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Growth in the number of farmers pursuing non-agricultural work has slowed as more people are reluctant to leave their hometowns.
As of the end of last year, China had 270 million farmer-turned-laborers who came to cities to seek jobs. Among them, 170 million people have settled in cities.
According to the data from the Ministry of Human Resources, the growth in the number of migrant workers slowed by around half a percent last year compared with the previous year.
China has the world's largest population of farmers. But their willingness to grow crops has waned as returns from the land are typically much smaller than those working in cities, posing threats to the country's food security.
farmer n. 农民 除了farmer，很多中国学生习惯用另一个单词：peasant。在此，想强调一下：在一般情况下只推荐大家用farmer，因为peasant是带有歧视成分的贬义词。（我在美国读书时，老师也特别强调过这一点。）不妨来看看farmer和peasant的定义，做个比较。
farmer: A person who owns or manages a farm.
peasant: A poor person of low social status who works on the land; used of people who live in countries where farming is still a common way of life.
所以，如果描述普通的农民，而不是穷困潦倒、社会地位低下的农民，就应该用farmer，避免peasant。
pursue vt. 追求 pursue不仅限于情侣之间的追求，可以跟任何想要的东西搭配，所以有时翻译成“寻求”更贴切，类似于look for。这里的pursue non-agricultural work其实就是look for non-agricultural work（寻求非农耕类工作）的意思。
farmer-turned-laborer n. 以前是农民，现在是工人的人 这是英语里常见的造词手法。A-turned-B，即以前为A身份，后来转变为B身份的人，A和B可以任意填空。
例句：
Clint Eastwood is a great actor-turned-director. In fact, he is so good at directing that many people don’t even remember he started out as an actor. （克林特•伊斯特伍德是位非常优秀的演而优则导的电影人。事实上，他的导演才能如此出众，以至于很多人都不记得他最初是一名演员了。）
Ministry of Human Resources n. 人力资源部 全称为Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China，中华人民共和国人力资源和社会保障部。这是统筹机关企事业单位人员管理和统筹城乡就业和社会保障政策的中国国家权力机构。
wane vi. 衰落，减退
例句：
While my interest in video games began to wane, I developed a passion for reading. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but my parents were very happy about that. （我对电子游戏的兴趣开始减退，倒是越来越热衷于阅读。我觉得这没什么大不了的，我父母却非常开心。）
food security n. 粮食安全，粮食保障 这和food safety是两个概念，请注意区分。food safety（食品安全）是我们吃进肚子里的东西安不安全的问题，food security则是粮食供应能不能得到保障，大家有没有足够的饭吃的问题。
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