office of Surveillance and Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine in Rockville, Md. Elder added that inspections of companion animals-food products are “based on risk” , which means that the processing plant in Emporia, Kans., where the tainted food was manufactured, had never been inspected by government officials until after consumers started complaining about pets dying of kidney failure. The Emporia plant remains open and continues to produce new food, according to a Menu Foods spokesperson, who adds that safety tests are being done around the clock.
　　The chief executive of Menu Foods told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the company is looking at one unnamed ingredient as the possible cause of the renal failure. The FDA has previously said the investigation is focusing on possibly contaminated wheat gluten, a common ingredient in pet foods. FDA inspectors have been sent to Menu Foods plants in Kansas and New Jersey.
　　The industry insists their products are absolutely safe.“Pet foods are the highest regulated product you’ll find in the grocery store,” says Duane Ekedahl, president of the Pet Food Institute (PFI), an industry trade association representing the interests of 20 member companies whose products make up about 97 percent of the dog and cat food produced in the United States. While serious, the Menu Foods recall shouldn’t be blown out of proportion, says Ekedahl, who points out that the recalled food accounts for less then 2 percent of the overall market. He adds that every pet-food company conducts extensive tests, both of incoming raw materials and of finished products. On Tuesday, PFI issued a statement claiming that “All cat and dog food products on store shelves are safe. The recall is now complete and all suspected products have been removed from the stream of commerce.”
　　考研詞匯：
　　pouch[pautʃ]
　　n.小袋, 煙草袋, 錢袋, 育兒袋vt.把……裝入袋中, 使成袋狀vi.成袋狀
　　hone[həun]
　　n.(細)磨(刀)石, 油石; v.抱怨, 想念;用磨刀石磨
　　manufacturer[ˌmænjuˈfæktʃərə]
　　n.制造業(yè)者，廠商
　　[真題例句] Computers are relied on by manufacturers for similar reasons.[1994年閱讀2]
　　[例句精譯] 基于同樣的原因，生產(chǎn)商們也依賴計算機。
　　ensure[inˈʃuə]
　　v.確保，保證
　　[真題例句] By helping to increase demand, it ensures an increased need for labour, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment.[1995年閱讀1] 
　　[例句精譯] 廣告有助于增加市場需求，從而確保對勞動力需求的增加，因此是遏制失業(yè)的一個有效方法。
　　sanitary[ˈsænitəri, -teri]
　　a.(有關)衛(wèi)生的, (保持)清潔的, 衛(wèi)生的n.公共廁所
　　ingredient[inˈgri:diənt]
　　n.組成部分，成分;因素
　　[真題例句] Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock�瞞arket swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom.[2004年閱讀3]
　　[例句精譯] 許多消費者似乎一直受股票市場波動的影響,投資者把這種波動視為持續(xù)繁榮的必要因素。
　　背景常識介紹：
　　寵物主人們對寵物食品懷有不同的期待，如寵物食品應安全、有充足的營養(yǎng)和能使寵物更健康等，這些是至關重要的�！敖】怠笔呛芏嘞�費者認為比較重要的問題，對那些不在乎花費購買優(yōu)質產(chǎn)品的消費者來說尤其如此。
　　參考譯文：
　　有限的資源
　　加拿大寵物食品生產(chǎn)商Menu Foods公司，因為至少有15只貓和1只狗死亡，而召回與此有關系的0.6億罐和袋裝濕糧已經(jīng)近一個周，但是當局仍舊不能準確說明哪里出了問題。一些批評家和喜愛動物的人憤憤不平，他們認為在于美國對150億美元的寵物食品行業(yè)疏于管理。
　　Bob Vetere是美國寵物商品生產(chǎn)者協(xié)會的主席，他說：“幾乎有一個空白，沒有一個真正的聯(lián)邦機構的寵物食品監(jiān)管部門�！�
　　從技術上而言，美國食品與藥品管理局(FDA)對寵物食品負責，確保它們要像人類食品一樣，要能安全食用，如實地貼上標簽，并且要在衛(wèi)生的條件下被生產(chǎn)出來。但是在星期二，F(xiàn)DA官員承認，相對于其他食品和藥品的管理，對寵物食品的管理處于一個次要的地位，而且對寵物食品加工廠的檢查只是停留在表面上。
　　大衛(wèi)·愛爾德是位于羅克維爾的FDA動物醫(yī)藥中心。他說，資源是有限的，并且對人類的伙伴即動物的食品檢查是不安全的。這就意味著，大量生產(chǎn)腐壞食品的位于堪薩斯恩波里亞的加工廠從來就沒有接受過政府官員的檢查，直到消費者開始抱怨他們的寵物是死于腎衰竭時，才接受檢查。據(jù)Menu 食品公司發(fā)言人介紹，這家位于恩波里亞的工廠仍在營業(yè)并且繼續(xù)生產(chǎn)新的食品，同時安全檢查也正夜以繼日地進行著。
　　在星期三，Menu 食品公司首席執(zhí)行官告知美聯(lián)社，他們公司正將一種不知名的食品配料當做動物腎衰竭的可能原因。FDA先前也說過，這項調查正集中在可能被污染的麥麩上，麥麩是寵物食品中一種普通的配料。FDA檢察官已經(jīng)被派往位于堪薩斯州和新澤西州的Menu 食品公司工廠。
　　寵物食品行業(yè)堅持認為他們的產(chǎn)品是絕對安全的�！皩櫸锸称肥悄隳茉陔s貨店里找到的管理比較嚴格的產(chǎn)品”，寵物食品協(xié)會(PTF)主席Duane Ekedahl說。PTF是一個行業(yè)貿(mào)易協(xié)會，代表了20個成員公司的利益，這些公司的產(chǎn)品占美國生產(chǎn)的寵物食品的97%。盡管Ekedahl嚴肅地說，Menu Foods Inc公司召回的產(chǎn)品不應該被夸大，因為它占到了整個市場不到2%的份額。他補充說，“每一個寵物食品公司都經(jīng)過了廣泛的測試，不僅包括對原材料的測試也包括對成品的測試。在星期二，PFI發(fā)表了一份聲明，宣稱商店貨架上所有的貓狗食品都是安全的。召回行動已經(jīng)完成而且所有疑有問題的產(chǎn)品都已經(jīng)從商品市場上撤掉了�！薄　�